Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-11-09
Honest Money.

is that commodity which in given com.
munity is, by usage or law, or by both, en-
ployed to express the relative values of all
other commodities, and also to facilitate
the process of exchanging them for each
other, The first of these functions it per-
forms by its 0acn value as the product of
labor; and the second function depends son
its universal exchangeableness for all other
things that are in the market to be bought
and sold. The two functions, though not
Identical, are, nevertheless, intimately al
lied with each other, and practically in
separable. Money is the medium of ex-
change, because it is the measure of value;
and, being such a measure, ii naturally
becomes such medium
The first feature, then, of honest money
is that it should be the product of labor,
and that for this reason it should have an
exchange value equal to that of any other
product costing the same amount of labor.
An ounce of gold has not the bulk in
space or the weight of the wheat or corn
that it will buy; but, for an average, it is
the equivalent of the wheat or corn in its
laborcost, and, hence, when estimated by
the labor standard, ii has the same value.
Either will exchange for the other He
who has the gold in his possession has
guaranty that with it he can procure its
equivalent in wheat or corn, or in any
other commodity having the same labor
cost. The final principle is that of equioa-
lencg, as determined by the expenditure of
labor. Real money is simply concen-
trated form of labor, and, like all other
other things to which value is attached,
has the basis of its value in the labor
which, for an average, is necessary to pro-
duce it. 1t is not a cheat or delusion,
but positive substance, that represents
labor and has value for this reason.
A second feature of honest money con-
sists in the uniformity of its value. Abso-
Lutte and unvarying uniformity of value is
possessed by nc. productT labor; yet some
of these products possess it in a much
higher degree than others. All other
things being equal, that commodity is best
for monetary use which has this quality in
the highest degree and which, hence,
fuctuates least in its value at different
times, and especially which is least sub
ject to sudden fluctuations of value. The
importance of stability in the value of
money arises from the fact that it is used
as the measure of other values If the
same amount of money, considered rela-
lively to these other values, means one
thing to-day and another thing tomorrow,
then he who receives it to-day will to-
morrow be either a gamer or a loser by
reason of this difference. IF the money
paid to him today be wages, and be spent
tomorrow, and if as thus spent it will buy
less than it would have bought to-day, and
if this reduction Of purchasing power be
due not to the state of the market, but to
the character Of the money, then the
laborer is practically cheated out of por
ton of his wages by the money in use. 1t
is not honest money. The use of it,
whichever way it tiuctuates, involves loss
to somebody. The difficulty lies in the
instability of its value.
a thlr0 leisure OF honest money con.
sists in identity as TO the meaning Of its
terms. Contracts are usually made in the
terms Of money. \ given party, for ex-
ample, agrees to pay to another at a speci-
fed date so many dollars Here the term
dollars desi gnates what is to be paid.
When the contract is made dollar means
a given quantity Of coined gold, having
certain degree of tlneness. The law thus
defines it. Now suppose that, after the
contract is made, the law changes the i'm
port of this term, by the substitution of
something else for gold-a piece of paper,
for example-or- by changing the quantity
of gold indicated. by the word dollar This
being done, it is manifest at a glance that
the law has interviewed between these par
ties and changed their contract, to the
damage of one or the other 1t retains the
term dollar, but assigns to it a new mean
ing. Either it consists of something else
than gold or it does not consist in the same
quantity of gold; and in either case the
dollar stipulated to be paid is not the dol
lar which the law authorizes to be paid.
One or the other of the parties to the con-
tract is cheated by change in the mean
ingof the term dollar The money Of pay
ment, not being the money of the contract,
though having the same name, is not hon
est money. 1t is tie instrument of prac-
teal fraud
The application of these critcria Of hon
est money to irredeemable paper money
as a substitute for the money of actual
value discloses the dishonesty and fraud
perpetrated upon community by forcing
upon it such paper money. 1t is not real
ly money at all though the people are
compelled by law to accept it as such in
the settlement of contracts; and this is
fraud. Its labor-cost is no standard of It's
legal value Having no basis of value in
the material of which it is composed, it IS
subject to great fluctuations in its market
value, according to the quantity issued
which is quite sure TO be eXcessive-and
according to the credit of the Government
issuing it. When employed for the set
Element Of contracts made prior to the is
sue, it is simply a cheat by all the differ
ence between its value and that of the
money contemplated in those contracts.
The great financial question before the
people at the present time is whether they
W i'll continue the use of dishonest money,
or, by resuming specie payment, return to
the currency OF actual value, which is the