The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1868-08-29

Sr:-It is important to determine whether
your views of money are correct or erroneous, it
being proposed that you should represent US in
Congress If / understand them correctly, they
are substantially these, to-wit:
1. Money has legal value only-that strictly
speaking, there is no such thing as paper dol
lar, silver dollar or gold dollar; but that the
term lqd, dollar expresses all that there is in the
case. That a piece of gold, Of any dimen-
sions, may be stamped by the government one
dollar, five dollars, five hundred dollars, or any
other sum, and that then its value, money,
would be whatever was indicated by the stamp,
without any regard to the size of the piece of
gold upon which the stamp is affixed; and that
portions or pieces of paper would do for this
purpose as we'll as gold.
2. This I dissent from, and maintain that
money must have labor value in addition to its
legal value.
3. People speak of the essential properties of
things as that ltngM, 6readM, thickness and
form are the essential properties of matter; that
the mental conception of matter cannot have
place in the mind detached from the idea of the
length, breath, the thickness and the form of the
matter.
4. As matter has essential properties so have
measures. The conception of measure, for the
purpose OF measuring length, cannot have an ex.
istence in the mind detached from the idea of
sngM OF the measure; so it may be said that
length is an essential property of q measure for
measuring length.
8. If piece of cloth is to be measured, the
yard-stick may be represented by any sort of
string, portion of wire made out of any sort of
metal, portion of board, or any thing else that
has the essential properties of yard-stck, to-
wit: length and the requisite amount of length,
thirty-six inches. If corn is to DO plowed, the
horse may be represented by an OK a camel
mule or anything else that has the essential
properties of horse, to-wit: power to propel
or move--and the adequate amount of such
power. The representation of horse made on
paper by means of pen and ink, q pencil, or
brush would not have the capability to represent
the horse in blowing corn, because it would lack
the essential properties of the horse-a power to
propel.
b. A representative must have tho essential
properties of that which is to be represented.
z. Weight is an essential property Of measure
for measuring weight
g. Capacity is an essential property of q meas
ure for measuring capacity.
.. Labor is an essential property of q measure
Tor measuring labor, or product of labor il an
essential property Of a measure for measuring
the products of labor
H. In computing labor, it is essentially the
same, whether it is done by q reckoning IT tho
time or by an estimate Of that which was pro-
duced in the time.
H. 1t may be stated in different manner.
thus: 1t is essential to any measure, that it
must be OF the same name denomination, or
nature as that which is to be measured.
~. Another essential property of every meas
ure is, that it must be multiple, u unit, or a
fraction of the thing to be measured, the thing
to be measured being at the same time fraction,
unit, or multiple of the measure.
10. The material of a measure is not an essen.
tlal property of it, in any instance, that labor
may be measured by any product of labor, as
wheat potatoes, cabbages iron, "copper" silver or
gold, it is simply a question of convenience.
IA. When two farmers, or other persons, wish
to exchange wheat for corn, upon fair and equit.
able terms, the design will be to give and to
receive equivalents of labor.
10. The measure for the measurement of the
corn and the wheat will be year or the season
requisite for their production. They will count
up the amount of corn which might be raised bv
one person in a year or season, and then the
amount of wheat which might be raised by one
person in year season. The part of the crop
that is to be exchanged, the thing measured,
will be the fraction of year, the fraction of the
wheat crop being the same fraction of a year.
10. The basis for the exchange of the wheat
and corn would be by this process found or
counted up.
IL. The fact that the corn and wheat are about
equal, as it respects their nutrtive properties and
virtues, Will not be the basis of the calculation
is When person is asked how much his |
corn is worth, knowing that the inquirer intends |
TO pay wheat for corn, he understands that it is |
the comparative amount of labor in each that is |
asked for, and not their relative nutritive prop
critics.
III. 1t Is thus seen that corn and wheat, as
well as other vegetable products of labor, have
TWO values or worths, one value or worth means
the amount of labor, and the other value or
worth means the amount of nutriment.
~. Wheat, like many other products of labor,
has not only labor value and nutritve value,
but it may have also legal value, to-wit: a
person may have purchased quantity of corn
and agreed, as by act of the legislature in
such cases, TO pay for the corn by giving one
bushel of wheat for each two bushels of corn at
the end EFF one year. Finally the creditor sues
the debtor for the price of the corn. A legal
amount is first impaired to the wheat by passing
1t through measure having upon it the govern
ment SEAL then lcg,s reight is impaired to it by
it upon scales having "a government
stamp or impress. The wheat, thus fitted and
qualified as the law prescribes, then must be
accepted as pay, then it becomes Igal tender.
II. Le3aI oaiac means a .ftteolness, to compul.
sorily demand acceptance.
%. There would be the same ft,ein,ss-leyo1
value--to compulsorily demand acceptance, if
the requirements of the law have been complied
with, whether the contract was for one bushel
or for one hundred bushels.
20. lie EgW gotite of deed or mortgage would
be all the same, if all the conditions prescribed
by law have been complied with. whether the
amount of land WIS one acre or one hundred
acres, one dollar per acre or one. hundred dollars
per acre.
"a. The word ra,ue has several very ditfcrep,
Specifications, like the word fast. When two
horses are fast il may lo that mn &c +b.,, L.. |