THE FUTURE 
199 
paper money only to the extent and for the duration 
of its extraordinary requirements and thereafter ex 
ercise the same economy in expenditure that it would 
have practiced under a system of taxation or fund 
ing, the expedient would be ideal in its simplicity and 
economy. If the amount so issued even though for 
legitimate purpose were so large as to cause infla 
tion and high prices there would result social in 
justice, and this consideration in itself might be 
enough to disqualify the whole procedure. But in 
so far as the Treasury is concerned — until such 
time as the public expenditure had felt the full effect 
of inflated prices — fiat money would be an ideally 
easy and painless mode of supplying the exchequer. 
As a matter of fact, however, demand notes if not 
utterly discredited, at least rest under the gravest 
doubt as a fiscal expedient by reason of the great 
likelihood, attested by the experience of state after 
state that has lapsed into their use, that once resort 
has been had thereto all the old canons of economy 
and prudence are gradually weakened and the Treas 
ury drifts insensibly into a course of unchecked and 
wasteful expenditure. Issue succeeds issue; there 
develops unwillingness to resort to taxation or fund 
ing and the descent to inflation and depreciation be 
comes swift and easy. ~ 
Theoretically, however, there need be no such 
lapse. A state might issue demand notes within 
strictly defined and inviolably maintained limits, 
might exercise the most rigid economy in the dis 
bursement of the funds so provided, and might 
within a reasonable season liquidate such issues from 
out the proceeds of loans or taxes. The historic