The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-05-23
A FALSE PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY
Editor of the Wichita Eagle.

|
The Kansas Farmer of April 22nd
contains an editorial under the heading
1.-The Philosophy Of Money" which ad
vocates false and dangerous doctrines il
regard to money. In attempting to ex
plain the philosophy and underlying
principles of money" the writer clearly
shows that he does not know what money
is. He belongs to that class of reformerE
that during the Greenback era were
called ''fiat money lunatics." He is now
attempting to inoculate the Farmers
Alliance with that fiat money craze
and is using his paper to accomplish his
insane purpose. While pretending to
| be the friend and benefactor of the farm
ers of Kansas he is doing more to defeat
the future prosperity of the farmers and
| bring disaster and financial ruin upon
| the whole country than ali the railroads,
banks, manufacturing and other corpora
tons combined. Its doctrines
are regulating in character and directly
calculated 20 injure the reputation, credit
and business prosperity of of Kansas.
The following statements copied from
! the article referred to will give an idea
| of its character.
l. Let us say first, that the substance
out of which money is made has nothing
whatever to do with the theory Or phil
losophy of money"
That may be true so far as it applies
to the kind of money the editor of the
Kansas Farmer would have issued, for
it would be good for nothing and would
soon be repudiated if it was issued.
q ''Iron, tin, leather, wood, shells, cloth.
fish, paper, cattle, and many other articles
| have been used as money"
Well, nearly all these materials have
some value to them, while the Kansas
Farmer wants money with no value to il
whatever.
3 This article, which we call money,
serves the purpose of etfecting exchanges,
| and it matters not what its intrinsic value
is if the law says it is lawful money and
makes it SO. that is enough"
4. 1.-The function of money is not to de-
liver property, but it is to effect an ex-
| change Of either property or values. That
is to say, we sell an article for money, or,
| if you choose, we buy money with an arti-
Gle of property; we use the money in pay
ing a debt, we use it in purchasing prop
erty, we use it in canceling an obligation
that we may have out. The function OF
money is to serve a convenience
| in these respects, and piece
of paper does it just as we'll as
piece of silver or a piece of gold. as every
one ascertains for himself when he makes
use Of money. Twenty nickels will buy
as much of the necessaries or luxuries Of
| life, as silver dollar or a gold dollar
| Take dollar in paper and dollar in sill
yer and dollar in gold to any merchant
and you will obtain for one just as muct
produce as for the other, and it is for these
reasons that it don't matter what we USE
so that the people agree to accept it, anC
they do that in the law which they adopt.
The editor of the Farmer seems to be
entirely ignorant of the fact that nicke
and copper and subsidiary or a frac
tional coin are a legal-tender only
| to the extent of s., and IL
sums of s. they are all redeema
|
silver coin and that the paper money j:
all redeamable in sums of $50 in gold OF
| silver coin? Why then would not the
twenty nickels or the paper buy just a;
much of the merchants goods as the
gold or silver coin?
.. Those persons who insist upon &
! gold standard or silver standard, or upor
a bimetalic or upon any sort of a standard
ore persons who are interested in making
money more valuable than property, OF
| else they are persons who have never given
! the subject any serious consideration. Yet
we say that nickel, and copper and paper
are all as good as gold or silver when the
people say So" What gives value-mon
ey value to coin, is law, nothing else"
Now the above six statements
embody the money theories Of
Senator PETER, jeremiah Simpson and
the Alliance members of congress, anG
through the columns of the Kansa:
Farmer, and other Alliance papers. they
are examining them into the heads o.
the farmers and working men Of the
country and attempt to incorporate
them into the platform of a third party
organization. Yet every one of these
statements are impregnated with false
hood. \ superstructure built upon /;
false foundation is sure to tumble dowI
sooner or later. 1t is evident to every
intelligent mind that the promulgator
of these fiat money theories do not know
what money is. If they have ever giver
the subject of money amy serious con
sideration," they are deficient in ability
to understand it.
The true definition of money is:
"a legal tender for debt"
These fiat money deluders seem I,
think that because the law specific
what the legal tender for debt shall be
that it makes no difference to the peopl
what the material is made of that thel
are compelled to receive III payment o
debts; that it may be made of any mate
rial that has no value TO it that would b.
in any sense considered an equivalen
for the debt it pays. In other word
they are attempting to have adopted
kind of money that would cheat til
creditors out of every dollar o
value that is their due. The.
want the law SO arranget
that if any person sells horse or an,
other property of value he will be com
PEELED to take his pay in something tina
. has no value whatever
: Could an honest and intelligent people b
guilty OF perpetrating such system Q
: fraud as that: If such were possible t
/ begin with, it would only be short tim
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