The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-03-04
INTRINSIC VALUE.
Something For Prolix Alliance Financial
Writers and Theorists to Make a Note

| Writers and Theorists to Make a Not,
| or
The following article from the Tope
ka Capital is commended to those dis
tinguished alliance finaneiers who are
ever carping about intrinsic" value:
ut is strange that the intrinsic value
OF gold and silver should be called in
question at this late day or that the
qualities upon which it rests should
not be well understood by the meauest
intelligence. The intrinsic value OF
| gold and silver is not different in any
respect from that of any other com
modify. 1t depends, like the intrinsic
value of iron or brass, upon the desir-
ability and the rarity of the article.
Air and water are desirable, but they
have no intrinsic value in commerce
because they are ubiquitous. But gold
is rare. People desire it because it is
beautiful, malleable and indestructi.
BILE. They are willing to part with
much for it because it is rare. Since
the world began these qualities, COM
bined in so high degree in gold, have
made it appeal to the acquisitiveness
of mankind Before the idea of money
was evolved, while commerce was still
in its crude state of barter, gold was
already the most desirable, the most
sought after, of all the products of the
ground.
Alliance leaders generally admit
that money has intrinsic value, but
they allege that this value results from
the stamp on the face of the gold coin
which says: This is worth so much
But it was worth so much thousands of
years ago. The government stamp
merely attests the fact When COM
merce grew and spread from nation to
nation it became necessary } find some
commodity which would readily meas
ure the value of things to be exchanged.
1t was inevitable that this should be
gold because a man who possessed gold
could always get for it anything else
that he wanted, by reason of the
exalted and universal desire for gold
as something which from year to year
and century to century retained its
beauty and desirability indestructi-
bic. If all things are not merely
an accident if the eyes were designed
for seeing, gold was designed for a
standard of value, because it contains
all the necessary equipment for that
function. There is its universal desira-
bility. There is its indestructibility,
by reason of which the annual crop of
gold is not relatively large enough to
change the value of every unit of the
great mass of gold accumulated for
thousands of years. Hence we have
one commodity whose value is approx
mately stable-certainly a necessary
quality in a standard of values. There
is its homogeneity. We have spring
wheat and winter wheat, light kernels
and full kernels, yellow corn, white
corn and Jerusalem corn, and SO on; but
there is but one kind of gold, and it is
always recognizable, which are two
more good qualities for standard of
value and a money material Further,
gold is easy divisible into small parts
and is not bulky to carry.
There are other products that have
some of the money qualities which dis
tinguish gold; but there is no other ere
ated thing which possesses all these
d
silver being so largely deposited in the
earth that its value is constantly de-
clining.
THE alliance theorists will prob
ably admit that in this stage of civiliza-
ton commerce between nations is
necessary as well as desirable. Will
they tell us how the United States is
to carry on business with other nations
if its money contains no information
ally acceptable value? If we are to
conduct our home trade by means of
fiat paper how shall we pay for i'm
ports which now amount to close on to
a billion dollars a year? AS there is
scarcely half that amount of gold in
this country how long would it take to
exhaust the ability of our people to
pay for foreign commodities? Certain
ly no foreigner will give us gold in ex-
change for our fat paper, even if fiat
should be accepted by our own people.
What would become of our surplus farm
products? A vast issue of fiat might
increase the price lin fat of all COM
modities, including corn and wheat,
but the price abroad in gold would re-
main the same: our farmers might sell
their surplus abroad for gold at the old
price, but if fiat and gold were, as they
predict, at par, dollar for dollar, here
at home, their gold dollar, received
from abroad would buy here only fat
dollars worth of clothing, groceries
and shoes and the farmer in casting up
his accounts would discover that he had |
sold his surplus at discount This
foreign commerce phase of the money
problem has apparently escaped the
intelligent consideration of the reform |
ers. Let the farmers look into it care
fully"