Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1890-08-01

istering to the comfort and happiness
of Others, and getting in return some
thing of no earthly use to us. This
GOLD would not satisfy our hunger,
nor quench our thirst, nor procure US
clothing to keep us warm, nor afford
us shelter from the elements, nor pro-
tect us from our enemies; for, to the
extent that it would enable us to pur-
chase immunity from foreign aggres-
sion, to the same degree would the
possession of it, expose us to the
danger of attack. This superabun-
dance of gold could satisfy no essen
tial want, could serve no useful pur-
pose, could crafty no desire. but sor-
did avarice, or the barbarous love of
adornment; and if the process was
continued long enough, and the
worlds supply of gold held out, all
our material resources, and the fertil-
ity of our soils would be exchanged
for gold. This assumed idiotic policy
would have made us the slaves of all
the peoples of the earth, including the
reprehensible paupers, and while other
nations had all the commodities, and
were prosperous and contented, we in
the midst of all our gold, must either
emigrate, or descend to canabalism, or
perish from starvation.
This illustration clearly reveals to
us the fact, that the value of gold and
silver, when used as money, is not IN
TRINsiC but EXTRINsIC; that it is not
to be desired as an end, in itself; but
only as a means to facilitate the at
tainment of an end. The real end
being the satisfaction of human wants,
by the multiplication Of such OBJ
jects of real wealth, as are adapted
to this end. Money helps to achieve
this purpose, by saving time and labor
in making exchanges.
Money, by effecting a saving of
labor, increases production, and is
wealth, in the sense that a farmers
plough is wealth; because it is an
agent that facilitates the production
Of things that have a direct relation
to human wants. The capitalist can
no more live on his money than the
farmer can live on his plow. In each
case the agent is only valuable as
being the means Of procuring other
things. The value of money depends
on the utility of exchange of products
Deprive gold and silver of this ex-
change function, and the only value
left is that derived from their use in
the arts and sciences. 1t is extremely
to possess clear ideas of
the nature and uses of money. Ig-
nCrance of this important subject lies
at the foundation Of all the wild and
visionary schemes proposed for curing
poverty, or increasing prosperity by
the volume of money in
Such, for instance, as
the proposal that the government loan
money to the farmers at low rate
Of interest; or the kindred proposition
to emit an unlimited amount of legal
tender paper currency; or the recent
luckily defeated) to coin un-
limited quantities of silver, in the
ratio of Is TO l, and make it legal
tender Clear views of the true nature
and uses of money, will at once sweep
the mind clear of all such absurd
1t will at once be seen, that
the mpracticability OF such schemes
is identical with that of the attempt
to create something out of nothing;
and the only possible result is to rob
one class to benefit another. and to in
crease general poverty by decreasing