The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-11-22
FALSE IDEAS OF MONEY
SOME POPULISTIC PALACES
BRIEFLY EXAMINED AND
EXPOSED.
ARECENT CAUCASIAN" EDITORIAL


Money Question Jumbied by Senator
Buffers Paper with a Liberal Hand
difference Between Greenback~.
Treasury Notes and Silver Cernfi'
cates.-Cause of the Late Bond Issue
Cleveland and Carlisle Denounced.
OXFORD, n. c., Nov. Is.
To the Editor of News and Observer:
1t is a comparatively easy matter TO
refute or in the popular phrase to
mail a lie" though a good one and
we'll told. 1t is far more difficult to
show up the true inwardness of deal
er in half truths. Half truths are cal
culated by nature to mlslead the
thoughtless and ignorant, but IN the
hands of dextrous of words, the deduc-
tions drawn from them are intention
ally vicious and their effect on the peo-
pie positively wicked. 1T is to be re-
GREETED that am ADLER writer has not
appeared instead of leaving the fol-
lowing matter to the undersigned Tor
treatment
OF late THE Caucasian" has devoted
considerable space to treatise on the
bonds and notes of our government.
Such parts of the story are told as can
be made to gibe with the unsound doc
trines of which it is an able advocate,
and such facts and conditions result
ing from our financial arrangements
as can be made to seem to bolster up
its theories and can be SO construed as
to influence the passions of honest
people in one section, whose property
is largely in land, against those OF an
ether who are equally patriotic and
have their money invested in other Sc
curities. are dwelt upon with force
and skill: but the rock-bottom real
tiles. which if made known at the
same time. would knock the founda-
ton entirely from under Populism,
are ignored or suppressed. At the con
cIuSion of this roundup of selected
fallacies there appears false picture,
done in false coors and Heaven is
boldly called on to bear false witness
TO it.
On Ger. nth. the editor of The
Caucasian" starts out in an article UNI
der the caption of Something about
Bonds to inform the people of the
State regarding the financial system
so that they may be forewarned of APP
preaching danger. In the second sem
tence this profound economist Jum-
bles our paper currency with liberal
hand, failing to distinguish between
treasury notes, greenbacks and silver
certificates, presumably through ig-
norance, thus proving himself quail
fled to give living illustration of the
proverb that when the blind lead the
the Dnnd, etc"
Treasury notes July 1st, 1895
amounting to STAG, 0s8, 400 were issued
in payment for silver bullion under the
so-called Sherman Silver Purchase Act
of 1890
United States notes or ''Greenbacks'
of which fixed amount of S346,6S1 ,O16
remain outstanding are the remnant
of the forced paper currency of the
late civil war. They are considered of
doubtful constitutionality in many
circles but were justified as an emer-
gency measure in time of necessity.
Since 1879 six years after the so-called
crime of 1873. there have been paid
out by the government 1886, 900, 900 Of
greenbacks for which gold dollar or
its equivalent has been rendered.
Silver certificates issued against
standard silver dollars deposited in the
treasury July LIST, 1850 were S328,-
S94.504. Figures given by '"The eau
casian" 1855, 100000. about as nearly
correct as Harvey Coin and his illz
ever get.
There are of National Bank notes,
payable by the Treasury, S25,b28, 937
and exclusive Of gold certificates the
total of government paper July list,
1895 was in round numbers $3.50, 900, 900
The article in THE Caucasian goes
on in an innocent fashion TO tell what
a treasury note. meaning a greenback
island says, Now remember that the
man who holds this note has dollar
This is worse one, if possible, than
any the imaginative Chicago boy
whose reputation for preyaricating is
now worldwide, ever perpetrated.
A treasury note or a greenback OF
the denomination of one dollar, Or
larger sums, are demand obligations
but are not dollars, any more than
checks, due bills, drafts payable on
sight or any paper evidence of debt are
dollars, and the man who says they are
is falsifer or an ignoramus.
After the above follows a child-like
definition of bond to which a fairy
tale is appended in language so simple
that the unwary, as is evidently in.
tended, are led to pass on without ask
ing what was the original cause of the
issue of bonds and of many other i'm
portant and interesting attendant cir
cumstances; withai the idea is artful
~ conveyed that labor prefers green
backs TO any other currency. for ii
will be the old greenback money which
every body knows is good and passes
everywhere" And this money would
be as good as any that has ever beer
used; also that the wealthy acquire
gold by finding it or some other equal
~ convenient method, like gathering
}. from the bushes lining the sides oil
Wall street or picking it up when il
shakes from the overloaded pockets O.
John Bull as he hustles round Lon.
don.
A greenback as distinguished from &
bond is a promise to pay. secured only
by lien ON the credit of the Govern
ment: whereas. a bond is a claim
against the commonwealth OF the
country. Hence. if our present Gov
eminent should pass away the green