You are also, of course, familiar with Gresham's law, so-called, under the operation of which, the poorer money always drives out the better. I assert without any fear whatever of successful contradiction, that if you had paid off these United States Notes in 1879, you would not only have saved $340,000,000 by so doing, but that today there would be in the United States in our banks, and in circulation among the people, $346,000,000 more gold than we now have. In other words, instead of our gold amounting to $1,850,000,000, it would now amount to $2,196,000,000.
UNCLE SAM: Well, you have certainly demonstrated that I have made some very expensive mistakes. Let's see just what the net result of this blundering has been. I have lost $340,000,000 on account of the greenbacks and I have lost the great advantage of having $346,000,000 more gold to further strengthen the commercial credit of the country; and yet, I still owe every cent of these due bills and what seems to me equally certain is this: that if I should get into a great war, these very greenbacks will make me more trouble by injuring my credit in the future to a much greater extent than they ever have done at any time in the past. There is no doubt whatever about that. By the eternal, something must be done to get me out of this apparently bottomless pit.
But you have not told us yet why these I.O.U.'s of mine, or United States Notes, are not fit for currency, as you declare. You know that you sort of hurt my feelings, and for half a minute I was fighting mad, but as I said I am from forty-seven states, besides Missouri, and therefore I am ready to be shown.
MR. BANKER: I am coming to their use as currency right now. There are three distinct reasons why the United States Notes are a bad form of currency.
_First_: Any Government issue of bills, or of I.O.U.'s such as these are, must be very limited, if they are kept as good as gold.
_Second_: The United States Notes do not spring into existence in connection with business transactions, as the right kind of a currency always does.
_Third_: It costs those who use it, as currency, five times as much as currency should.
It is precisely as Mr. Manufacturer over there asserted a moment ago. Any system of currency that is of necessity limited in amount, and fixed as these United States Notes must be from the very nature of the case, breeds panics, because everybody realizing that the amount is limited, begins to scramble for cash upon the first intimation that there is any business trouble brewing. For this reason, they are utterly unfit as a system of currency.