Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1880-02-26
The Interest Question.

Ou tuo qucsblOu Vi bu0 reuuCLlOn
Of interest the Platteville Witness
takes the side of the hard money
man. "Money," says the learned
editor, isis q commodity, and its
price should not be governed by law
moro than other commodities" Let
as examine into this sage saying.
Money is truly a commodity, but
government confers on a piece of
gold or silver with it's stamp,as coin,
power which does not belong to
the same commodity when 10 the
form of gold-dust or ore. Now no.
body has ever contended that the
price of bullion should be regulated
by law, or what borrower should
pay fer its use, The sage of Platte
vile does not take into the account
that when government impresses q
special privilege or capacity upon
the precious metal when coined, it
may and should go farther and con-
troll the use of the special power 50
that the owner of it shall not take
any advantage Of HE neighbar who
may be on the verge of ruin for the
want of it. The editor ought TO re-
member and take into the account
that the government not only in.
vests coin with this concentration
of financial omnipotenoe, but it also
limits the quantity of the precious
metals that shall be coined. This
creates scarcity and greatly adds to
the value of gold and silver when
coined. If the government will then
limit the quantity and thus enhance
the value of coin, it certainly ought
to limit and control its worth as be.
tween the lender and borrower, the
seller and the buyer. Suppose gov
ernment should thus limit the guam.
tity of wheat or corn or potatoes, or
the number of acres of land that
should be cultivated in either OF
these crops, it would then follow
that government should regulate
the price at which these articles
should be sold, and doubtless would
do so, il the limitation of the guam
tity should produce famine or want
or starvation. We may grant that
If there was no limitation whatev or
upon coinage, there would be little
or no difference between coin and
bullion, and that it would be as i'm
polite to limit the value of one as
the other.
But the Platteville editor should
consider that Congress has limited
the interest which National Banks
may exact. Would be demand the
repeal of all this Legislation, and
thus give to those banks the power
of contracting the currency on the
one hand and exactiug interest
without limit on the other
The idea of free coinage has often
been advanced in this paper. In fact
if gold and silver were not coined at
all, but if every depositer of bullion
was authorized to obtain legal ten
der certificate OF the amount 10 dol.
lars, there would be no difficulty in
making the precious metals availa.
bic for oirculstion-about one third
of these metals would be absorbed
in this way. The ordinary laws of
trade, necessity. convenience, gain
and loss would regulate the amount;
but we will never consent that the
hard money men and the bankers
shall enhance the value of the coined
metals by limiting their amount,
and then claim that government
should not limit their interest.
ln short when government shall
treat gold and silver precisely as it
does other commodities, invest them
with no more power than corn or
potatoes, nor in any manner tram,
mel their circulation and quantity;
in other words, reduce them to the
condition of bullion, we shall advo.
cate perfect free trade in the same.
To be consistent the Platteville
philosopher should oppose all coin
age, for it is the government itself
that prevents free trade in the pre-
eious metals IS it exists in other
commodities. Whenever govern
ment limits the quantity of valua-
bic commodity it is principle of
political economy that monopolies
or corners must follow.