Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1880-11-25


nance which constitutes intrinsic value,
but to procure or purchase that proper
ty or commodity which does afford him
intrinsic value. Money is only instru,
mental in distributing surplus property
Money is, or should be, legal evi.
dence of claim for given measure of
industrial value expressed upon its
face; its currency and validity being
always confined to the parties against
whom it was issued and who We're the
recipients of an equivalent. These
qualifications render the instrument a
current and valid tender. and an etii-
cient medium of exchange among all
parties to its issue, consisting of the
governed and the governing parties.
Then it seems that suitability is the
prime feature to be considered, in the
material of which such instrument of
claim should be made Second, is the
feature of economy. OF course, if the
subjects trust their government to fix a
price on all public service and expense
to be paid by the subjects, and also to
establish standard measure of value
by which their own property or the pro-
ceeds of their own labor are to be es-
timated and given in liquidation of
this money claim for public service,
this should he consummated with the
least practicable expense or cost to the
subjects, who must foot the bill.
There is no dodging the fact that
suitability and economy are the sole
features to he considered in the mate
rial to he used as a medium of eXchang-
ing property and services between the
government and society, and among
that society whose purpose it serves as
common medium of exchange.
1t is difficult even for civilized
people to abandon the sacred fallacy
that gold or silver is the proper mate
rial for money, since the lapse of GEN.
turies of commercial and political pro-
gress has left them no other relic to
remind them of the rude notions and
customs of the early ages of barbarism
whence they sprang 1t is fortunate
for the present generation that all
other public institutions have grad
ually and steadily improved, but sad
to reflect that we yet cling to this most
ruinous and distressing of all the
curses ever inflicted by barbarian an
ceStry upon modern civilization. We
even educate the youth of the present
age to venerate, to cherish and to
advocate the perpetuation Of this most
harassing obstacle to all political, social
and industrial progress, namely, coin
money and "cOin basis"
In his american Political Econo-
my" page 293, Prof. Francis Bowen,
of Harvard college, says: I'VE can
do without money aS medium of eX-
change, and can even barter commodi-
ties for other commodities without the
use of any medium. But we cannot
do without money as Il common stand
ard, or measure of value So far,
his doctrine will hardly stand the test
of strict investigation. But in the
very next sentence he continues: "A
measure must be homogeneous with
the thing measured aS that which
measures length or capacity must itself
possess length or capacity; so that
which measures value must have value
in itself, or intrinsic value" This
theory will not bear any investigation
at all. That measurement of value in
property which money either does or
should perform is not accomplished
by restoring to the man who has parted
with his property for money the same
measure of intrinsic value in the money
that was contained in the property
The intrinsic value of an article can
only be realized or enjoyed by the con-
sumption or use thereof in gratifying
some real or imaginary want of man.
Gold jewelry gratiiies vital want of
mm-his taste for ornament: and
paper collars another Whether these
be real or imaginary, they are certainly
vital wants; and whatever will supply
a vital want has intrinsic value to
that extent. But material used in the
paper collars and gold studs, if they
exist in the forms of money, would
crafty no such want and afford no
intrinsic value aS money. Real money
is only statement or record of Il
given measure of value, and expresses
Il valid claim against that measure of
value in property on the markets. To
leave out money entirely and apply
Prof. Bowen's theory to barter, it is
strictly true. Property brought up
alongside of property, to be bartered
one for the other, measures the value
of property; and if each owner wants
the others property, they each exchange
claims, or ownership, and thus one
claim is an offset against the other. No
money, or medium of exchanging the
two, is used. If a medium We're used,
and it contained value like the proper
ty, then it must have cost labor and
have industrial value, and hence be-
come property itself; thus the transac-
tion would become barter. But an
evidence of either claim, stated on the
face of any material and expressing
also the measure of value claimed,
effects sale; and this instrument so
effecting the sale is money, provided
it he an evidence of claim against all
parties throughout the country who
have been benefited by an equivalent
upon which the claim is based
TruemOney cannot effect an exchange