Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1892-09-14
sPEclous soPHlsTRlEs.
Monometallists State q General Law and
Then Make q Special Application.


Real money has two functions. 1t
furnishes standard of value, and it is
a medium of exchange. The thing by
which value is measured must have
value itself. Therefore, coins of the
precious metals are the only real money
that can perform all the functions of
money. Paper representatives of real
money can very we'll perform the one
function-that of furnishing medium
of exchange. But when this function
is performed, then those who desire to
turn into something tangible the re-
! suits of exchange transactions desire
real money. Silver coin is real money as
much as gold coin, to the extent that it
has real value. But large portion
| of the nominal value of our silver coin
to-day is based not on the real value of
the silver contained in the coin, but
upon credit given to it by law. Law
can give credit value to ANYTHING, but
only to the extent of the credit of the
government that enacts the law. The
ere 1T of Il government. as far as its p;t-
per money is concerned, is Ony good
! within its own boundaries; and to p V
debts outside, gold and silver ana nther
commodities are alone available When
commodities are not wanted, the
precious metals are always taken at
their real or market value. The great
falling off in the market price of silver
has deprecated it as a money metal in
the eyes of mankind, and consequently
gold, if it can be obtained, is always
taken in preference. All of the cur
rency of the United States to-day rests
on gold basis as far as the credit of
the country can sustain it. Virtually
the United States, by the act of 1890,
has promised to pay gold for all its out
standing paper money"
1t would seem incredible that any
considerable number of intelligent in
dividuals could be hoodwinked into ad-
vocating monetary system, defense
of which involved the Endorsement of
as many palpable absurdities as the
above clipping contains. The whole
paragraph is string of himsy fallacies
and specious sophistries.
Money is not a measure of values in
the commonly accepted meaning of that
term. but if it was it would be a legal,
not natural measure; hence any value
it might possess as such mea sure would
be legal and not real" NJ ney may be
said to differentiate values as mum bers
differentiate quantities. amounts and
sums. The terms indicator or numera-
tor more clearly convey an idea of the
province of money as relates to values.
Articles possessing value, such as goods,
merchandise and commodities, are diff
ferentiated in value not by comparing
them with money, but by comparing
them with each other, and money does
but indicate the differences in value
that exist between such articles.
Gold and silver possess very little
real value: indeed if the nations OF
the earth were to entirely demonetize
both metals they would be compare
lively worthless This is proved by the
history of the silver dollar, the bullion
in which was worth in 1878 more than
the bullion in a gold dollar, but has
since been, by adverse legislation, re-
duced in value 80 per cent. and which,
if the silver law of 1890 were repealed,
would probably lose as much as 25 per
cent of its present commercial value
Gold is subject to the same law as silver,
and if treated as silver has been treated
would quickly demonstrate that the
greater part of it's present value is
given to it by the fat of law, instead of
being, as monometallists delight to
term it, real" and intrinsic. The
law to which both of these metals $
are subject may be stated as
follows. When any given quantity of
any certain metal is given by law a
monetary value of a certain denomina-
ton, and such metal is accorded the
privilege of unlimited or unrestricted
coinage. the whole product or supply of
such metal takes to itself the coinage
value given to it by law and the com
mercial value becomes merged in the
coinage value. That is exactly the po-
sftion occupied by gold at the present
time, and by silver up to the crime of
1878. Take away the artificial value
given to it by the fat of law and either
gold or silver is at once reduced to the
level of all other commodities and loses
its value for use as money; i. e., its coin
age value. This law is recognized by
gold standard England. The London
Times of August % editorially declares
that the closing of the India mines
against the coinage of silver would be a
dangerous expedient, as inducing a con-
siderable difference between the value
of the coined and the uncoined metal,
thus stimulating unlicensed private
coinage and that the artificial value
given the rupee would deprive India of
a monetary value of any kind"
And yet, in the face of these indisput-
able facts a journal which is the organ
of the banking fraternity and aspires to
be an authority upon finance and mon
etary science gravely states the exact
law which governs metallic money and
triumphantly applies it to the present
status of silver money, but pretends an
ignorance of the fact that gold money
is governed by precisely the same i'll, n
tical law. The dollar and its value are
localities and would exist as affirm :
lively without a material embodi M 4 I
as with it. We may say by our avs
that so many grains of gold or silver
shall constitute one dollar but we are
powerless to arbitrarily determine the
value of the dollar, such value beino
dependent upon the number of units IN
circulation and the volume of valuable
commodities offered for exchange. and
to some extent the whirns and caprices
nf individuals. For. after all. value is
but the measure of the desire of individ.
uals to possess certain objects or articles,
while the ideal unit of value will iust
as surely measure such desires as do the
ideal Roman numerals measure and
differentiate numbers
Consider for moment the absurdity
OF the monometallists' argument. Find
ing IN 1878 law that said 25.s grains
Of god (9-lo fine) and 1928 grains OF
silver (9-10 fine) should constitute one
dollar, they abrogate the law as relates
30 silver and continue it in force as 10
gold and then ascribe the fall in the
saiue of silver to natural instead of le-
gal causes
never ending, constantly recurring
circle OF exchanges constitutes what i.
ca!ied commerce, and money, in its
legitimate and proper analysis, is but
~: -ss1dium by which Sueh eychanoAs