Year: 1879




government sets its stamp, there ar


the greenbacks, printed by the fedora


printing press and the notes issued b,


the national banks. They do not be


lieve that the volume of the currency


thus composed is too large. On tn,


contrary they affirm that it is no


large enough. But they find faul


with its variety. They talk vague


nonsense about 1.-The same kind O.


money for the bondholder and thu


taxpayer, for the capitalist and the


workingman, implying that in some


way one favored class of the popula


ton absorbs the bulk of one variety


of currency and derives from it certain


mysterious benefits, while another


class is put off with another variety


and is cheated in the process. They


are ready with comprehensive anc


brilliant plans to remedy this evil


They would wipe out the national


bank notes as with sponge, to begin


with. LET all the money of the


country" they say, "be issued by the


government of the country" This


usually means not only that green


backs shall take the place of bank
notes but that an indefinite number


beside shall be put in circulation, in
conformity with a hazy notion of
''the demands of business" and that
these paper promises shall be the ac-
tual standard money Of the country.
Some of these statesmen are willing
that the government shall issue also a
vast amount of silvern coin, provided
silver is cheap enough, forgetting for
time their objection to a varied cur
rency.


Now there is ground for complaint
in this respect though it is not all
the ground upon which these financial
philosophers plant themselves. What
they say suggests radical truth of
which they seem to have dreamed. In
one sense there are too many kinds of
money, because in ust sense there
should be but one kind of money
indeed, in wholesome state of affairs,
there can be but one kind Of money.
By the common consent of the COM
mercial world nothing but gold and
silver coin has been accepted as money.
By the common consent of the lead
ing commercial nations this function
now attaches only to gold. Expert
ments with paper currency endowed
by law with a legal tender quality
have been made, but in the broad
commercial sense they have uniformly
failed. Nobody outside Of the terri
tory in which the law has operated
has accepted the paper currency as
money. The nations Of the world
have agreed that there is but one kind
of money, and that is metallic money.


There have been paper contrivances
for the convenience of exchange, and
there will continue to be. One man
gives his note or his draft to another
in exchange for merchandise. If the
other man choose to take it, very well.
IF he believes that the note is good,
that the maker of the draft will see
that it is paid, he probably will take
it, and, manifestly, both parties to
such a transaction may profit by it.
But the note or draft is not money.
1t would be monstrous to compel the
seller of merchandise to accept it as
money. A number Of men associate
themselves in the banking business.
As part Of that business they issue
circulating notes. If other men be
ieve these notes to be good, if the
people OF q community are advised
that they are amply secured, that they
will be paid on demand, they will take
the notes and often serve their conyen-
ience in so doing But these notes
are no more money than is the pri-
vate promissory note. Nobody should
be any more compelled to take them
for money. Lastly the government
has no right to pretend that its prom
ise to pay is money. It has the naked
power to declare the promise to be
money, but in broad sense it has no
right to do SO. The government
should scrupulously conform to the
radical truth that there is and can be
but one kind of money.


The returning prosperity Of which
there are so many encouraging signs
is due largely to the fact that we have
at last put in practice once more the
theory that there is but one kind of
money. The business of the country
is done on the basis of gold. The
the shipper, the banker,
makes all his estimates on the solid
foundation of gold. The workingman
is paid upon the basis of gold. Com
speaking the greenback has
gone out of existence-though unfor-
tunately as matter Of fact it has not
When we say that the
greenback has gone out of existence,
we mean as a pretended variety Of
money, with separate value whose
must be taken into ac-
count in all commercial transactions.
Men do business in gold. They calcu-
late in gold. They may be said to
think in gold. This became true
when greenbaeks became as good as
gold, payable on demand in gold. 1t |
will remain true so long as this ex-
changeable quality, absolute and i'm
mediate, continues. The effect of this
is seen in transactions outside of the
as well as in it. Here is a
from the financial columns
of Mondays Evening Post-a kernel
of solid and suggestive truth, mug
get of gold:


During the week ending the 18th
the enormous sum Of S1O,020,846
specie arrived at this port, consisting
of SO, 1913, ,3SS of gold and S137,458 Of
silver. The gold included 81, 2,423, 800
of United States coin, S5,080,313 Of
foreign coin, S2039,295 of bars and
bullion, and $3.50 of gold dust. The
total importation of gold from the
beginning of August to the 18th of
September amounts to S19,650, 1853,
and of silver S639,424, making the
aggregate of the two metals $50, ,290,-