The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1893-07-07
FINANCE NAPOLEONS.
THEY UNDERSTAND THE SCI
zNcE OF HANDLING MONEY.
8at Are Grossly Ignorant OF Monetary
science-wrong Conceptions Of tho
Basic Principles Of Money and IL
Functions.

ecience-Wrong Conceptions Of the
Basic Principles Of Money and Its
Functions.
The great majority of people in this
country and in all countries, now, and
far hundreds Of years past, have enter
tanned the idea that the so-called finan-
ciers were the only class of people who
thoroughly understood the science Of
money; that they alone were only
competent to teach monetary science,
to legislate and regulate systems for
the use of money; that finance was an
abstruse question with which the COM
mon people were not to NEEDLE, be-
cause of their inability to comprehend
1t, but must be left to the control of
the fnanciers
No greater error was ever enter
tained by any people. This Is en-
phasized in the fact that economic ills
spring from erroneous teachings along
this line than any other element in
our government.
The truth is, the men who make
money, as q class, know less of
monetary scioncs than any other
people. The capacity to make money
does not involve the science of money,
any more than the capacity to run .
machine requires the ability to make
It. nor should the matter Of legislation
upon this question be the prerogative
of fnanciers
Monsy-getting or the 6nesse of
noney-making have no more to do
with monetary science than the man
who buys ship and runs it had in it's
construction.
Financial legislation should be the
work of craftsmanship of men who
comprehended the basic principles Of
money, and a proper application of the
same to the requirements Of the people
In commerce and trade
The periodic financial troubles the
world has encoun tered for ages past
are attributable to the fact that the
science of money has been left almost
wholly to the class known Is finan-
clers, bankers and money-makers, and
their policy has ever been to mystify
the question of finance and make it
appear as difficult to be comprehended,
a matter that bankers and fnanciers
alone are competent to deal with, and
as result financial legislation for
thousands of years, has ever been in
the interest Of the fnanciers,
and always of discriminate
ing character against the producing
classes or common people, and hencs
always wrong.
Too many people make the mistake
of confounding the fnesse of money
making or, getting with monetary
science. when there are no relations
between the two except the
use of the money as an in
strument, a tool, or machine. An
individual may accumulate millions OF
money without a knowledge of It's basic
principles, while on tho other hand an
individual may fully comprehend the
science of money and its application to
economic principles, and yet be greatly
deficient in the art of money-getting,
If such can be called an art.
Money in its uses is science-not
so deep and abstruse as to be beyond
the comprehension of ordinary minds,
but science nevertheless-simple and
easily understood if studied.
Our monetary system as applied to
day is a thing Of chance and not of ap
piled science. In recognizing gold and
silver. or any particular material. as a
basis of money, is to base our whole
monetary system upon the mere chance
OF the discovery of these metals in the
mountains, or the capabilities of pro-
.ducing certain material and it re.
-quires but little investigation to deter.
mine the fallacy of such system.
The single-standard advocates make
gold the basis of all monev-basina
the very life blood of commerce and
trade upon substance the supply Of
which is universally conceded to b
inadequate to our demands, and yet
wholly dependent upon chance in its
production.
The financiers insist, too, that money
must have an intrinsic value, and yet
money, as money, has NO intrinsic
value. The moment that the material
of which money is made is possessed
OF intrinsic worth it ceases to be money
and is merely commodity.
Law makes money and not dollar
of money can. be made in any Other
way. Hence the absurdity of in
trinsic value in money. As well de-
mand intrinsic value in the yard stick
rs IN the do1Isr.
The fact that we cling so tenaciously
in our monetary system to the absurdi
ties Of past ages, and the fact that oul
financial legislation is under tho CON
troll OF tho so-called fnancicrs. is proof
ol their inability to comprehend the
true principles Of monetary science.
1t is comforting, however. to know