The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1874-02-07
THE CURRENCY QUESTION

But the Tribune denies the possibility
of creating value by legislation. The piece
OF paper, therefore, stamped by the gov
eminent as a legal tender for one hundred
dollars. cannot derive from the nature Of
things any additional value from the
stamp; and is a piece Of paper still worth
nothing more than rags, after all.
1t is this baseiess assumption which fur
nishes, in some form or other, all the
arguments again, lat is called an inter
convertible paper money; while the fact is
patent to everyone that Z Did, the natural,
preordained substance Of money, If we are
to believe the Tribune, derives its chief
value from an act Of the legislature. Take
from gold the value which the coinage
laws of the different nations give it let
some other substance be taken out Of which
to make money let it have only its value
from its use in the arts, its simple value as
a metal, and it would sn in actual and
commercial price below most metals 1t is
the legal tender character given it by the
laws Of nation, its selection as the base Of
money, the specie basis laws, that consti-
tute. as we have said, the chief value Of
gold. Here, then, is an instance where
value is created by law. 1t would be the
same were any other commodity selected
as money. The Legislature endows any
commodity, by the act of desig ing il as
money, with new functions and imparts to
It legal value. When, therefore, any
article is exchanged for gold it is its legal
value which the party taking it considers,
not its actual value. What is the value
of a mortgage Surely not the paper upon
which it is written, but the law creates it,
and it depends upon the law and the
property upon which it is lien.
Therefore, while the Tribune denies that
an act of congress can create value, IL is
true that the law creates the principal
value Of even the only metal it declares can
be made into money without fearful disas-
ter. moral as well as financial But another
objection is that it is impossible to have
an interconvertible currency under Just
and wise regulation. If congress can make
a currency, it may make too much, and
depreciation would result from the excess
Of supply over demand. We grant this is
a possibility. But either the bankers or
Congress must provide currency, as the
idea Of specie basis implies paper money.
Let the bankers do it, says the Tribune.
Let it depend upon their caprice. They
are not only honester than the average
congressman, but vast deal more inteli-
gent ana know the wants Of the business
community better
Now, while we are not very profo indy
impressed by the honesty and intelligence
Of the average congressman the people
have already had painful reasons to know
the honesty and intelligence Of the average
banker. Heretofore he has manipulated
the volume of currency to suit his own in
terests and even if the public had not
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in times Of panic, or at other times, when
it suited him to close his doors, when his
promises to pay were found, although
convertible into gold, to be utterly worth
less. they have had such experiences that
hereafter they do not propose the volume
or value Of the currency shall depend upon
his good pleasure They-the people-are
competent To ascertain the volume Of cur
rency necessary 70 the business Of the
country. The proper relations Of this
volume to business are discoverable IN tho
experience and reason Of men, and they
propose 70 adjust, by law, these proper
relations, so that this volume shall not fall
below OF rise above a certain amount,
and provide for gradual increase in
proportion to the growth of population
combined with the increase IN the
national wealth. The Just regulations of
the amount Of currency can be safely
trusted to congress only f.: not ~ indi-
vidual, for personal interest will, as in the
past, prevail over public benefit. The
people called fools, infationists, dema-
gogues and spectators by the Tribune, are
aiming to exercise the sovereign power of
coming and regulating money upon a
philosophical principle, which will leave
it, amount to adjust itself according to
fixed laws, its value to be independent of
the speculations, gambling, or even honest
indiscretions Of the corporations that here
tofore have furnished it to the people in the
shape Of bank issues.
1t is this aim which the Tribune opposes
1t would leave the money Othelos without
occupation; it would shut up the two and
three per cent per month shops, which now
grind their victims everywhere, and it
would emancipate business from difficulties
of constant recurrence.
STRIKE AGAINST PAUPER LABOR