Bozeman avant courier. [volume] (Bozeman, Mont.) 1872-1882, 1878-11-28

I
$4,000, they have simply resumed. Th
property in the United States has fallen il
value. but its real value has been ascertain
ed. The land will produce as much as
ever would. aud is ae valuable to-day as i
ever was; and every improvement, ever
invention that adds to the productiyenes
of the soil Or to the facilities for getting
that product to market, adds to the wealth
OF the nation. As matter of fact, tn,
property kept pace with what We wer,
pleased to call our money. As the none,
deprecated, property appreciated; as tn,
money appreciated, property deprecated
The moment property began to fall specu
lation ceased. There is bat little specula
ton upon falling market. The stock;
and bonds. based simply upon ideas, be
came worthless, the colaterals, so to speak
dust and ashes. At the close of the war
when the Government ceased to be such 8
vast purchaser and consumer, many of the
factories had to stop. When the crash
came the men stopped digging ore, they
stopped telling the forest, the fires died out
in the furnaces, the men who had stood in
the glare of the forge were in the gloom OF
dependency. There was no employment,
for them. The employer could not sell his
product. business stood still, and then
came what we call the hard times. Oul
wealth WIS delusion and Illusion, and we
simply came back to reality. Too many
men were doing nothing, too many men
were traders. brokers, spectators. There
We're not enough producers Of the things
needed; there were too many producers OF
the things no one wished.
FIAT MONEY.
Many remedies have been proposed. and
chiet among these is the remedy OF fiat
money. Probably no subject in the world
is less generally understood than that of
money. SO many false definitions have
been given. so many strange, conflicting
theories have been advanced. that it is not
at all surprising that men have come to
imagine that money is something that can
be created by law. The definition given
by the hard-money men has been used as
arguments by those who believe in the
power of Congress to create wealth. We
are told that gold is an inStrumentality or a
device TO facilitate exchanges. We are
also told that gold is measure of value.
Let US examine these definitions. Gold
or money is an instrumentality to facilitate
cXeAap@es., That sounds we'll h,lt I do
not belie;e it IS correct. Gold and silver
are commodities. They are the products
of labor. They are not instrumentalities,
they are not devices to facilitate exchang-
es; they are the things exchanged for
something else, and other things are ex-
changed for them. The only device about
it to facilitate exchange is the coming of
these metals. so that you can truthfully
say that the coming of gold and silver is a
device to facilitate exchanges. and the ex-
changes are facilitated in this way: When
ever the Government or any Government
certifies that in certain piece OF gold or
silver there are a certain number of grains
of a certain fineness, then lie who gives it
knows that he is not giving too much, and
he who receives it knows that lie is receiy-
ing enough, so that l will change the def
milton to this: The coming of the precious
metals is 4 device to facilitate exchanges,
but the precious metals themselves are
they are merchandise. they are
and whenever one commodi-
ty is exchanged tor another it is barter.
and gold and silver are the last refinement
of barter. The second definition is this i:
"Gold and silver are the measures Of val
ue.' We are told by those who believe in
fiat money that gold is a measure of value
just the same as halfbushel or yard
stick. | deny that gold is measure of
value. 1t is measure of value precisely
as half-5ushel is, or as a yard-stick is,
but no other way. The yartl-stick is not
measure of value, it is simply measure of
quantity. 1t measures cloth worth SO
cents a yard precisely as it does calico
worth 4 cents; it measures 500 lace ex-
actly as it does cent tape. and in no other
way. 1t is, therefore. not measure of
value, and consequently this yard-stick
can be made of silver, or gold, or wood.
1t measures simply quantities. The same
with the halt-bushel. The half-bushel
measures wheat precisely the same, wheth-
er that wheat is worth $3 Or 81. 1t simp-
y measures quantity, not quality, not
value. The yard-stick, the half.bushel and
he coming of money are all devices to
facilitate exchanges. The yar,!-stick as
'ures the man who sells that he has not
sold too much; it assures the man who
buys that lie has received enough; and in
hat way it facilitates exchanges. The
'oining of money facilitates exchanges.
Or the reason that were it not coined. eac.,
nan who did business would have to carry
pair of scales and be chemist. "lf gold
md silver are not the measures of value.
What is!" answer, intelligent labor. /
1old gets its value from labor. OF course. |
cannot account for the fact that mankind |
laye certain fancy for gold or diamonds, |
leiIher can | account for the fact that we |
Ike certain things better than others to
at. These are simple facts in nature, and |
hey are facts. whether they can be ex-
,lained or not. which cannot be disregard |
d. The dollar in gold represents on the
verage the labor it took to dig and mint /
t, together with all the time of the men
Eho looked for it without finding it. That
ollar in gold, on the average, will buy the
rOduct of the same amount of labor in |
ny other direction. Nothing ever has
cen money, from the most barbarous to
he most civilized, unless it was product
t nature, and something to which the
eople among whom it passed as money
ttached a certain value, yalue not de-
endent upon law, not dependent upon
,gislation, in any degree. Nothing has
YER been constituted money that man
Duld produce. A bank bill is not money, |,
either Is check nor a draft. These are
] devices, simply to facilitate business.
ut in or Of themselves they have no val
e. We are told, however, that the Gov