The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1868-05-23
GOLD AS MONEY.

The very prevalent idea that the value 0
money inheres in The material Of which it i
made, comes fr>n misconception Of its ma
ture and uses. Money is not value-it re
presents value. 1t is medium of exchange
| by which trade, barter and commerce are
on large scale, possible. It is the lega
powers of money which qualify it for its uses
Bullion will no more pay debt or satisfy
an execution than iron. The lag gives il
this power, and the law can give it to any
other power as well. The scarcity Of any
material used for money is an insuperablt
objection to it, because if money is to serve
as a medium Of exchange, it must represent
the value Of property and products, and must
exist in quantities adequate to effect these
exchanges.
But the entire coinage Of the United States
hardly represents the value of one crop in
the State Of Illinois. How, then, are the
mighty values of the national industry TO
be exchanged how are traffic and commerce
to be carried on on gold basls 1t is simply
impossible. Anciently, when men employed
themselves in anything but useful labor,
when commerce was disreput,ble, when
work and slavery were inseparable, when To-
rays upon neighborng provinces, and pillage
and murder were, not only the chief soarces
of wealth, but were esteemed to be the only
ennobling acts Of life, piece of gold, with
an ox's head stamped thereon, was a suffi-
cient and perhaps a better medium OF ex-
change than any other. We have retained
the money Of a barbarous age, after having
passed from out the conditions to which that
money was adapted.
"Hard money! men Dug 10 advocate
the turning of ploughshsres into swords, and
pruning hooks into spears. IS the coined gold
Of the world is not enough 10 represent the
values OF the products Of one year Of agri-
cultural labor. The commerce Of no civil
lied nation has ever been carried on In gold
and silver. The issue Of paper money has
always been found necessary. This paper
money u necessarily largely in excess, un-
der all systems of banking of which we
know anything, Of the gold which is made
the basis Of its issue, and therefore has no
value beyond what the personal honesty of
q banker may give it. The whole system Of
specie basis" as it is called, is incurably
vicious, for it puts the whole control Of the
currency into the hands Of a few bankers.
AZ these bankers control the currency they
necessarily contro. the value Of property
and products. They make money scarce or
plenty as it may suitaheir interests. Whether
IN enterprise shall be undertaken or shall |
fail, whether merchant shall meet his paper |
u become bankrupt, whether business shall |
move on in smooth grooves or be suddenly |
arrested, ought not to be within the power Of
! set Of men to determine.
This power IL inseparable from the present
'ystem Of national banking, a. well M from
he former methods Of furnishing q cur
'ency.
The gold theorists imagine that nature se-
eeted out Of al her Abundant material, the
Fellow ores Of their especial worship, to
erve as money, and that the powers Of hu-
nan sovereignty are limited to discerning
he quantity Of these ores that may exist In |