Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1891-02-04
WHAT IS MONEY!

6Hmply Certlncate Ihat the Holder Has
Performed Services For Which the Com
munity Owes Him a Like Amount of Ser
vice in Return.
The old time economists define money
as a standard of value. They insist
that this standard should be gold or
gold and silver. That the commercial
and the legal value of these commodi-
ties should be the same. This is what
we seek to secure in the case of gold by
giving it free coinage. Under this law
every 25.S grains of gold is made legal
tender for one dollar by passing it
through the mint. This fixes the price
of gold by providing an unfailing
market for it at a fixed valuation. The
same law would produce the same re-
suit in regard to silver or any other
commodity. We can see no good reason
why bushel of wheat should not
measure the value of gold and silver as
well as these metals should measure
the value of the wheat The fact is
that any kind of legislation that dis
eliminates in favor of any one commod-
ity, is unjust to every other commod-
ity, and this is precisely what we do
in our coinage laws. The producers of
every article of necessity, comfort and
luxury are compelled to pay tribute to
the producer of gold. They are
compelled to pay one dollar out of
the products of their labor for every
dollar in gold before they can use that
dollar as medium of exchange. This
is gross injustice. Money in its true
signification is not a standard of value,
but the medium by which values are ex-
changed. The man who works one
day for one dollar does not receive
value for his labor until he expends the
dollar. When he receives his dollar
he only has legally authorized certifi-
cate that he has rendered some service
to society which is estimated to be worth
one dollar in the products of some
other PERSONS labor. He cannot
feed his family on the dollar, but he
can take it to the grocery and exchange
it for food. The grocery man takes it
because he can in turn use it to pur-
chase more goods to keep up his stock.
In the course of exchange every one
who uses the dollar tries to retain
enough of the values exchanged by it to
pay for the service rendered in making
the transaction. 1t will thus be seen
that the Office performed by money as
such is purely that of medium of ex-
change. The real values exchanged are
all created by labor. The medium by
which the exchange is effected is Gre
ated by law or established by custom.
This being true 1t would seem that the
cheaper the material of which the me-
dunn was made, the better it would be
for all who were compelled to use it.
Under the law making the gold dollar
the unit of value, every such dollar
costs dollar before it can be used as
money, while a paper dollar will per-
form precisely the same service.
In past ages, various kinds of mate:
rial have been used for money. At an
early day coon skins were legal tender
in Illinois. In colonial times, Virginia
made tobacco legal tender, Massa-
chusetts used wampum. Most of the
colonies used paper legal tender. Frank
lin defended this system at the court of
St. James when Parliament was under
taking to legislate it out of existence.
Jefferson believed ''that the best
money was paper currency bottomed
on taxes and made legal tender"
Lycurgus, the Spartan law-giver. made
money of iron, but first DESTROYED its
intrinsic value. Britain at an early day
used slaves and cattle Giving money!
and land and metals dead money!
Wood, leather, tin, and numerous other
materials have all been used as money.
When money circulates freely among
the people it is blessing, but when it
is cornered by the few it is a curse.
Hence it is the aim of money monopo-
lists to get control of the circulation. SO
that they may initiate or contract the
currency to suit their own selfish
purpose. This power to control the
distribution of money is by far the
most oppressive feature of our pres
ent economic system. 1t is not so
much question of the aggregate VOL
ume of money permitted by law as it is
question of distribution. The supply
should always be equal to the demand.
and it should reach the people direct
from the Government without the inter
yention OF banks. This is neither con-
traction or imitation, but the nationali-
zation OF the work of distribution.-In-
dustrial Age.