Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1891-07-30
Monev.

AOn0Y.
What is money? Dollars of gold
and silver7 Not necessarily. Dollars
of both gold and silver may be used
as money, and their use as such is
wise, but 1t by no means follows that
the term money" means metal dol
lars and nothing else. Money is a
medium of exchange. The material
of which that medium IS made may be
gold, or 1t may be silver, or it may be
paper Its function is not determin-
ed-except by arbitrary and senseless
custom-by its intrusive value, but
by the purpose its creation was de-
signed to subserve.
That a gold dollar is preferable for
obvious reasons, to a silver dollar, and
that silver dollar is preferable to a
paper dollar, for reasons equally
obvious, no one Will dispute, but that
the metal dollar is any more money
than the paper dollar, no one but a
gold bug' Will assume The
honesty" of tlec dollar, it's money
and commercial value, are not deter
mined by the material of which it Is
made, as we have minated, but
solely by the purpose for which it
was created.
Whether the money of a country
shall be gold or silver or paper, or
consist of parts OF each depends en-
tirely upon circumstances.
In our country the function and
power to make money rests with con-
gress; the constitution confers upon
thrt body this sole prerogative. And
this power is specified in the words
$40 coin money and regulate the
value thereof" There are those who
contend that ito coin money" of
necessity means to make dollars out
of metal. This is an unwarranted
assumption-as arrant piece of
humbug as was ever promulgated.
To coin simply to stamp-to stamp
with any device, seal and inscription
which the government may adopt.
The material to be coined-stamped
is left entirely to the discretion of con-
! gress. Congress has coined gold, sill
yer and paper and declared each "a
legal tender in the payment of debts"
made each money. And when con-
gress stamps a piece of paper and
sends 1t forth as money it is as valid
currency for monetary purposes as Il
it were made of "a carat gold.
What shall be the money of the
country and what shall be its value
is a matter which congress alone has
the power to decide and to decide
wholly irrespective of the value of the
material used. And the supeme
court has decided that to thus coin is
''to form, fashion. fabricate, or convert
into money any thing of which it may
be made" And paper money may be
coined just as well as gold and silver
money, Money, then, is the creature
of congress and not of mines and mints
alone; and when a certain piece of
gold, silver or paper bears the nation
al coin stamp it is ''nsoney"-A legal
tender for the payment of debts.
Congress likewise has the power
and has exercised it to declare that
paper money and metal money shall
be of equal and uniform value in the
payment of debts. Congress of course
has no right to say how much pa
per money or how mach metal money
shall be paid for horse or cow or q
bushel of wheat. That is a matter
over which it has no Jurisdiction. It
simply has the power to make mon
ey Of any material it chooses and Tx
the value thereof.
There may be periods in the his
tory of nation when it is wise, for
prudential reasons, to adhere closely
coin standard-a double standard.
never a single standard. There mi p
be other periods when no one stano-
ard should be exclusively adopted.
and when the money of the country
should be made in required amounts
! e hnE sal Il
able. Circumstances carefully scrut-
inized, weighed and considered by
wise craftsmanship should determine
this, and determine it irrespective of
prejudice for or against any one
material, and with a sole desire to
conserve and promote the highest
economic welfare, not of the few but
OF the many-of the masses of the
common people.
The Champion believes that the
exigency which confronts us Mt the
present clearly warrants congress in
''coining" more legal tender paper
money. The emergency is of such a
character as to justify congress in fab
ricating enough legal tender paper
money to enable the country to tran
sact its present and prospective vol
ume of business.
We do not depreciate the value of
gold or silver, nor do we claim that
paper money is as desirable as metal
money, but we do insist that, since
there is certainly not gold enough to
supply the. demand, give US either
more silver dollars or more paper dol
lars.
Congress has the power to thus
come to the rescue of the people, and
is bound by every consideration Of
good, sensible government to do SO
at the earliest practicable moment.
To assume that to do this would be TO
imperil the stability of our finances is
the sheerest lunacy. The exIgency is
upon us, and there is but one way out,
and that is for congress to exercise its
money creating function. This done
discreetly no one would complain; and
instead of financial disaster, prosper
ity, upon magnificent scale, would
surely follow.-ChdnsptOn.