The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-04-26
Where tho Gold will 20.

!. Where tho Gold will 60.
The editor. of the Republican con-
tinues to ask. us questions and in
dulge in false accusations, while pre-
tending to desire a fair discussion OF
the financial issue. We have already
answered, as fully as an intelligent
man ought to require, every relevant
question he has; propounded; and
as to those which are irrelevant and
to his untruthful charges of evasions,
inconsistency, etc, we must dismiss,
them for the present, with the remind
er that ANY fool can ask questions
which wise man cannot answer"
and "Equivocation is rogue's ar
gument."
We wish to devote our space to
candid consideration of the issue,
rather than to empty wrangling, and
do not intend to be led away by
such nanoeuvring as our neighbor
resorts to. If he. is not satisfied to
fairly controvert our arguments, let
him bring forth the financial plan he
advocates and place it side by. side
with ours. Then the people will
compare the two and Judge between
them. ~.
stated last week that we should
look after the gold in good time, and.
we now propose to follow out briefly
as possible that branch of the SUBJ
ject. Our opponents tell us that
." sol1 has intrinsic 7,alve" and: is "a
measure Of 5'qluSs," and it is by In
sisting upon these fallacies that they
rely to make their arguments plausi-.
BILE. jThpe intrinsic value of an arti-;
Gle is its capacity to be used to pro-
mote human happiness. All CON-
modities which may be made to
contribute to- the welfare of our race
possess intrinsic value; and the de-
gree Of that value depends upon the
degree oftheir quality of being essen
tial to the welfare Of mankind. The
more essential they are the greater
their intrinsic value, and contrari-
wise. ...-
Now, goldr can hardly be claimed
to be a very essential article to the
welfare of the race, for apart from
its use as money, it is required to
only a limited extent in the econo-
mics of lite, and cannot, therefore,
be said truthfully to possess any con-
siderable intrinsic value.
Neither is it measure of value,
in any sense of the word, for it re-
quires to be measured in order to
have its value defined. A measure
is that to which thing is melted, as
yard to the cloth, a pound to the
sugar, or a bushel to the grain. 1t
would be nonsense to say, gold to
the dollar; but we may properly say
and do say by statute law dollar
to so many grains of gold, or that it
shall take so many grains of gold to
be of the value of one dollar.
Gold has a high commercial value,
but this is due more to the fact that
it is generally used as money-as a
representative Of value - than to
any, demand for it in the arts and
sciences. Abandon its use as mon
S.y and its commercial value would
Immediately decline, because the
demand would not require the sup
ply. Surely this will not be denied,
even by our neighbor of the Repub-
lican, nor will the converse of it:
that, if its use as money is made
more general, its commercial value
will be enhanced, because the de-
noand for it will be increased.
Having established these undeni-
able propositions, it now behooves
US to inquire what would become of
the gold in the event of the adoption
of greenback currency as full legal