The farmers' union. (Memphis, Mo.) 1891-1895, 1892-01-07
rHE HONEST DOLLAR.
WHAT IS REQUIRED IT'D CON-
STlTUTE 1T.

All Dollars Issued by Government Author
ity that Are Made u Full Legal Tender
| at Their Face Value, without Regard to
| the Material Used In .sHonest Dollars
Concerning Money.
All values are estimated. Th, ideal
| thing We cal value, like greed, love.
| jealousy. hope, etc. exists Unly In the
nil WHO ever heard of standard
| for measuring greed or hate? No NOR.
can there hc Il standard for measuring
| value. Value can be estimated by a
| purely mental process, a"d when the
| person VINO wishes to sell an arti lie finds
| some one to purchase, the FIRST thing
done is to estimate the value, ami ii
there is an agreement that fixes the price,
| and Il so the amount of the debt created.
which the purchaser has agreed to ray.
| by this process of estimating values Il
| certain fixed, Interchangeable amount of
| Indebtedness is created, which the pur-
| chaser is under legal as well as u moral
obligation to ay at once or at some fu-
| turc time. For measuring debts which
never Increase or dc rcasc, standard
| or measure can be apple and this
| standard or illegal tender" debt paying
! instrument. called money, is. IN the Ian
guagc of the United state Supreme
court Especially the duty Of the General
| government to provide"
For estimating values, says J. :. Far
| mum, there is but one real bass and
| that is uSe-thc more useful a thing is in
ministering to the ncces sites, the real
wants of humanity, the more valuable it
| is. No matter how much labor may be
| expended III on an article, the test of Use
| nff dot,
Il okc of gold in a wagon wheel with
all the extra WORK of producing the goli
does not add in the least to the useful
ness OF the wheel, AMI if the gold
| spoke is used in tho place of
| wooden one until it is worn out, its in
| tr.nsic or natural yaue is equal only to
one OF the wo den Spokes in the sane
| wheel.
| This line of reasoning is in conSonanc.
with TIE definition Of value as given by
| Wcbst r and a ! of the leading leXicoc-
| raphcrs, and the standard authors Oh
political economy, and comp etcly ami
| hi ateS the false theory of the a Nocates
| of the exclusive use of geld and sill, er
for money. that "the labor it takes to
mine and smc!t the precious metals is
what gives them their value"
The Financicr, of New York. one of
the leading financial apcrs of the ccnn-
| try, in an article showing the dtfcrcn e
between the intrinsic and the money. or
fiat" value of god and silver coins,
says:
The two precious meta have an in
trinsic value and coin value, which are
| by no means ncccS, arily Identical
which, in fact. never are identical
| The intrinsic value Of an ounce of
| *
in the arts-formaking jcwc ry, for gild-
ing, and for all the other purposes 10
which gold is put exclusive Of coinage
| 1t ha' this value whether it is coined or
| not, and the va,ut is not affected by
coinage, though the Price is
THE co mage value of gold is the diff
! Il renee between il intrinsic value. or
value for use in the art, and its cx-
change value as money.
This difference is SO material that if
go d were dcmonetizcd-were not TO ned
or used as moncy-its price per ounce
wou d probably be less than half its
Irice at present. We have no means of
determin ns this accurately nor is it
| necessary, All that is nc cssary to clear
understanding of the Fundamental cues
ton OF coinage is C ear apprehension
of this difference between the intrinsic
value Of the coinage metal and its cx-
change value when coined as money.
Where god has been even partly demon
ctizcd this difference ha' become man.
ifcst at once. Its price as bullion has
fallen toward the 'cyel OF it natural Or
intrinsic va,uc-thc value it has fo' use
in the ats apart from its use as a
medium of exchange. Eeronetize the
ounce of gold. and its prcc falls 5, 10,
l., % per cent 10 matter what The
important matter to be remcm bered is,
that it will fall in Il direct ratio 10 the
extent OF the demonstration. and tha.
if the &c roncti<atoI is complete the
fall will on y be checked when the lc, el
| of nat II al or intrinsic va ne IS reached.
There s rot 4 dollars worth of whca.
in Il gold Go' a.. Nor is there in liver
do lar.
The intrinsic va nc of the wheat gi 4, en-
for either q go'd Or silver dollar is greater
than the intrinsic Va ne of the metal in
either The wheat is not given for the
metal 1t il given for the coin as a
means of exchange for other things OF
| equal value with the wheat. DcnCn.
etizc the go d do lar which buys a bushel
OF wheat. reduce it to the intrins C va Tie
! of the n.ota in it, and the metal in TIE
go d dollar will not buy half bushel OF
wheat. because that amount of wheat is
more useful for bro ad than that amount
of gOl is for decorating wall paper O!
making jcwelry.
"lf silver is Who'll Y or in part demon
cited, its price falls toward its intrinsic
va'un in precisely the same way. The
rule is in. ariabie and to b. relied on al
a | times. 1t is the first prilcip'c oi
coinage, and thosc who remember it ano
ap. Iy it will not bc 10 in the lcwiIdcr
ing confusion of statements about va nc
of this dollar or that They will know
that though the coin value of god dol
lar may be GOublc it's intrinsic value i
is not a 80 cent 60 lar on that account
No matter what the Collar IS
the cx.l angc valIc it ha; i:
given it by the co mage stamp on it
and this exchange value is not its in
trinSic value by any means 1t is a.
ways much greater than the intrins:'
| value :"
IT this is t:nc, is there any diiTcrcnc,
in "prccious metal" dollars and Ialc
dollars? In answer to this question th
tinancicr admits that there is not an,
difference, and only holds to the theor,
that tn" Use of the precious metal gi, c
natural means of controlling The sup
ply OF money.
The demo finations of money are fixc,
by law, without regard to the matcria
us 4 to carry the money stamr, which i
very to: sely expressed By the Cnite'
States SUI rene Court thus "TEe Con
st.tution dces not crdan what meta
ay be coined or that the legal valu,
shall CORES pond with the intrinsic. Co,
, Tasses no. as intrinsic value but as lc
gal value"
With these autl critics before us it i
very ca y to determine "What is an hon
, est dolIar?" All dollars issued by gov
: ernmcnt authority that are made a full
. ".esal tender" at their face value
without regard to the materia
rsc1 to carry the money stamp
are "h1Ecst dollars. "Nhat i
| 1-iShox,,Sf dol rOn A daHllaH