The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-10-24
FINANCIAL TRUTHS CLEAR.
sLY STATED.
The True Office of Money---What the
Greenbacks Did for the
Country.
Though q Raft Saves Ones Life it is
Not to be Preferred to a
Good Steamer.

Not to be Preferred to a
Good Steamer.
From the Speech of Geo. W. Allen, president Of
the Honest Money League, at the Academy of
Music, Milwaukee, October 10Th, 1873.
The Office of money is to assist in
efecting the exchanges of the country.
Gold, silver, and paper effect but about
5 per cent. of the total exchanges of the
county; 95 per cent. of all our ex-
changes are made by. drafts and bills OF
exchange, without the use of what is
called and circulates for money, coin and
paper. Paper of no kind is money; it
simply represents or promises to pay
money. and hence. by custom, is called
paper money. Gold coin is no more
more money than gold bars Of bullion.
The coinage adds no value, unless it be
the costs Of coming, which are small. I
hold in my hand treasury note. 1t
reads that it will pay the bearer So in
the city of Washington, hence it is a
debtors note or certificate of indebted
ness-in other words an evidence of
debt-by greenbackers called SO much
wealth to the nation. Is debt wealth?
Are all the evidences of debt the evil
dences of wealth? If so, we are the
wealthiest people on the globe, and the
man the most heavily involved
in debt is our wealthiest citizen. It is
said that the whole valve of the coin,
like the paper, consists in the stamp of
the goSzrnment upon it, and that on
whatever substance that stamp is placed
it is thereby changed into the same value
as coin. Look at the SIS note. Erase
from it the government stamp and you
find left bit of tissue paper of no value
whatever. | also hold in my hand IS
American gold piece. 1t also has on it
the United States government stamp.
Erase that stamp by hammering it out
and you have left piece Of metal worth
just So in this country and in all the
markets in the world. The presence or
the absence of the stamp has nothing to
do with its value, but it made the sole
value of the paper; fat denial to all
these statements of the irredeemable-
money advocate. Again, you take this
$5 gold piece and take from it its rim or
one-ffth of it's weight, the government
stamp all remains intact and reads SIS.
Notwithstanding the stamp is all on,
and it reads Us, still you cannot get 81
for it, or just what it weighs in bullion
of that fneness and quality-neither
will your own government give you
more than 81 for it when presented at
its treasury. The one has only extrinsic
while the other has intrinsic value.
GOLD AND SILVER,
coined or uncoined, have an equal or
nearly equal value all over the world,
Paper money, issued by governments, by
individuals, or by corporations OF men,
has value only as given to it by the
people using it. That value is based
upon the public faith in ability to pay
and the certainty, of payment, at the
time and conditions on which it was is.
sued. Attempts have been made in
various ages to substitute some other
substance than gold and silver for
money-to cheaper it, as the saying
goes. Mexico tried soap and forced its
acceptance in payment of debts. Some
nations have tried bark from trees.
France tried paper in the form Of her
assignats, based upon the lands and the
revenues of the kingdom. England, I'M
der the teachings of the famous John
Law, adopted similar mediun-but all
have one result, irretrievable ruin. They
affected exchanges between their own
people so long as there was power to
force their acceptance upon the cred
itor from the debtor. This power gone,
no value was left. All value was pure
arbitrary power. France went so far as
to infict the penalty of death upon all
who refused to take the paper in ex-
change for their property. And further
than this, it enacted the death penalty
for all who should ask above the gold
price for their property when selling it
in exchange for the deprecated paper.
AS l said, all exchangeable value in
these substitutes for money lies solely
in the power to enforce the acceptance.
To-day, for example, man exchanges
his property for this enforced money;
this power ceases by change of rules or
changed sentiment and action on the
part of the people and their legislative
body, and what he has in his pocket,
that yesterday represented his property,
to-day has become ashes, and he has
nothing to show for all the property
that he possessed. Enforced substi.
tutes for real money never have and
never can end but in complete individ.
ual and national ruin. d..
Gt PAPER PROMISES. sc
No paper has ever yet been issued by
any government or any people that did
not promise redemption, that has been
at par, or not changed hands at a great
er or less discount, or, what is the same
thing, the amount of the discount add
ed to the price of the commodity fol
which the paper was exchanged. The
reason of the present low discount on
our paper money compared with gold is
solely in consequence of the nearby day
of its resumption as fixed by law. Power
may compel the taking Of anything in
the liquidation of debts, but this is a
small part of the Office of money. Nc
power can establish real value to de.
preciated circulation, and no power can
compel one man to part with his proper
ty in exchange for a deprecated and ir.