The advocate., 1892-04-13

frat understand what money was frs
issued for-the primal need Of money
l will try and explain as understand.
In the start our government was in
tended to be q republic, democracy
That is TO say, the welfare Of the people
is the supreme law. When the govern
ment was formed there were certain
functions the government was to per
form, for instance, the pOstOf1ce depart
ment. In order to perform this or any
other public function 1t becomes neces
sary for the government (the whole peo
pie collectively to employ individuals
Individually. The whole people must
pay these individuals. With what? Why
with money, of course. But how is the
whole people (the government) to gel
this money to pay withH It must be ad
mltted that the money cannot be pGi0
until it Is In existence. 1t cannot be in
existence till It is created. But who has
the power to create 1t? Why, the whole
people, Of course, because the whole
people are supreme. Whatever the
whole people say Is money must be 80
for there is no power to dispute them
they being supreme. Then, the whole
people having the power to create money
to pay Its obligations with, it creates the
mOney and pays its obligations. The
primal object, then, Of money, is to pay
a necessary obligation, for the govern
ment cannot exist as such without pay
ing its obligations.
Now for the second need of money.
The primal object is to pay an obliga-
tion. The secondary object Is to be
used as q medium of exchange to get rid
of the cumbersome system of barter.
Now this Is the ground take, though it
may be an advanced one, yet 1t Is practi-
cal, for 1t Is partially In operation, name
ly, our postoflce system, which iS self
supporting. l claim that the postoffice,
the railroads, the telegrsphs, the tele-
phones, the street railways, the electric
and gas lighting, the waterworks, the
sewerage system, ETC., are all public func-
tlOns. Now there Is obligation enough
for these public functions to self-sup-
port themselves and more, after the gov
ernment has created and paid into clrcu-
latlon enough money to do the exchange
business on q cash basis. At present the
great trouble is, we draw the wrong con-
cluslons from a practical point Of view.
We say the purchasing power Of money
Is regulated by law. Under our present
system this Is true, but the system Is
wrong. Under our present system the
number of dollars In circulation regu-
lates the price Of all commodities. This
Is tUrong. The price Of products should
be governed by the number of hours of
labor necessary to produce 1t. This is the
solution. Money is the common property
Of ALL" until it goes into circulation. The
method of getting It into circulation is
the Key note to this problem. No money
can go from the whole people, the "com-
mon property of ALL" into the hands of
any individual without that individual
gives his service to obtain it. make
the assertion open and bold, that no per-
son has any right as an individual, to
own any Of this money without giving
service for It. l still further claim and
can maintain my assertion that the public
functions of government are sufficient to
pay all necessary erpenSes of the gov
ernment, after the government has paid
enough Gnto circulation to do the bust