The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1875-11-02

, il or even the interest upon il, in any
, thing of real value.
Now, am SO old fogy in my notions
and opinions as to hold that when an
individual or nation is deeply in debt,
the true and only honest way OF get
ting rid Of that burden is the plain,
old fashioned way Of paying the debt
in money where it was agreed to be
paid In money, or in something OF
equal value and convertible into
money, and IL We cannot pay the
whole at once or when due, then to
pay the interest in the meantime and
the debt as fast as we can. II We hav'nt
got the money to pay with, then the
better plan is to go to work in any and
every form OF productive industries,
producing value which will command
the money, rather than TO adopt the
plan substantially followed by large
proportion OF our people OF speculat-
ing out of each other in purely fictitious
values, like tho two boys who shut
themselves up in the same room for
week and both got rich, or fancied they
had got rich, by trading and retrading
jackets with certain offers OF boot
money each way. which neither never
intended to pay.
But what. let us inquire, is money,
and Of what should il consist TO make
il safe medium or instrument OF ex-
change aud representative or meas
ure of values, or a standard of compar-
ative values? Without their alluding
to any other characteristic il is suffic-
lent to say that the first great and in
dispensible requisite to make it stand
ard or measure of values is, that it
must consist of some beneficial use,
aside and apart from its mere use as
money.
To obtain anything like clear idea
of real value of anything something
must be taken as the standard Of COM
parison, and TO make it safe and any
thing like permanent standard of
comparison, something must be select
ed whose value when compared to
property and labor, should be looked
upon by the common consent OF the
commercial world as the most stable
and permanent and least liable to be
affected by sudden local or temporary
causes. Take, for instance, q bushel
Of wheat, pound Of iron, yard OF
certain kind of cloth, or the days work
Of laboring man. These would each
furnish an approximation to standard
| Of values. But il will be readily seen
that the recognized comparative values
! of each nf these would bc much loss
stable and permanent throughout the
commercial world, and much more
likely to be affected by local and tom
porary causes than gold and silver,
though even these do not constitute
perfect standard, because, among other
reasons the increased supply produced
in modern times may be greater than
the increase OF population using it as
money or the increase OF business; but
even this cause of variation in value
is very nearly, il not quite, counter
| balanced by the increased use Of them
in manufactures and the arts, so that
their comparative values remain more
permanent than anything else that
could be selected; and it is precisely
/ because they are susceptible of aud
valuable for use in manufacture and
| the arts, and in various other ways be-
sides their use as money, that they be-
/ come capable of use as q standard or
measure of comparative value Tin short
/ as money!, aside fran their stamps in
dicating their value, which may be
wholly fictitious or arbitrary. But the
coin is worth, and will bring in the
market, just what it is worth for smelt-
ana uhwornj tIs COST tI coinage.
Paper has, and can have, no such in
| trinsic or extrinsic value, and the only
practical value il has consists in the
faith and confidence of the people who
like il, that it can be converted into
gold or silver, but the value in tho long
run, depend wholly upon the probabili.
ty in the general belief of business
men, Of its convertibility into specie or
its equivalent.
III this probability is only equal to
70, 80 or % per cent, then the paper
is deprecated down to rs, 80 or 25 on
| the dollar Of its nominal value, rs COM
pared with its real value in gold or sill
yer. And il is as illogical to say in
such . case that gold has gone up or
down as il would be to speak OF the
ascent or descent of balloon in COM
parison with tho height of a mountain
to say the mountain has gone up or
down instead OF the balloon. IL is true
that il has of late become customary to
speak OF the price of gold going up or
down, but all who have any intelligent
notion of the nature Of money under
stand we'll enough that this only means
that the paper has gone up or down,
instead of and as compared with the
gold value.
This mode OF expression is, however,
calculated to aid in the deception OF q
large portion of the people who, unfor-
tunately, have not studied and have
little practical knowledge Of the princi-
pies Of finance, or those which govern
the current value Of money and the
various substitutes for money, and who
therefore, may for time be deceived
by the plausible fallaciss OF the infa-
tionists who seem not TO be above the
the trickery OF treating this erroneous
form OF speech as the real expression
of the true principle involved, and
who, strange and ridiculous as il may
appear TO us, seem, not without design,
TO have produced among the more ig-
norant classes OF our people a vague
but real impression that the govern
ment is not only going TO add TO the
volume of the currency, but that this
addition is TO be distributed gratis 10
each individual who may need il, much
as garden seeds are distributed by the
Department Of Agriculture, through
the agency, they probable suppose, OF
members Of Congress, n belief which
after all, is n little more extravagant
than belief in the virtues Of any OF
the features Of the imitation scheme.
But the whole scheme is in my view
net only n delusion, but so utterly shall
low and ridiculous that il cannot last
long enough 10 endanger the result of
n single National political campaign.
I may be mistaken, but think IL for
tunate for the country that the move
ment was started at so early day, so
as to give the bubble time to burst be-
fore the hour OF real danger shall ar.
rive. The ass under the disguise OF
the lions skin, may upon brief exhi-
bitten, and under favorable circumstan-
ces. pass himself of as lion. But the
shorter the exhibition the better for
the ass. Every hour that passes, every
successive effort TO initiate the lion,
multiplies the chances OF detection.
The long ears or the hoofs peeping
through the disguise, will soon expose
the clumsey trick, il not still sooner ex-
posed by the bray.
II the people OF this country were as
completely isolated from the people Of
, all other countries as the inhabitants
of a different planet, having no trade
! or business intercourse outside OF our
J National limits, IL is possible that q
, currency consisting Of paper known to
} be irredeemable, except in bonds equal
/ l.. IL -. L. -. a