The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-11-23
GREENBACKIsM RED1vIvUs.

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GREENBACFISM REDIVIVUs.
The government has issued paper money
for the last thirty-fiVe years Since 1878 it
has redeemed that money in gold on demand
so that the greenbacks have been worth their
face during that period. No effort has been
made to cancel the greenbacks. The people
have asseuted cheerfully to their USE But
after nineteen years of a government currency
redeemable in gold on demand the people are
not ''walloWing in the Serbonian pool. Chi
cago Tribune.
If there are any Democrats who were
persuaded by the arguments Of the
Tribune last year to save the country
by pumping for Mckinley so that
plunge to silver fiatism might be avoid
publican party to reform the currency
and sever the endless chain, they will
read it's present arguments for the per-
petuation of the chain with a feeling
that they were d0pbly confdenced.
They were dosed with a restoration Of
McKinleyism and are now to be dosed
with a continuation of our hotch-pOtch
currency, if the Tribune's advice be
liOCuCu. W. 1ClI quiz lCSoC JCeAA IAAcNI
they were inviting all this and can
only extend them our sympathy with
whatever consolation to them there
may be in an "I-told-you-so."
But the statements of the Tribune,
in the foregoing extract from a long
and Iabored attempt at vindicatiOn for
it's flop, contains only half truths. 1t is
true that greenbacks have been issued
for thirty-five years. 1t is true that
for sixteen of them the government did
not and could not redeem the promise
printed on them. 1t is true that this
failure to redeem so deprecated their
purchasing power as money as to in
volve a direct money loss Of several
times the entire amount of the issues.
1t is true that they were redeemed in
gold after 1878, but it is also true that
there was danger in 1884 of a suspen-
sion, which was warded off in 1885 by
the financiering of Secretary Manning.
1t is also true that there was a recur-
renee of this danger in 1894, that be-
at one time within forty-eight hours of
suspension of specie payments. And
it is true that, to enable the treasury
to keep the promise carried on each
greenbacl1, 1882, 900, 900 of bonds had to
be issued with which to buy gold for
the prompt redemption of the green
backs. 1t is further true that the Re-
publican party, in redemption Of the
promises made Of the speedy retire
ment of these notes, began that policy
and continued it until 1873, reducing
the amount to $685. 900, 900, and that, in
cowardly and abject submission to the
stopped and their perpetuation ordered
For eighteen Of these thirty-five years
there has been no redemption Of the
greenbacks, for sixteen of them abso-
lutely none, and for two years. 1915,
there would have been none, but for the
heroic resort to bond issues.
The attitude Of the Tribune and Of
several other papers Of it's party, as
we'll as the interviews with congress-
men, indicates that the issue that is
again rising from the grave in which
it was laid twenty years ago is whether
the issue of credit money shall be
wholly taken over by the national
treasury to the exclusion of all pri-
Vate or corporate issues, or whether the
government shall abandon note issu-
ing and remit it entirely to private
enterprise This issue lurked behind
those of last year, showing itself par
TALLY in the declaration of the Chicago
platform and barely concealed by the
platitudes Of the one put forth at ST.
Louis. There is but one way to avoid
it, and that is for the present congress
at the coming session to boldly and
braveiy settle it by passing an act pro-
Viding for the retirement of all govern
mental notes simultaneously with the
issue of bank notes under provisions
that will secure their national supervi-
sion and unquestionabIe solvency. But
the very attitude taken by the Trib-
une and others Of its way of dawdling
and by some representatives and SEN
ators gives slight encouragement for
hope, and it is much more than prob
able that the old fight will have to be
fought over again in the closing years
of the century. ~