214 
Wisconsln' State Agricultural Society. 
contemplates in this case—then the efficiency of the security in up¬ 
holding the market-value of the claim, is greatly impaired. As an 
illustration may be cited, a case which occurred in this State dur¬ 
ing the past season. A large corporation with assets claimed to be 
$1,500,000, and which is not considered an over estimate, finding 
itself in embarrassed circumstances, and desiring to protect itself 
from the sacrifice of property, which bankruptcy involves, adopted 
a plan for that purpose, which was as follows: A trust-mortgage 
was put upon the whole property in favor of trustees selected by 
the corporation who were to manage the estate, and upon this 
mortgage, bonds to the amount of $650,000, the amount of liabilities 
were issued, running for a term of years, and bearing seven per 
cent, interest. These were offered to the creditors, and as the mat¬ 
ter was in such shape that they had no option, were generally ac¬ 
cepted. The security, it will be observed, is as two and one-half to 
one, and yet from the fact that it is beyond the control of the cred¬ 
itors b}’ process of law or otherwise, those bonds are not now worth 
over fifty cents on the dollar. Ultimate solvency, therefore, is not 
enough. There must in addition be a guaranty as against an exces¬ 
sive issue, that being an evil which is incident to the obligations of 
any firm, corporation, or government. The depreciation of a note is 
upon the face of it evidence that it is lacking in some one or more 
of the elements that are essential to its highest excellence. The 
present issue is seriously depreciated, and, as we know the security 
to be ample, there is reason to believe that its volume is too great; 
but this is not certain—at least it is not to be certainly inferred 
from the fact of depreciation alone—for it might well be that the 
refusal to redeem would in great part, or wholly, account for it. 
As to what is or might be a proper volume there is a wide diver¬ 
gence of opinion. Even among the small number of representa¬ 
tive greenback men who recently met here in convention, the range 
was great, apparently from eight hundred to two thousand million 
of dollars. Nor does this in the least reflect upon the judgment of 
those gentlemen, for the fact is, that in the absence of the test of 
redemption in gold, it is simply impossible by any sort of inference 
to decide whether a given amount of currency be in deficiency or 
excess. As Dr. Spear forcibly puts it, u no government, unless 
officered by archangels, would be wise enough to decide how much 
currency will be needed for the convenient transaction of business— 
