The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-11-29
THE FOOL AND HIS MONEY.

that proposition.
It dares not quote, however, enough from
Us to show to its readers the argu
ment 1t endeavors to confute and the facts
it tries to dodge Nevertheless, it finds in
one short paragraph of minor Importance,
enough to make the display of itself which
we note below.
We challenged the organ to reply to this
quotation on the value of money from JOHN
STUART MILL: 1.-The idea of measure of
value must not be COMPOUNDED with the
idea of regulator or determining principle
of value. 1t does not mean that this regu
lates the value of anything or has any effect
in determining what that value shall be
It only ascertains what the value of other
things is, or shows how much their value
has varied
Here is the reply it makes:
Our perverse contemporary continues to 1oun-
der around and to discuss the money question
as though it understood it, and as though it had |
not just loaded up with few quotations from
JOHN STUART MILL and other political econ
omists etc.
The organ had stated that money fixes |
the value of wealth; MILL had stated that
it does not; we asked the organ to explain
wherein the great logician was wrong; and
its reply is that THE HERALD has just
loaded up, etc. We pass.
The organ stated that If farmer had
lost half his bushel baskets, much of his
wheat might spoil before he could measure
it; also that since las it foolishly claimed)
the money of this country had been reduced
nearly half by the demonstration of silver
there was great danger of our losing some
of our wealth because we could not measure
it, having only half enough money to do So
We replied that the wealth could be
measured all right, because it is measured
in terms of gold and silver-in comparison
with gold and silver-and not in actual gold
and silver in bushel basket fashion after
the manner of measuring wheat.
Notice again how the whipped creature
tries to crawl away from this corner:
1t is true that man can say that his prop
erty is worth so many sheep and cattle, but
that is merely barter. Or a man can say that
his property is worth as many dollars but to
prove 1t he would have TO get the dollars.
BY which it means thai we cannot sell
anything to-day like we could before silver
was demonetized, because (as it says our
money was reduced nearly fifty per cent.
in amount by that occurrence. If we had
any idea that single one among our read
ers were so stupid as to believe 1t has not
been as easy to exchange goods, to buy and
sell, during the past fourteen years as it
was before that time, we should reply to
that quotation at some length. For the
organ declares the demonstration of silver
to have reduced our money, and adds that
when the money is reduced the country is
poor-that is, no one can actually sell for
dollars, but can only say his property is
worth so many dollars. Thus it says again:
When the representative, the measure Of
values in a country, is plenty the products Of
those countries are high in value
If the last word were price instead of
value, the sentence would be correct: as it
stands it means the more money country
puts into circulation, the greater its wealth
becomes. And this in the face of our show.
ing that the money circulating in France
Isl, $4,000 OO) is greater in amount than
the money circulating in the United States
Isl, 529, DOC, 00G}. What does the organ mean
except that in France people are therefore
OStOOi O1l Ohoh IL bulS
We remarked that the money circulating
in Great Britain (S90l, 600, 10000 is less than
that of France or of this country BY the
organs own showing, then, Great Britain
must be poorer than either of these coun-
tries; but behold the outcomel The organ
tries to crawl away again in this miserable
subtertuge:
NJ EuOlapd.c ic
she has at her command more money than any
two or three nations of this earth
But how so! The organ said nations are
rich in proportion to the amount of money
they use; we quoted the amount of money
in use in France, the United States, and
England, that of England being the least Of
the three; and on the top of this the organ
informs US England is richer than the other
two!
Yet this last quotation given above states
q fact. England has at her command more
money than any other nation. But wha,
gives nation command of money! He,
goods. England produces wealth itself
and cares little for the measure of it. There
is no difficulty about measuring
the wealth, the thing is to pro
duce it. The Tribute imagines tina,
by refusing to sell England any of oul
gold, we could rob her of her almost fab
ulous wealth-could prevent her from hav-
ing anything by which to measure hel
wealth, which must then spoil for want OF
measurement,
A nation whose credit is good can use
paper money just as well as gold. Our OWE
country used paper money almost exclu
sively from 1863 to 1879, yet no one noticed
any particular difference
Gold and silver are two leading products
Of this country, which our mine owners
have for SALE After they have sold all the
home market will consume at the world.
price, they must sell the remainder abroad
To prevent them from doing SO, is simply
to spite ourselves. Our own market get.
overstocked and gold falls. II coined init
money, goods rise, and the people are mo-
berefted, while the mine owners are in
iured.