Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1878-08-30

of course, any man can make out any
case, if he discards established definitions Of
words, and draws on his own or somebody 5
imagination for his facts. If an arguer
chooses to say that by murder and adultery
he means philanthropy and chastity, he can
easily argue that murder and adultery are
virtues Still, as a rule, there is nothing
gained by cutting loose from the established
meanings Of words.
Intrinsic is defined by Webster to mean
genuine inherent, not apparent or acct
dental-as the intrinsic value of gold or sill
yer." Intrinsic value, then, in financial
discussions, means precisely the quality
which inheres in gold and silyer-that of
universal value among all civilized nations.
And when Mr.. Forest opens his discussion by
saying that he understand by intrinsic
value some quality which belongs rs much
and in the same degree to stamped paper as
to gold. he simply says that he discards the
common acceptance of the words. There is,
of course, no such thing as arguing the
point with him. for those who still use words
in their established meaning.
Mr. Forest says that q piece Of paper
stamped by authority one dollar. has equal
intrinsic value with 25.s grains Of standard
gold. But nobody else thinks SO. He did
not think so. when, few years since, a GOLD
dollar would buy two paper dollars. stamped
by authority. lie would find that his paper
dollar to-day has not quite equal intrinsic
value with a gold dollar, or 25.S grains of
gold, if he wished to use his piece of paper
to buy something in Canada, or England, or
Cuba, or France, or Germany - countries
with which our com erce amounts TO
thousand millions yearly. Equality between
paper money and gold can be perfect only
when it il universal. The greenback
is 50 nearly equal with gold to-day,
because along with the stamp is promise
to pay and the Government has i1el the
day, not six months hence, when it will pay
gold or silver for its paper to any one who
wishes to exchange them.
If stamping. by authority, piece Of paper
of required size 'ten dollars, legal tender"
makes it perfectly equal in value to 25S
grains of gold, why not stamp each piece
thousand dollars legal tender, which by the
same rule would be perfectly equal to
u, 800 grains of gold? If the Government
could increase its wealth thousand or
million fold by using the word thousand or
million in place Of tho word one on its
pieces Of stamped paper tits order, to suit
Mr.. Forest. being reduced to definite terms
as to quality and kind'O, why should it not
do 50, and thus provide tho funds to pay off
at once its debt, remove all need of taxation
or tariff, for any purpose, for all time to
come, and become at once richer than all the
other governments of tho world put to-
gcthcr?
Mr.. Forest says the power to create does
not imply the right to destroy. Why
not? 1t is commonly supposed among
men that the creator has unlimited right
and power over his creation. Is Mr.. Forest
using these words with new meanings?
Dir. Forest s assertions arc rs wild AZ his
theories. lie says the Government has no
right to delegate its duty to create (hore
evidently using the word in the sense of
nsuc) money, to persons or corporations but
his saying so does not mako it 80. lie attri- |
butcs the financial depression to the neglect |
to increase the amount OF money in proper |
ton to the increase of population. But the |
fact is that the amount OF money has in |
creased much faster than the population.
In 1860. the paper currency was SOY,
To-, AZ to-day, it is 1854 1896 The |
population has increased nine millions in
eighteen years.-the currency has increased
four hundred and eighty millions. The popu-
lation has increased one third the currency
has threbed. There is also more gold and
silver in tho country in proportion to the
population than there was in 1850. The
value of the paper is now almost equal to
gold, and the amount of money, either meas
ured by its face or actual value, is greater
in amount and in proportion to population
than ever before. !