Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1878-10-10

mlltSu Dy the same men now II they
were honest with the people ewhom
they are leading.
"THlS Is A DAYS WORK"
That was happy illustration OF Mr..
Hoar, of Massachusetts, before an audi
ence of farmers when he said he pro.
posed to make work easy hereafter by
placing board on the fence with the
inscription This is days work, "and
folding his arms. This fairly exposes
the absurdity of the fiat money theory.
1t would surely be as feasible to create
a days work by saying This is a days
WORK" as to create dollar out of moth
ing by saying of piece of paper "This
Is dollar" People seem to forget that
money is the measure of value. Coin
was chosen as the measure of value
that is to say gold and silver, beca use
it cost, in labor dollar or thereaboul
to produce the material that is contain
ed in dollar. For this reason those
metals were selected. 1t could have
been Tor no other reason. Mechanical.
ly il would have been DO more diff
cult to coin iron money than to coin
gold and silver money, but as it costs
~ PANNNNS SOAN huO SIlNtT ludu
1t does to produce iron, the former were
selected as the standard of values.
Paper money is the representative of
coin because IL is convertible into coin.
AS such 1t is used for convenience in
making exchange. Paper has no in
trlnslc value; therefore il is worth moth
ing except as representative of coin
ana 1t can not represent the money OF
the world unless it is convertible into
coin. Man can can not produce some>
thing out of nothing. He can not
make yard stick out of a piece of wood
one inch square. Congress might pass
a law declaring one inch a yard, but
that would not make one inch thirty
six inches: The price of a yard of cloth
measured by one inch would of course
cost only one-thirtysixth part as much
rs yard of cloth measured by thirty
six inches. The standard yard is
thirty-siX-inches. Cloth is bought and
sold by that standard. The value of a
yard of cloth is in proportion to the
c0sts of producing it. This value can
not be changed by shortening or length
ening the standard by which It is
measured. Ifthe standard is lengthen-
ed, the price will change in propor-
ton. If it is shortened, vice versa.
The intrinsic value of every article is
IN proportion to the labor in producing
it. This is law that no man can
change. 1t is fixed law that gives a
fixed value to every article that is pro-
duced. Labor is the basis of all values.
and money is the standard by which
those values are determined. To
change the standard would net change
the cost particle. To lower the
standard would seem to diminish the
cost, but it would not. II we should
write this article tor SO much per line.
we would receive more for it nomipal-
ly in cheap money than in coin, but
the brain work and time EMPLOYED in
producing the article would remain
the same. So it would be with refer
ence to all kinds of labor. Saw that .
man and pair of horses can plow an
acre OF ground in day. The value of
that labor measured in coin is four dol
lars. 10 earn that required ten hours
work. Suppose that work should be
paid for in paper worth fifty cents on
the dollar In coin, the measure of that
labor would be eight dollars in paper.
That would be worth to the laborer. 10
the pioWman, four dollars in coin. The
difference would be the constant fiuc-
tuation of the paper in value. 1t might
be worth eight dollars in trade one day
and only six the next. The time
necessary to perform the labor, how
ever, would not change. 1t would re.
quire one man, two horses. and ten
hours time to do the work. That
would not fluctuate; bat the wages, if
paid in fiat paper, would fuciuate.
If the fiat system of finance could be
applied TO labor we could all live with
out work. We could say "let paper be
produced, let editorials be written. let
news be gathered on the wings of the
wind, let the sheets be printed by
magic, aud let them be delivered to
subscribers" We could then fold our
arms and take things easy. Then we
should have fiat newspapers, and it
would be quite as practicable to pro-
duce newspapers out of nothing, or to
perform labor without work, as to pro-
duce money out of nothing.
1t ought not to require argument to
demonstrate this plain fact, but il
seems to be necessary to argue it, and
even to vote upon it.
But it would be quite as sensible TO
go into field and say This is a davis
work." without doing any work, as to
say of a piece of paper which has no
intrinsic value. "This is a dollar"
Gin. Gazette.