The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-08-06
Cateohist Once More.
To the Editor Of the Press:

| AOu uonos QO you uOU, U18G Gl0 cur
rent silver dollar Is unit to hold its place
in our coinage because it's merchandise
its intrinsic value is only 53 cents? 10
which / make answer: Az it is only
commercial argument, now authoritively
embodied in positive law, that gives TO
coins whether of gold or silver their
monetary value, in disregard of their in
trinsio value, which, while they serve as
money, is suppressed and suspended, it
| is not necessary tina. ooinedmoney should
| have any intrinsic value. | cite the fact
| that paper, incapable of any intrinsic
value, oirculates successfully as money
all over the commercial world.
Queerly enough you say, "a fat cur
rency is theoretically possible, practically
impossible. This must be the very re-
verse of what you intended to say. For
upon all theories which I understand you
to maintain, substance having no in
trinsio value cannot by any "fat" of
legislation be conjured into money at
| any liked value so as to be an equivalent
of commodities. But practically you
would have to admit that this was not
onlysposible, but had been done by all the
leading commercial nations of the world.
Great Britain maintained paper oircu-
lation from the beginning of the Napo-
Ieonio wars till 1921, with no specie be-
hind it, as the United States did from
1861 to 1879. The currency of Russia.
Austria, Italy today has no metal of in
trinsic value to support it, and there is
| none within sight even The only in
trinsio basis of S346, 100000, greenbaoks,
$3.50, 600, 600 silver certificates of National
Bank Notes, since Mr.. Cleveland decided
| not to consider silver as redemptive
money, is $120. 900, 600 gold in the Sub
Treasury, and few reserves in the
banks, liable too skip to Europe before
any biil-holder could lay his hands on it.
The uncovered paper of the whole world
has been estimated within the year at no
| less than two and a half billion dollars.
| I do not know of the theory to justify
such condition, but practically there it
is. The writer OF this is no infationist;
| he is rather contractionist. He favored
and urged the practicability of specie
payments long before many people
thought it safe He did this to put sub
| stantial coin basis under the too much
strained national credit. His contention
with Greenbaokers, as those that will
refer to his published contributions may
satisfy themselves, was that they believed
| in an indefinite issue OF currency notes
on the credit of the United States, while
! he believed in fixing low maximum for
a purely credit ISSUE and not note after
| wards that did not have full coin de-
posit behind it. Az to the project of
Issuing currency so much per capita for
the population, he oonfesses he could
never understand it's practicabllity or ad-
van tage. His interest in the silver ques-
tion, and it is of 10 very recent date, is
principally his interest to put under the
enormous volume of paper money which
clogs all the channels of the worlds COM
meroe more substantial coin basis.
With two and half billion of credit cur
rency, currency that promises to be paid
in something other than itself, lit was
a most disastrous and reckless expert
l m n pntpr q mOnatQrV nniiOy
the complete fruition OF which was to tie
stroy the monetary basis of the worlds
oredit-to dig out from the stupendous
fabric of credit one-half the solid cash
upon which it had been built
| While the world was needing SO much
real money to take the place OF money
that was only promised; while the gov
ernments of Europe were filling their
own chests with gold in anticipation of
hostil.ties that would resettle the bal
| ance of power; while gigantic national
and corpoTa enterprises like the Pana-
| ma and Nicaraguan canal, the Trans
Asaiatic Railway, and the industrial and
and the far East, were undertaken, MIR.
Cleveland concludes to- treat the silver
dollars Congress had ordered to be coined
and clothed with legal tender, as if they
were SO much old junk.
| What wonder the gold speculation and
the gold boarding began with all the
commercial ruin that has marked the
three years of its rage?
| Now you say, Yes, the uncovered notes
pass as money solely because the men
who receive it have faith that 1t will be
redeemed in real Rmoney and they take
the 53 cent dollars solely because they ex-
poet the United States Treasury to give
them gold dollars worth "a hundred cents.
That consideration may be present an d
ov picn inf m IF
such notes, the currency of such silver
coins; but 1t is not the only nor the prin-
opal reason of their credit. The prinoi-
pal reason is the fiat of the government
that they shall be a legal tender for debts
and taxes. The aggregate of taxes and
debts is so enormous and so constant that
any substance declared by law to be a
| legal satisfaction of such demands would
Immediately acquire the scom mercial
value arbitrarily assigned to it. Is there
| any doubt that II duties on imports were
by law receivab BILE in yellow dogs at $40. 90
q head, that dogs Of that color would
everywhere command that price? Nor is
| it the expectation of redemption in gold
| or any other coin that gives circulating
notes their credit. Do you suppose that
| a Russian mou jiK or trader that takes a
| paper rouble for a valuable commodity
takes 1t because he expects the national
exchequer to give him silver rouble for
| 1t? 1t would be d most unreasonable OK
peotation, the thing never having been
done or likely TO he done in his life time.
He takes il because his neighbor takes it,
! just as we take most of our currency
simply because we expect to pass it to
somebody else.
| All we know about silver and gold is
that they are not likely to be produced.
and though there have been spurts of
production Of both within the present
century, they never have been produced
4 in such quantities as to impair their
monetary value or embarrass any gov
ernment in maintaining their full legal
tenders. The only way their over pro-
ducton can show itself mischievously is
| by sending up unduly the prices of gen.
eral commodities, and the scale of present
prices shows rather deficiency than a
plethora of money.
cannot, without demanding too
much of your space discuss the other
points raised in your reply. Let me end
by citing some authorities, with which
Mulhall, an authority you will not
question, sums up the lessons Of his
standard work.
= Tho continued influx from the Ameri-
| GAY, rninae in tha 18th oautT7ry yynl Ouita