CO-OPE RATIOS. 15 



the right to issue such commercial paper at< will make a record of 

 the transaction. 



Inseparable. — Neither can this fiiuction be s(;parated from the 

 exchange, or the right to make a contract. Nor is there any power 

 that can prevent it. since to do so, would put an end to commerce. 

 Utility. — Without local self goveriiaieiit in Jii:iince, how can all 

 credit be made available ? But witii il. even tlie demands of the 

 pawnbroker can be met and satisfied. 



Indispensable. — And we are furtlier pn^parevl to prove that no 

 cuiTenoy can be normally got into circailation except through loans, 

 payment for services, or damages, which are all subject to local 

 application. 



Elasticity. — How in any other way can its volume be regfulated, 

 except it be free to regulate itself. Just as loaves of bread are I'eg- 

 ulated, by the natural law of supply and demand. 



Usefulness. — The reason that a home currency is as useful tis a 

 general one, arises from the fact tliat 95 per cent, of it would be 

 spent at home, most of it, in going to the store, on Saturday night. 



Economy and Safety. — Besides, a IocmI currency is less liable to 

 forgery, owing both to the small inducement to do so, and the greater 

 (diance for detection. It is also unnecessary to add. that the more 

 local the administration, the more economical and efficient. 



Solvency. — It is thought by some that onl}' a government cur- 

 rency is solvent, and that all othei is 'wild cat.' So the Catholic 

 tliinks that only Papal infallibility is solvent, anil that all Protestant- 

 ism is 'wild cat.' So the Anglican church looks u[)ou all volunta- 

 ryism, as the death of religion. Whereas, the history of American 

 religion shows it to have been solvent, only as it has been frc(>. So 

 of the faith in things financial. While the promissory notes of busi- 

 ness men are preferred at alow discount at the b;tnk. one lialf of our 

 State and municipal securities aie either at default, comi)r<uniscd, 

 or repudiated. No national gov(^rnment ever, nominally, paid its 

 debts. Probably, there never will be one, for no oil.er reason than 

 because they have been paid so many times already. For, next to 

 the multiplication tabic, there probably is notiiing truer, than, tlial 

 to pay a debt once, in whatever form, is just as good as to |>ay it 

 999 times. An<l 'the people,' who are con.siantly paying the.se, 

 over and over again, will com(^ to the conclusion that tiiev will rest 

 while the_coupon-cutters work. •• But such a doctrine would not 

 be reciprocal in private life." No, when parties voluntarily make 

 a bad contract, let them nnitually be held. But when an irrespon- 

 sible class, contracts debts, for class purposes, and supports them by 

 party supremacy, with whom does it recinmeati' ':" Such debts .lo 

 not po.ssess in law one element of a solvent contract. They are not 



