Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1878-05-01
from the portland Transcript.
Absolute Money.

What is this new kind of money about which
men are talking so gliby "Sr," said one ofts adj
vocates, in our hearing, I'VE are going to have the
best currency the world ever saw. You say we
are visionary So they said Newton was vision
AIRY. and Fulton was visionary. Are there not to
be Improvements in money as in anything else =
"But," said his interlocutor, there is no conpar
ison between the discoveries of physical science
and the laws of political economy. The one is
open TO mans investigation; the other is based on
fixed principles. You might as well talk of i'm
proving the multiplication table. and say that here
after two times three shall be seven. That i the
kind Of Improvement you are attempting"
But still the eager advocate of absolute mon
ey" could not see that the term is but another
name for absolute folly. What is it to be abso
lutte 1t to be complete in itself, to exist indepen-
dent of any cause. God is absolute, but few things
on earth can he ,ail to be In human affairs there
is a system of lnter-dependence and mutual rela-
tonship. Nothing stands by itself-east of all
does money. Its value must depend on some
thing else than the stamp it bears. Gold and sill
yer have in the arts, giving them com
paratve,y fixed value. Absolute money, if we
self and is not convertible Into anything else
which has value.
How then can it he standard of value? But
some say it j. to he based on the fee simple of all
the property. public and private, held in the
tiy But how can IT be so based, if it is not fbn-
vertihli ii 10 any of this property Can "A man
who holds a handful of this "ahsol'e money! get
it redeemed by taking possession of his neighbor's
house and lands; And if not, where is its base ?
Has not the bottom dropped out of it, and will il,
not fall to the grJund Gen. Buffers money,
which is of this absolute sort, is to he not
promise to pay, but promise not to pay. How
much i such promise worth, and where in does
it represent value If man sells his farm he
wants to the value of it in his hand. If he gets
gol or silver or paper convertible into either, he
can ca ~ the value of his farm with him wherever
he goes, and convert IT at pleasure into any prop
erty he peases. Can he do that with piece OF
paper which is not convertible into anything and
promises to pay nothingi Can the stamp of any
government in the world give value to such a
piece OF paper Never.
Congressman Wright of Penn. is a white head
ed old gentleman and is said to he a millionai ire
lie says he is not afr aid to be called demagogue
and it is well he isn't. lie wants government to
issue 800 100000 of paper money, which shall
be a legal tender. He proposes this measure in
behalf Of the laboring men, for whom he has
great regard but he fails to provide way for
them to get possession of this paper mon ev. Gov
eminent can easily manufacture it, but it has no
purpose to which to devote it. 1t cannot paw il
out for nothing. How then are the working
men to get hold of it Shall the government give
it to them outright What pretty scramble
there would be to get share of it. But what
good would 1t do them after they had got it D.? As
it would increase the volume of paper money over
one-thrd, there would be corresponding de-
crease in its value, ard as even the four hundred
millions would fail to supply the demand there
would have to be repeated issues, until its value
would sink to nothing Then it would be discov
cred that government can no more give what it
does not possess than Satan could bestow upon
the Savior all the kingdoms of the earth. Still
Mr.. Wright is not afraid of being called a dema-
gogue, and men continue to talk Of absolute
money.