Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-06-18


the public debt amounts to 81, $50, 913,-
776 gold valuation. In 1865, after
the war had closed, the public debt,
in round numbers, was 81, 500, 00O,-
900, greenback or currency valuation.
1t consisted mostly of greenback
treasury notes, and currency bonds,
worth in gold an average of 63 cents
on the dollar, making its total gold
valuation but $1,000, 100000.
From 1878 until 1879, the Secre-
tary of the Treasury, and the contrac-
tion-resumption organs, to prove that
instead of there having been contrac-
ton of the currency, there had really
been an imitation, showed that the gold
value of the $750,O00,000 of 1868
was worth considerably more than the
gold value of the S900,000,000 of
1865.
Using the arguments of the bullion
lists and applying them to the apparent
contraction, or reduction Of the public
debt, to wit: that while the currency
volume was being nominaliy reduced,
it was actually being increased in
value and purchasing power. So, not
withstanding the public debt has been
nominally reduced, its burden and
purchasing power has been increased
over $200,000,000. Restore the
present gold value of our public debt
Of nearly $1,90O,00O,O00, back to its
currency value Of 1865, and it would
amodnt to S3, 5000 100000. In 1865
it was but 81, 8O0,OO0,OO0; actual
increase, $2OO,OOO,OO0.
But the foregoing figures do not
show one half the increase of the debt
burden.
A debt, like anything else, is worth
to the owner what he can get for it.
In the end the public debt must be
paid by labor, and labor products, and
its size and burden are not measured
so much by the number Of dollars it
calls for, as the amount of products,
and the number Of days toll it takes
to create the dollars.
Although reduced nominally from
50, 500, 100000 to $1,000, 100000,
let US see if the public debt sits any
lighter, or as light upon the shoulders
of the people as it did in 1865, before
they had squandered upon it $780,
O00,0 in principal and over $1,000,
100000 in gold interest. In 1865
wheat was worth 81. per buShel
and the average wages of labor was
$3.50 per day Now wheat is worth
less than $1.OO and labor down in
proportion.
In 1865, l, 100, 10000 bushels Of
wheat, or the same number of days
labor would have paid the entire public
debt, at the prices then ruling.
In 1885 it will take 1900, 100000
bushels of wheat, or the same number
of days labor to pay what is left Of the
public debt, after having paid on it in
principal and interest an amount OF
gold, equal to the par value of the en-
tire debt at the close of the war.
The burden Of the public debt,
measured by the value Of money then
and now, has increased 5000, 100000
measured by wheat it has increased by
| 100000, 900 bushels, or two years pro
auctions of all the States and terrific.
ries
Measured by labor it has increa sed
| by the daily labor of 2, 800, 600 men
constantly employed for four years.
While the public eye has been
blinded and deceived by the nominal
reduction Of the debt, it has been
vastly increased, actually, by the
appreciation of its purchasing power.
Thus our finance priests boast of their
charity in putting into the contribution
box penny with one hand, while they
extract shilling with the other
These facts are not new. They
have been repeated hundreds of times,
still the people seem to be deaf,
dumb, and blind to everything politi-
cal, or economic, except serviIe allie
glance to party, and obedience to the
crack OF Gne masters whip.
MONEY NOT A MEASURE OF VALUE.
Ed. ERPREss:-You say "Money is
not measure Of value, "then what did
Aristotle mean when in his '.Econo-
mic' he said Money is a measure OF
value, a medium of exchange, an in
vention of man, a creature of law. .
w. j. DAVIS.
Colorado Springs, Colo.
probably meant what he said and
taking the four propositions contained
in the quotation, he was three-fourths
correct, larger per cent. than is con-
tanned in the philosophy of most men
Of his time.
Stephen Colwell, in ''Ways and
Means of Payment" a more modern
and reliable authority, says: money
is in no proper sense a measure Of value,
neither is it sign or representative OF
value.