Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1891-04-15
TIE Law OF MONEY


knowledge on the subject of money,
but there is vast lack of understand.
ing about money in the minds of men.
We gain knowledge of money by means
of study, but thorough understanding
of the subject of money comes only af-
ter the acquired knowledge has been
worked over in our minds-digested, as
it were-and made part of ourselves
There is law of money and there are
laws concerning money. The first is
the natural law over which men have
no control; the latter are the legislative
enactments which are enti' ely the work
OF man. / fear that we often confound
these two very different kinds of law to
our own damage.
The natural law of money has to do
with every form and kind of money.
1t affects nothing else in the universe.
1t has no influence upon the things of
which money may be made; but money
once made and put in use, and the sub
stance which but moment since was
free is now absolutely under the do
m1nlon of the law of money. Men
may build a ship of whatever material
suits them best, and all the material
that is put into her is subject to the
makers absolute control so long as she
is building; but once finished and start
ed upon her voyage, she becomes sub
ject to the natural laws of the sea-to
the power of the winds and the
waves. So it is with the thing called
money. Men may fashion it as they
will, attach to it all sorts of cunning
devices, but the instant it is launched
upon the sea of trade the hand of the
maker is powerless of further control,
because it has become subject to the
natural law of money. 1t is as when
man fires bullet into the air; so long
as 1t Is in the gun he has perfect control
of 1T; he may determine the direction
that it shall take for one brief moment
after it leaves the gun, but in the next
it is seized by the relentless grasp of
gravity, from which there is no escape.
Money is unique; nothing else is like it;
no other agent works in similar man
ner, and all attempts to illustrate it's
action are, therefore, faulty.
As stated by the highest authority,
and by all authorities, the natural and,
therefore, universal law of money is,
in substance, that the value of money is
determined by it's quantity-the value
of each dollar depending upon the total
number of dollars relative to the de-
mand for theiruse. We are all familiar
with the operation which is known as
watering stock" When a company
increases the number of its shares of
stock without any corresponding in
crease in the worth of that which the
stock represents, the stack is said to be
watered. There are more shares, but
all the shares are worth no more than
were all the shares before the opera
ton. That is, each share is really worth
something less than before. Our
currency-all of our money-is nearly
equivalent to shares of stock in the
great business of the United States As
fast as new wealth is created should
new shares be issued to represent that
wealth, or else those who create the
wealth get nothing for their labor. To
think that new shares of stock can be
created without limit while the indi-
vidual shares retain anything like the
original value, is to think not wisely
nor too well, but is kind of thinking
that man becomes ashamed of by and
by. On the other hand, those who pro-
test against any additional issue of
shares of stock to represent actual
work or worth put into the concern
that is, any increase in the volume of
money-defend a form of robbery that
is perfectly real to those who suffer by
it, and one that has been going on long
enough already
The United States is a working con-
cern-that is, a good many of us work,
and every year our labor increases the
real capital of the nation But all this
wealth is owned and controlled by the
shareholders-the money-holders. The
demand of labor is that every wear
there shall be issued to the workers adj
ditional shares of stock-that is, more
money-equal in face value to the in
crease of wealth. This demand is lust
1t springs out of the Intelligence of the
common people. 1t is backed by votes
and it cannot be resisted. Not one in a
thousand can tell exactly why his de-
mand is just, but they all feel it to be
so, and man who feels wrong is a
much more dangerous animal than one
who is merely intellectually convinced
of the fact.
If such, then, be the law of money
and no sane man can deny the fact
what follows? 1t certainly does follow
that the due regulation of the quantity
of money in circulation is the most inn
portant function of government. The
people stand related to the money sup
ply just as does a hungry laborer to the
food supply-they suffer when there is
not enough. it is just as proper to
leave to chance the furnishing of one
supply as the other. The government
assumes absolute control of the money
supply, and exercises its power only
to prevent any needed increase.
1t cannot escape responsibility
in money matters, and, unfortunately,
from the i'll effects of governmental in
difference or folly there is no possible
escape for the people. It matters little to
the people what the kind of money may
be, but is of infinite moment to them
that the quantity be SO regulated as to
meet the requirements of Justice. This
just regulation is simply to provide that
the quantity available for use shall
bear an unvarying relation to the legit-
innate demand for its use. This is not
a complex problem, but one of extreme
simplicity.
There Is always beforeus an unfail-
ing and infallible indication of the
quantity of money in circulation relative
to its use, and this is found in the price
of goods 1t requires no effort of gen.
Jus to discover it. The man who is Just
able to spell out the words in the news
paper may obtain the facts just as well
as can the president himself. When
the whole line of staple goods advances
in price, then money is becoming more
plentiful When the same goods fall in
price money is becoming scarcer 1t
should be the aim of government to
provide just enough money to keep
prices stationary. By so much as it
comes short of this has it neglected its