Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1878-08-21

Probably The RAJ - 81 olaesucs
tween thoss h favor II ard those op-
posed 70 IN issue q the sc.caiIed Al
money, y simply whether or not u IL necessary
that the substance Of which . piece Of mosey'
: composed should have value IN Itself -
. commodity, that y An intrinsic value equal TO
the legal tender quality given It BY the stamp
and laws Of the Government.
II this question must be answered In the sf-
nrmative, 1t Is decisive against on issue OF MAJ
money but nsot. then it can b. issue1 or not
~ Congress might deem best, In accordance
with sound principles Of public policy. II Is
clear that admitting that money must have
an intrinsic value, still intrinsic value is not
money. For instance, mass OF gold we'gn'
ing Is SO grains, and Of the requisite nne
ness, being coined by the Government, De-
comes money and is legal tender In the
United States to the amount OF one dollar I;
Bur MASS OF GOLD OF THE SAME WEIGHT
AND FINENEss, NOT HAVING THE GOVERN
MENT STAMP UPON 1T, IS NOT LEGAL TEN
DER OR MONEY FOR ANY PURPOSE, BUT is
MERE COMMODITY, ALTHOUGH 1T AND THE
GOLD DOLLAR HAVE INTRINsIcALLY THE SANE
VALUE, % that we are led to the conclusion
that It is the coinage acts Of Congress that
gives tn a coin those qualities which distln-
gush 1t as money from the mere. articles of
commerce."
The writer of the article headed
"Fiat Money" in the Democrat OF
Aug. 0, lacks the logical faculty nee
essary to q convincing writer. The
intelligent reader of the extract
which we quote will observe that the
young legal gentleman gave away
his case when he stated: "but mass
of gold of the same weight and fine
ness las that in a dollar), not
having the Government stamp upon
it, is not a legal tender or money for
any purpose, but is a mere commod-
ity, aAhough 1t and the gold dollar
haze enthusiastically The same Uolase,"
Can any individual of sound sense
be for q moment believer that fiat
money is as good as coin9 Consider
for a moment. A gold dollar, as the
writer states, is made q dollar, a
legal tender, by Government. OBJ
literate the impression made OF Gov
eminent mint and you still have the
value of dollar. Take piece OF
paper upon the face OF which is
printed, "ZHis is u doNn," and OBJ
literatc the words printed thereon,
what then is tn. value of the paper :
Fiat Money, we plainly see, is the
creation of government. Gold is
not. Fiat money being the creation
of government it follows, should the
government be destroyed, that it
becomes Immediately valueless. The
gold coin Of IN extinct government
could be re-coined at the mint of
another government, and with its
new superscription its purchasing
power would be as before. Pursu-
ing further this line of inquiry, we
readily see that money which would
become valueless by the overthrow
of . government would fuctuate to
the extent of the existence of peril
to the government. Gold being in
itself of value, is not so effected.
Again, fiat money, unlike gold
coin, being solely the creature of the
governing power, it follows, that it
may be destroyed by the exercise on
the part of the government of the
same power which created it. Gold
coin cannot be SO effected by legis-
lation. Let us illustrate. The
United States prints upon a piece
of paper the words, This is Ten
Dollars Subsequently Congress,
by law enacts that it shall cease to
be ten dollars. The holder of the bill
has lost. On the other hand, sup
pose the United States Government