The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1892-12-09
THE "HoNEsT MONEY" FRAUD.
Paper the Primary Basis For Gold and
Gold Bug Currency and the Paper is Sc
cured BY the Peoples Wealth.

Gold Bug Currency and the Paper is Sc
cured BY the Peoples Wealth.
The honest (?) money" system,
which is the chief cornerstone in the
platform of the republican party, is
system of money based upon paper.
The money enters circulation as a loan,
secured by mortgage on property
either directly or indirectly. Gold
money is no exception to this rule. It
does not enter circulation and perform
the functions of money until an inter.
est bearing debt is created All pro-
ductlve securities, which are taken as
security by the banks, derive their sole
value from their power to extract usury
IN some form from the owners of proper
ty. Every dollar of this money passes
through the banks number of times
and an Understanding debt is created
every time, thus adding debt upon debt
and usury upon usury with no increase
IN the number of dollars by which
these debts can be paid. This process
has been continued until all the money
IN the nation is only sufficient to pay a
traction of one years interest.
This burden of interest bearing debt
money system advocated by the old
parties. There is nothing honest about
it. 1t is merely piece of machinery
for creating debt the principal of
which can never be paid Its sole value
consists in is legal power to exact
usury from productive labor and legiti-
mate business. AS long as the people
sustain this system by their votes and
strive to pay the interest, it will con-
tlnue to be the source of enormous
profit to the money power.
This interest bearing debt rests upon
property and forms the basis of gold
bug money. The peoples party holds
that the property which gives value to
the debt is better basis for money
than the debts, the principal of which
can never be paid under the present
monetary system. The property is the
only actual value which gives value to
the debt or the money based upon the
debt. Both the debt and the money
are only legal values, and the people
are the law-making power, just as soon
as they choose to express their will
through the ballot box. The people
create these actual values by their
labor and as citizens and voters they
have the right to create the legal medi-
UNI by which actual values are ex-
changed. There is not even common,
everyday horse sense in the system
that covers their property with an
Understanding debt in order to secure
medium by which that property can
be bought and sold, labor employed
NV tod
famous and oppressive nature of this
system of making our debts the basis
of our medium of exchange is only
equalled by it's absolute stupidity
TO illustrate: A farmer needs money
in order to make necessary improve
ments that will enable him to increase
his power to create wealth by his labor.
Under the present system he goes to
Nhe bank, places a mortgage on his
farm for $1,000 bearing ten per cent.
per annum, running five years. The
mortgage is worth to the bank $1,000,
with $500 added for interest, or 81, 500.
The money is worth to the farmer
S1.000-less the $500 paid as interest,
Or only S5O0-a clear loss to the farmer.
If he is very shrewd he may be able to
and save himself, but in any event
productive industry has been loser of
all that the banker realizes out of
the operation. The only real value in
this transaction is the property pledged
for the payment of the 81, 900 borrowed
and this property belongs to the farmer.
Now, if the only actual value is in the
farm, why not establish system I'M
der which the farmer could convert that
value into convenient form-to be
used as a medium to enable him to
make the necessary improvements
instead of turning it over to the bank
as security for loan, and then paying
ten per cent for the privilege of using
the banks credit, while the farmer
owns the only credit in this kind of
transactions that has any real value.
Under a system Sy which property
could be converted, at cost, into a
medium by which property may be
changed, labor employed and more
property created, money would become
the representative of actual value
pledged for its redemption in such
actual values as the holder of such
money desired to purchase. and the
producers of these actual values would
save all that they now pay as interest
to producers. Such monetary
system, based on actual values, would
be honest in the true sense and would
always be equal to the demand.
Every dollar would be secured
by actual values, the use of
which the world cannot afford to
dispense with. Panics would be I'M
known as the means of payment would
be equal to the value of the wealth
created by the people. There is moth
ing more senseless than the charge that
this would be a system of unhealthy
imitation. The imitation in the volume
of the currency, under this system,
would be but small fraction when
compared with the imitation of the
volume of interest bearing debt under
our present system of dishonest money,
which is but promise that we will do
something that never can be DONE
There is just as much danger in our
creating too much value as there is in
our having too much money based on
value Topeka Advocate.
TWEEDLE-DEE- TWEEDlE-OUM
There is No Difference Between the Blaine
Harrison Reed Mckinley Combine and