The workingman's advocate., 1875-03-06

uetcu - tno EoPE0~~heAeA'e VI NniucJ "eesS
legislative act toould erAancs the value Of tie
metal beyond tnhat i,Jseres IN II from its no
turs. 1t in therefore true to day that gold,
as the representative Of property, derives
its chief value from the laws making it Q
legal-tender, and people seldom think that
it is merely legal and not an actual value
after all which makes gold the current
money or representative of value in all
civilized nations.
Money is, therefore, o legal agency by
which commerce ia carried on q some-
thing endowed by law to represent and ex-
change values, and whether in the form OF
paper or Of gold. has its value by virtue Of
legislative action. No greater mistake can
be made, and it is the one great mistake
which the advocates Of gold base system
Of currency, or Of one sort Of money re-
deemable in another make, to suppose
that it is the inherent and comparatively un-
changing value Of gold which best fits it as
q standard Of value. As gold exists in guam
titles beyond its need in arts and orna-
ments, if it were not for the coinage laws
Of the nations, it would be comparatively
Valueless Gold nor any other metal is
necessarily worth what it costs to dig it,
for when q metal is mined, If it have no
valuable uses, it 10 only another instance
out of innumerable others of misdirected,
useless and Improbable labor. 1t there
fore follows that money Ia the creation Of
law, an act of sovereignty, the force lying
in the image and superscription Of
Cesar, and not in anything else If then
money bears a higher rate Of interest in
Chicago than in London it is either be-
cause there is less property to be repre-
sented or some defect in legislation. 1t
would seem 10 be true as an axiom that
when property or actual values will not
pay debt or satisfy an execution, that
when the legislature designates the only
thing that will do this, it is bound to fur
nish this "only thing" this legal tender,
IN quantities properly representative o.
property SO as to be sufficient topay debts
and when furnished in such proper guam
titles a high rate Of interest can not be
maintained
Righ here lies the whole secret the pow
er Of capital, by which usury is made pos
sble. The legislature orders the sale Of
property for debts, hut says that only one
thing called money shall pay that debt,
and It is not possible TO procure that one
thing, the legislature having selected the
metal which Is scarce, by reason Of its
scarcity 10 serve as a legal tender. There
fore vast masses Vf property, Of great
value, have To be sacrificed or surrendered
into the possession II the creditor, because
it cannot be converted into what is arbl-
! trarlN designated legal tender.
The amount Of gold in bullion and com
existing in the world IA not one -hundreth
part OF the debts which, by act of law, are
made payable in gold. And those same
laws. as if with a deliberate intent aud
studied design, give the creditor ludg
ment, award him execution against his
debtors property, and permit him to have
good title &c the property because the
debtor cannot perform an impossibility,
which the law itself has made. 1t is no
answer 70 say that these debts are not en-
forced all at once The simple fact
remains that by law all debts are required
to be paid III legal tender, and then the
law fails TO provide the legal tender in
quantities = which the payment Of debts
is possible.
That is, the law enscts an impossibilty
and for lts non-performance sacrifices
property and all actual values. Surely
such legislation is crime against labor /!
By reasons of such legislation the
money lenders are able To fI
such rates OF interest Is they please. But
when We shall make money representative
Of real values, Of real wealth, Of that
which is valuable for its use, which sus-
tains life and ministers to comfort, which
has inhereing in it, like the soil, the re-
productive capacities which assure the
maintenance aud the happiness Of the hu-
man race in the future, then the instru-
mentalities will be put into the willing
hands Of labor for the development of
wealth, and ali the factors Of production
will De brought into active co operation,
the spectacle Of enforced idleness will van
lsh, and the story of panics will read to the
student a. the violences of the middle ages,
the results Of conditions and legislation
which were abolished with the laws creating
them. Few men are able to carry on bust
ness on their own capital or without credit,
for which capital or credit they have to pay,
and the amounts they have to pay-or the
cost of capital or credit fixes their compen-
satlon or profits Ten per cent. on
capital invested in business will, in the long
run, bankrupt any manufacturer or mer-
chant, and the nation to-day is suffering
from these payments. Capital in necessary
to labor in the production of wealth, but
when capital says :" / will become factor
IN business only ON condition that receive
ten per cent. interest, panics hard times
and bankruptcy are close at hand The
remedy for hard times is radical revision
of law "coining and regulating money"
THE NEW REVoLUTIoN.