The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1889-05-30
Money not Wealth.

III III " w. $500
Money not Wealth.
Money is a great civilizer. and there.
fore should never be controlled by q
corporation, but left in the hands Of
those for whom it was invented &c
benefit. Money is an invention toef-
feet the exchange Of goods without
barter: legal representative OF all
goods or things within the borders Of
the government which issued It; and
gave it such power. 1t il not q real
thing, but the representative Of the
real thing, real wealth cannot be ac'
quired by it until parted with. The
fact Of our having ten thousand mill
ion OF dollars in circulation does not
make us one cent richer, but only
gives us a medium through which we
can exchange our things with each
other without being obliged to carry
around our goods and barter them
out to A b and G for things we do
want. But with circulating
medium we sell our goods in the mar
kets and take in exchange the mon
ey. which il more conveniant to car
~ and which the laws OF the land
proclaiIns shall be taken by all its in
habitants, for the same value, one
with the other, without discrimina-
ton. Therefore he who sells his
goods for money, runs no risk for the
law says, and it must be obeyed, that
he who takes a dollar in exchange
for goods shalt have the right 10 ten
der the dollar to others in exchange
for their goods and they must accept
It. II it were not SO the people could
refuse to take individually that
which they collectively agreed to do
and the legal tender quality would be
OF no earthly use. But when all are
bound by law to accept it as a dollar
ETC., they all are willing to accept it
q such, because each can part with
It for the same as he accepted It, and
It cannot therefore depreciate.
AS an illustration to show that
money has no value in itself. only to
represent value. let us suppose u
community of one thousand inhabi-
tants to live on an island by them
selves, they have never used money,
but have always done their trading
and made their exchanges by barter
ing goods of one kind for goods of
another, bnt hearing that in other
communities they have money with
which they make their exchanges,
and does away with the carrying
around af such quantities OF cumber-
some goods, they form themselves
into . government and agree to issue
currency which all shall take in ex-
change for goods. They issue $50,
600 in currency for the peoples use,
which they put in circulation by
making public improvements and
receive it back through taxes. Is
this community any richer than they
were before they had currency,
They have no more wealth than be-
fore but they have an instrument to
exchange it with and he who sells
his wealth and takes his money, has
no wealth only the representative OF
it; the thing used in lieu Of wealth;
and to get the wealth. he must part
with the money again.
Is gold and silver as money, any
more valuable than paper as money.
Suppose community using an exclu-
sive paper money for many years, and
then, some one should come along to
them and say you have no real money;
II you want real money you must get
gold and silver, and persuade them
to make the change, SO they fund
their paper money they have used
90 long which has done such good
service, into bonds which they sell to
these men who have gold and take
their gold money in return and put
it in circulation in place Of the paper;
ON this they agree to pay five per
cent interest for twenty years, Now
Is this community any richer for this
transaction. This gold can do no
more than the paper did: all it can do
il to make their exchange and paper
do as much, But how do they stand
1t the end Of twenty years! They have
paid out all their money for interest
and still owe the principal, and they
have no money to pay with, SO must
borrow again, which makes the debt
twice as large, or else they must, to
save themselves, go back to their
first principle and use paper money,
4 nd let the sharpers keep their gold
in order to save themselves from being
deyoured, heels and horns by real
1900, National AACnonfn lowis