The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-11-27
THE FOOL AND HIS MONEY.

The Tribune weakly attempts to reply to
our article which showed that gold and
silver are the miners product of labor
which he has for sale; that gold will buy
more in other countries than it will here
and that to contine it to the home market
is to reduce the pay of the producers OF
Precious metals; that if the money Of this
country is increased in amount and kept at
home, the purchasing power of each dollar
falls in the same ratio. The organ 9ares
not talk to these propositions, dares not
quote enough from our article TO give the
g.sanin.,, dares not deny the truth of the
words OF Mill and WALKER, dares not
attempt to prove its assertion that gold and
silver are not sold by weight, dares not
state in figures the commerce Of England
in support of its assertion that England
trades in order to get money and not goods;
in fact, dares not do anything except talk
away from the whole question.
Notice how the organ proves that bushel
baskets, being the measure OF wheat, are
more valuable than the wheat itself; and
that the danger to be guarded against by
the farmer is disastrous scarcity, not OF
wheat but of bushel baskets! Here is the
demonstration that money, being the meas
ure of wealth, is more valuable than
wealth: that yard sticks, being the measure
for cloth, are more valuable than the cloth
ITSELF that bushel baskets are more valua-
bic than wheat, ETC.:
Suppose a farmer could not sell his wheat ex-
cept it was measured in certain basket; sup
~ ~, eo1l bod. ha ,-adi
certain baskets: and that there were but a
limited number of them in existence and that
only few more could be made: would not the
baskets then be very valuable: Then suppose
half these baskets were made out OF willow bark
and half out of straw, and suddenly half dozen
nations should decree that the straw baskets
should all be thrown away and all the measures
should be taken in willow bark baskets, would
it not make a great deal OF confusion, and
wouldn't it be possible for some of the wheat to
spoil before it could be measured in the other
baskets?
Suppose in addition to all this, that
the moon were made Of green cheese; thai
the Tribune were not idiotic; that north
were south. or any other senseless suppo
sition, and what thenl Wealth is just as
easily measured without the presence OF
money as with it. Nor does measuring
either wealth or wheat prevent it from
spelling. A man can measure all his wealth
without even single dollar in his pocket
with which to measure 1t. A man can say
his property is worth so many sheep anc
cattle, as the Romans did, or so many dol
lars, as we say, without being compelled t
go out and hire the sheep and cattle or OBJ
tom ba nua IF tho roopay in Ordor to N, oil
this measurement. We measure wealth il
terms of gold and silver, not in actual golc
and silver in bushel basket fashion; and i
were the act of a Hottentot either to re
quire as many baskets as there wer
bushels, or as many coins as there wer
values, in order either to measure hi
wheat OF handle his wealth.
From the foregoing suppositions tn
organ endeavors to prove that wealth ca
be measured only in terms of gold and si
yer, which, if it were true, would not shoy
that the gold and silver must actually b
present in order that wealth be measure
bg comparison tcGh them-precisely the wa
In which wealth is measured. We say tn
wealth of this country is about sixty bill
lions of dollars; but does that mean Their
are sixty billions in gold and silver in thi
country! Far from it. The amount o
gold and silver in any country is but mer
atom in comparison with the wealth of tina
country. Thus the total money of tn
United States, as given by GREGORY,
sl,529, 000 900, or about e-fortieth of tn
total wealth, and of this money only POI
ton is gold and silver, the rest being ns
tional bank notes, legal tenders, etc. Th
money of France is greater in amour
being 81 ,9S9, 000, 900, which proves France
richer country than the United States, az
cording to the wild reasoning of our prote
zionist neighbor. The money of Gres
Britain is less than that of this countr,
yet England's wealth is much greater tina
the wealth of France. AS SO we might 8
through the whole list of countries, shoy
ing in each case that there is no particuls
relation between the amount of money in
country and its total wealth.
Money is like measuring rod. 1t is USE
TO measure the wealth of any country, b,
not to control it. 1.-The idea of measure /
value" says JOHN STUART MILL, ssmu
not be confounded with the idea of regul
tor or determining principle of value.
does not mean that this regulates the val,
of anything or has any effect in determil
ing what that value shall be. 1t only asce
tains what the value Of other things is.
shows how much their value has varied
The use of gold and silver is to buy Or
ducts, such as clothing. furniture. M
chinery, and provisions. The value of Il
precious metals depends on their relati,
abundance or scarcity, and was once mu,
greater than it is to-day; especially is th
true of silver, the value of which declin
as its amount increases. The value of 20
and silver is measured by the amount
these goods they will exchange for, and u
less the producer can exchange his gold a.
silver for goods, his product will be of |
tie value to HIM.
Gold and silver are universal standar
of value, but the standard by viii
their value is measured is diff,
emit in each country. The standa
is the amount or goods or {
amount of labor they will purchase. Th
will purchase more goods abroad than III
will here; but if they are sent abroad
purchase goods, the government sell
enough of the goods at the custom house
reduce the amount of the goods to that viii
the gold or silver would purchase he
OF course, this reduces the miners