The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1891-03-26
A MEASURE OF VALUES.
Money Possesses Legal Attributes Which
Are Not Dependent Upon Its Commodity

In recent number of Living Issues 1
i find the following article:
! ''It is of utmost Importance in the
discussion of the currency question that
every one should clearly discern and
discriminate between the two quite dis
tinct functions of money, the one that
of a measure of values, the other that
of medium of exchange. Only that
| which contains value can measure val
| ues, as only that which has weight
can measure weight, and only that
which has length can measure length.
| So, then, the unit which measures
values must actually contain the value
for which it stands. Hence piece of
| pictured paper can never be a measure
of values. But anything agreed upon
can be ticket of exchange, and the
| best ticket is that agreed upon by the
nation through being ordained by con-
gress as a legal tender for debt-the
greenback. A ticket of exchange is
| only a ticket and nothing more. It
represents value but contains none. A
silver dollar is dollar, and paper
| dollar only represents dollar, but is
not one. 1t is ticket to effect ex-
changes with, but not measure to size
up values by. Now this distinction is
fundamental to any clear and useful
discussion of the currency question.
When it is once thoroughly seen, alike
by bnllionist and greenbacker, the time
will be near for the settle ment of the
financial problem without either side
trampling the other under foot. Is a
dollar a legal dollar or a natural dol
lar? 4121a grains of silver was $1.04 in
1873, and now about S3 cents. Yet, as
soon as it is coined, it is worth $1.00, etc. ):
etc, etc.
Now. Mr.. Editor, in the name of a
numerous and rapidly increasing body
of advanced thinkers, wish most Wig
orously to protest against the ideas and
conclusions contained in the above
clipping. l protest in the name of
those who are convinced that the basis
| of value or comparison of what we call
money is quantative rather than in
| trinsic; ideal rather than real, fluctuat-
ing instead of steady and permanent;
those who claim that the value of each
unit of what we call money, is deter
mined by the total volume of such
money as inflated or contracted.
AS Peter Cooper greenbacker, pro-
test against above conclusions, in the
name of suffering and outraged human
ity, and of the masses of the common
people, who are even now being ground
under the heel of oppression, and are
groaning beneath the burden of usuri-
Gus Indebtedness fastened upon them
through the potent and far-reaching in
| fiuences of those 'twin relics of barbar-
ism,'' intrinsic value and specie basis,
supplemented in these latter days by
the elimination of the better half of such
basis through the medium of silver de-
| monetization. I also protest against
this "actual money" theory as advanced
in above article, because believe it to
| be neither true in fact or logical in ar
gumentive basis.
In the first place, the theory of money
is very rarely stated in fairness or can
| dor, nor are the true functions and at
tributes of money generally understood.
| 1t is true that in limited sense of the
term money is a measure of value; but
| it is also true that value is compara-
tive term, denoting the estimation in
| which any certain article or commodity
is held, as compared with any or all
other commodities, of which money is
not one, money being creation of law,
clothed with powers, functions and
attributes entirely and altogether legal
/ in their source and nature. What, /
ask, does an individual expect and de-
sire in return for his labor or the
product of such labor? Money? Nay,
verify, he or she desires the product of
some other persons labor. In COM
parison with what then does money
| measure the value of commodities?
| With itself, money? No indeed! Money
measures the value of commodities in
comparison with other commodities.
What, then, is the standard of compari-
son? Money? Far from it. Primarily,
the standard of comparison may be
| said to be labor. More elaborately
defined it is the desire of the
| individual to possess, gauged by the
| amount of labor he or she is willing
to exchange for the article desired.
Money is the nations set of books
kept by the nation as a community
or firm, in which an account is kept
with the individual members of such
firm. All money not acquired by hon
est labor is false entry in the books,
and constitutes forged order for labor
in return for labor never performed
| If the theory you advance is the cor
rect one, then the money of this nation
is comparatively worthless, there being
| less than one billion dollars in both
| gold and silver, both in the treasury
and in the hands of the people, while
the capital, surplus, undivided profits
and deposits of the various banks and
loan and trust companies amount to
more than five billions of dollars. So
| that measured by the intrinsic value
theory, these suppositious dollars are,
| ia reality, coins of smaller denomina-
ton than twenty-cent piece. No one
| will think of denying the proposition
that the above items are cash items.
and that the banks should be able to
show up that amount of money at mo.
ment's warning.
| / am aware, of course, that shall he
told that there are 'loans and discounts
to balance and offset these deposits,
and that if the money could not be pro-
| duced at moments warning the prop
erty by which these loans are secured
would be forthcoming. just so. If then
the property of the people, and not gold
and silver, is the real basis of an imag-
mary money which exists only upon the
books of banks, which fictitious system
is costing the people usurious interest,
why not issue direct from the people to
the individual real paper money secured
or based upon the same property upon
the security of which the banks now