Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1893-09-27
The Cresset ON Finance.

we nope we DO not lntrud0 on their EVIL
dent satisfaction if we lnterpose a
doubt or two. For several weeks the
Cresset has published a serial gold
story, and in perusing the columns of
fanciful sopistries ones mind naturally
reverts, by reason of the similarity, to
the literary products of Rider Haggard
and Jules Verne. Like those novelists
the Cresset writer does not try to sub
stantiate his assertions but presumes
with all the conceit imaginable that
they should be at once accepted by vlr-
tue of the source.
The Cresset, as is probably well IN
dersto0d, is for single gold standard.
and takes decided position Withheld,
Sherman and the administration on the
issue. Although apparently honest its
arguments are very lame and consist
mainly in denials of facts which every
western man should know by expert
ence to be true. The valiant manner
in which it defends gold single stand
ard for this country is decidedly inter-
esting, however, especially when it has
to ren0unce its former stand on the
question and the past platforms of it's
party. AS might be expected its chief
hobby is that we should have a gold
basis, because a gold dollar 1--WE havn't
seen one for ten years. is said to pos
sess one hundred cents worth of gold,
while the silver dollar has but Sc cents
worth of bullion in it. In other words
the Cresset believes that the intrinsic
value of gold is greater than that of
set has said that the intrinsic value of
gold gives 1T it's power, in the fol-
lowing words found in the issue of Sep
| TENDER 18TH
The government stamp on piece of coin
money is simply guarantee of its weight and
| hneness; simply that and nothing more. Then
every coin so stamped circulates on its intrin-
| sic value, unless the government issuing it,
either by law or through a ruling of govern
ment officials, redeems that coin In something
| of greater value.
| If the Cresset is surprised at our fiat
theories we are amazed at It's intrinsic
| ideas. We have said that Al cents in a
silver dollar is fiat, and now, after ridi-
culing such an idea, they come out with
the assertion that the remaining Sc
cents represents it's intrinsic value. No
such thing as intrinsic value exists
| 1t is a misnomer; term used for the
purpose of deluding the people, and
| nriu inafaH hty fhAcn x1yIA nj oh
jects by external appearances. To
have intrinsic value an object would
have to be possessed of never changing
qualities, a never changing price and
an unvarying relation To all other sub
stances in creation. Gold, less than
anything else, has this property. To
| day it might require a bushel of wheat
to procure gold dollar and in a month
| it might require two bushels to procure
the same amount. Gold derives its
value from laws passed making it a
money metal, and as natural sub
stance a thousand pounds of it has less
value than bushel of wheat. 1t is the
fallacious teachings of intrinsic val
ue" by gold monOmetallists that is lead
ing more people astray on the financial
| question than anything else. The value
of gold is caused primarily by the mon
ey power given it 10y law and secou-
darby by its scarcity. If gold were de-
monetized throughout the world today
where would your intrinsic value" be?
But gold, and every other product of
nature has an intrinsic quality, defined
by its utility. The value of anything
exists In the mind and not in the object
itself. In support of this very evident
| proposition we quote from Senator
Stewart, who in speech delivered in
the senate said:
| Intrinsic applies applies to quality; value is
| an estimation of man. The president of the
United States talks about intrinsic value. and
| that we must get gold because it has value in
it that cannot be got out of it. The values of
everything change with circumstances, and
the value of god more frequently than the
| value of wheat.
Barbon says:
| Things have no value within themselves; it
! is opinion and fashion that brings them into
use ana gives tnem value.
On page 230 of McLeod's Elements
of Economics, that celebrated econo-
mist says;
This unhappy phrase, intrinic value, meets
us at every turn in economies; and yet the
| slightest reflection will show that to define
value to be something external to thing, and
| then to be constantly speaking of intrinsic
value, are self-contradictory and inconsistent
| ideas.
Senator Jones in his speech before the
Brussels Monetary Conference had con-
siderable to say on the subject. Among
other things he said:
The much-vaunted intrinsic value of gold,
then. does not exist. The idea that it does
exist is founded upon a misconception al
| together too long tolerated regarding the
! meaning of the term value"
1t must certainly be understood by
any reasoning mind that there is no
such a thing as intrinsic value, which
the CresSet and other monometallists
claim to be the redeeming feature of
gold. This erroneous theory exploded
and the light begins to dawn on the
financial question. Everything pos
sesses a value that is external to the
object itself, and great deal of the
vagarles of finance are consequent to
the false position taken by the gold
standard mo in substituting the word
intrinsic for extrinsic.
The Crssset seems to think we do not
understand its position; that owing to
deficiency of perception we fail to
grasp its ideas. We understand It's
side of the argument very well, aud are
willing to debate the question fairly
1t seems quite disturbed because we dc
not appreciate its definition of fiat and
credit, and in one of its articles says:
The reason the United States silver dollar i,