The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1891-06-04


What is money?
Money is the credit of the community
authorized by law as legal tender for
all debts, public and private.
A moments reflection will convince
any fair-minded person that the credit
of the whole community is superior to
the credit Of any individual of the COM
munity.
Hence, any transactions involving the
giving of credit to one individual nv an
other individual is completed when the
credit of the nation is substituted for
the credit of the individual.
When transactions consisted in an ex-
change of commodity for commodity,
as they did in the days of barbarism,
the operation was barter and did not
require the use of money, for no credit
was given
As the community grew and the ne
cessity for communication, transporta-
ton and exchange appeared, the first
function of that authority which all
civilized communities are accustomed
to regard as necessary, was employed
to locate and build public highway.
Here is where barter must cease, for a
highway is not mcrchantablc, herce
coincidcnt with the function of locating
roads comes the function of issuing
money to cancel tho debt which the
whole community owes to the individu-
ais who build the road. Now. inasmuch
as the individuals who are benefited as
regards the value of location by the
high~ay must be taxed to pay for the
building of the road, all that is requisite
to insure the money thus issued a gem
eral circulation is the agreed or implied
power it has of canceling public debts
as well as private ones
Anything which fulfils the above con-
ditions rs money.
go to store to buy bread, | have
no commodity to barter for the bread.
but have the credit of the community,
hence the debt | nome ntarily incur by
purchasing the bread is Cancelled when
| tender payment in money. But
enough of our inherited barbarity still
clinCs to our habits of thought to foster
the idea that the circulating medium,
carrying the evidence of popular credit,
not only must be legal tender, but that
it must be a commodity as well. In
trinsic value is favorite expression
with those who do not know what
value is. Another notion is that the
control of the currency can best be I'M
dertalIen by banks Mr.. Thomas G..
Shcarman is reported in the Standard
to have said:
The credit of the government is one of the
poorest kinds in the worll that you can en-
force, and yet you hear on every side the
question il bankers credit il good why
should not that of the country with its un-
limited wealth be much better Does not tie
government, it il asked. own every thing?
No. No form of government in this country,
which ~h1u seek by direct means to make
the people pay even so much as one fifth of
their wealth to it, could stand.
Thi, sounds strange coming from the
author of the ''single-tax,' when it is
remcm bered that rent is estimated at
from one-half to One-third of the an
nual production of wealth
At the outbreak of the war, when the
flower of the land was drafted to pre-
serve the union, it was the bankers who
refused to permit their dollars to be
drafted as well, and, as a result, an en-
y
forced upon the people, whom the
bankers have compelled to pay far more
than one-ffth of their wealth. The
term dollar is enormously called a
measure of value; it is no more so than
a ward stick is a dctcrminer of how
much wool there is in a yard of flannel.
A dollar is a unit of national credit
and its purchasing power is regulated
by the ratio it bears to the entire num-
Der of units in circulation. by law a
gold dollar contains 23 % grains of pure
gold and 2. IS grains of copper, and
silver dollar 81 i grains of pure silver
and II = grains of copper, the ratio be-
ing 1:l6.
Since gold is freely coined at the mint
the market price of gold is 25.s grains
of gold o fine for one dollar; but since
silver is not freely coined the market
price of silver is about $50 grains in
stead of 412% o fine for one dollar.
This discrimination against silver is I'M
just and has the effect of altering the
commercial ratio between these two
metals to 1870 instead of the legal ratio
of 1:1G.
The free and unlimited coinage of
silver would be but tardy reparation for
the crime of silver decentralization in
1873, which contracted the currency to
such an extent that if farmer had
stored 500 bushels of wheat--wheat
was 50 bushel in 1S69-and banker
had buried $1,000 in 1869, to-day the
account would stand-5OO bushels of
wheat at 80 cents, $500. One thousand
dollars would purchase bushels of
wheat, 1866.
Had the debt been contracted to be
paid in wheat it would have taken, in
1866, 1,007, 900, 600 bushels:
We have paid on principal. l,78s, AGO, 900
As premium on bonds.............. 6l,77O,OOO
Total 1853 900
We yet owe. ............. 1855, 3s9, C34
Had the debt been contracted to be
paid in cotton, it would have taken, in
1867, 1902. 900, 900 pounds:
We h I'VE paid on the principal. 1871, fs3, 900
As interest q, 4G ,260 600
As premium on bonds. '''''' 5000, 900
Total % $4,000
We yet 49,, $4,000
This war debt must be paid; there
should be no temporizing about it; a
full legal tender treasury note is all
that people want as money, and is all
that the bankers should be permitted to