The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1880-09-12

sS than an alchemist can convert that butter
into gold, and it can no more force the world
to so accept it than can shoemaker compel
people to bug his boots at 500 per pair.
Suppose the United States government were
to-day to decree that one pound Of iron now
marketed at 5 cent: should be worth 50,
and force ito citizens to receive it at So,
would such decree make il saleable at 80 in
gold or silver? Would our correspondent
give his new IS silk hat fer the pound of
iron, or his French 5.franc piece? Surely
not. Thon what "yalue has been created"
by the government through its stamp on the
metal? But if the government issues q
piece of paper, for instance, representing the
worlds purchasing money, viz. 20 In gold
or silver there would be quite different
condition of affairs. A ton Of white paper
was worth say, 5000 to the newspaper man,
I for instance; some government, the ctnfed-
crate states, for example, said it WAS worth SO
many million dollars when Gu. into strips Of
three niche. By six irchrs, with "the gov
eruments stamp on it that made it money"
as say our Grcenback friends VIII our cor
respondent exchange his hat or his 6'franc
piece for ne of those slips stamped S5y Then
did the government "create any value, Gre
ate any money" therein Iron or copper, or
butter or hats, or sidessddles, or
Goldfish bsl]s, or car tickets might Just as well
DO SO stamped with equal results. Again, so
far from government being able to "creats
m onsy," it is only able to destroy. A pound
Of bullion is worth so many of
the dollars of commerce, the wo I'D
over, stamped, it isn't wo tn
any more, but if the government clips or de-
bases it, it by so much depreciates its mar
ketable value, And if it makes it thus q
illegal tender" for an equal figure of gold
or silver and forces its citizens so to take 1t,
1t just simply swindles them or authorizes
them to swindle one another. This hes b:en
done. The Roman republic. centuries before
the Christian era, undertook it by the lex
Flaminia, before paper money WAS invented,
and the iorty-tlfth congress Of these intelli'
goat United States followed suit in almost
the identical tracks 1878, years after the
Christian era, when "a national debt was q
national Blessing" In. the old case, we are
told, Hannibal was outside the gate when the
deed was done In our case Hannibal WAS
inside, and assisted at the clipping, Later, the
Greeks and Romans descended to plated coin
and thus favored rascals and fOstersd fraud, |
until finally. Cicero tells U.S. the value
of the coinsgo became so dubious that no
one knew what he was worth by the posses
sion. If government can 'create money by |
its fiat by some Alsddin-lamp process, then
why do not our Washington Solons create
say $500, 100000 of money at once, pay of
the national debt and stop the interest on it ?
But we rpprehend this i, suggestion similar
in value to the ona once urged by Daniel
Webster, who, being told by hi, host that the
brandy they were drinking cost $50 per gal
Ion, reckoning the interest on the principal
for the preceding twenty years, replied
"My Lord my friend give us more brandy |
quick, and let's stop that interest immedi-
stely." But out of Whist will the congress
Create this money? 1t can create nothing.
1t lives on tsxes, the forced contributions
from the labor Of others, and its bonds and |
greenbscks to day are not representative of
existing values, but of value extinct, which |
Is nothing. This nothing then is on n par
with congressional decree that the clicks
OF telegraph instrument or its ndontstious
on the paper or the motions of a
deaf mute, fingers shall be money.
Thus to mix things, to contound the idea
of money with that of iti representative sub
stltute IL Just about as loose as to mix up the
sun and the sun dial, or the mirror and the
object. The dial discloses something about
the SUM- it indicates in what part of the
heavens it is, but it does not affect the sun
nor control to hours. II is merely dcsg-
natory of the time of day. Such a confusion
OF ideas might be pardonsbe in tho min.
'trels lend m'n" who thought TO appease
his hunger on shadow-,oup and to grow fat
on the photographed chicken, but it would
seem to be iuexcusabls in the enlight-
ened mind of to-day. In the
view which We have thus taken, it
must readily be seen by such as are not of
the color blind" fraternity what sheer folly,
1t is to talk of paper money" except as a
symbolic expression, after the algebrsc fash
ion, inasmuch as psperis not money, but only
tho substitute or representative Of money.
General Chambers attempted refutation OF
the HrsALD's logic i, essentially illogical.
He says We contend "as government does
not create gold or silver, but coins gold and
silver, therefore government does not create
money" and that thi. is equal 10 saying Sin.
asmuch as government does not create thea
material out of which paper money Is made,
therefore 1t does not create paper money, or
that my house is not house because did
not create the material out Of which it i,
built. The fallscy is patent. Tho par
alIel syllogsm to General Chambers is, "my
frNl Is - Il I