The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1893-07-26
MORE ABOUT MONEY

guished author, John Ruskin, does more
than Indicate sound financial doctrine
for the nations of the earth,he gives
sound and ineligible definitions, For
instance, he says of common curren5y:
Money has inaccurately been spoken
Of as merely q means Of exchange, But
1t is far more than this, 1t is a docu
mentary expression Of legal claim, 1t
is not wealth, but documentary claim
to wealth, being the sign Of the rela
tive quantities of 1t, or Of the labor
producing it, to which, at a given time,
persons, or societies are entitled"
The expression here made use of to
define money gave rise on its first pub
llcation, to a contemptuous question
us half crown a document?" OF a
verify, It is, for a document might
be stamped as we'll as written, and
stamped on silver as well as on parch
ment, To carry out the idea 1t Is well
to comprehend that "If all the money
in the world, note and gold, paper and
metal were destroyed in an instant 1t
would leave the world neither richer
nor poorer than 1t was, But 1t would
leave the individual inhabitants of 1t
IN different relations.
Money is, therefore, correspondent
In its nature to the title Uf an tstate.
Though the deed be burned, the estate
still exists but the right to 1t has be
come disputable,"
Is 1t not evident then, that the shape,
oblong, square, or round; the material,
paper, gold, or silver, hnve nOthin 5to
do with It's power OF exchange, The
element of measure attaches to the
things bought, and not to the thing
by which, by common consent the
purchasing is done. A cart load of gold
could not buy cart load of corn in
an isolated community threatened with
famine. if the possibility of replacing
the food by the exchange of a portion
or all of the metal We're hopeless or eX
tlngulshable,
The real worth OF money remains
unchanged, as long as Tie proportion
OF the quantity of existing money to
the quantity of existing wealth Qntrln
sic value) or available labor remains
unchanged, II the wealth Increases,
but not the money, the worth of the
money increases; IL the money in
creases but not the wealth, the worth
of the money mot the wealth. de
creases,
Money, therefore cannot be arbltrar
lily multiplied, any more than title
deeds can, So long as the existing
wealth or available labor is not fully
represented by the currency, the cur
rency may be increased without d
intuition of the assigned worth of it
pieces"
Why cannot our cidevant economists
in congress comprehend that plain and
simple fact? The American notes, colr
or securities which SO to Europe to bC
exchanged for luxuries or necessities
should not be considered as diminl
tlon Of the currency except in so far al
such export represents dlininut'on .!
the real wealth OF the land, The FIRE,
coinage of silver whereby the number
OF certain silver disks stamped Will
''The efiigy and inscription" Of govern
ment viii not suffice to remedy an.
real strlngency or embarrassment. oi
the contrary, unless wisely propoi
toned It viii only complicate matters
"But how is IT." one may ask. "tha
prices 80 up or down as the volume o
currency Is increasedg" Does th'
querist forget the years of the war
when the land was flooded with greel
backs. it was gold that went up, Tha,
however, made not the slightest dine
ence: gold was not necessary to hu,
ralment. food and shelter and thougl
the quoted prices OF these necessarie
to existence were stupepdOuS' whe