The Meridional. (Abbeville, La.) 1856-1906, 1893-08-12
FIAT MONEY!

thing is created out of nothing and if
so what it is. Take his nickel,
twenty nickels equal in exehangable
value one hundred cents, gold stand
ard. Right here is some hoeus pocus,
which the conjurer Il. does not ex'
plain. This little nickel has an
erchangabte value, a commercial
yalue and q fiat vatHe, and all these
different! That is too many values
for any one thing to have, for ordi.
nary use. Common people will
never be able to keep up with all
these values. There is too much
now you see it, and noU you don't,
all about that. Yet he says twenty
nickels have an exchangable value
of one dollar, and an intrinsic value
of the metal, ten cents, leaving nine
ty cents Of fiat vaIue, actually created
out OF nothing, by the government.
How this ninety cents is created, be
does not attempt to explain, nor tell
US whore it resides, you just see it's
there, and then you don't, that is all.
Then the more the metal wears away
the more the fat value becomes.
Now that is all pure sophisty as a
little Investigation will show. The
20 nickels in reality are in themselves,
only worth ten cents, and this more
than they wear away the less they
are worth, as merchandise. As money
they are simply tokens, stamped, and
issue7, by the government, for cir
cuIation at five cents each, just the
same as a paper shirplaster. They
are nothIlg 1aG a4,aplas582a, stamp
ed on NIGEL ala iss4ed BY the gov
ernment, aad the government is
bound to reclaim them, Whesher
worn or not, on presentation at their
par valae in gold. The value of 20
nickels to a dollar, is not 10 the
nickel itself, but in the contract of the
government, to redeem them at that
rate, the same ss shinplasters or
treasury notes. Their value consists
of the credit oil. she government, and
its ability to redeem them, and is not
created out of nothing, but out of
the wealth of the government. So
long as the nickels remain in the
possession of the government, they
are worth only ten cents for twenty
niekels, but when the government
pays them out, it the same time Gre
ates the obligation to redeem them,
at the rate of one dollar for twenty,
by this process the government tran
fers to the holders of the nickels, one
dollar of the wealth Of the nation,
and creates a debt against the gov
ernment of one dollar, that govern
ment must pay. The government is
ore dollar poorer than it was before,
and the holder one dollar richer, but
the world is neither richer or poorer
in any degree. No value at all, has
been created. by the operation and
any person who thinks Congress has
created wealth or value, out of moth.
ing, by such process, is moro mis-
taken than if he lost his shirt, as the
saying is.
It is the same with the silver dol
lar, The government is bound to
main its parity, in value to a gold
dollar, by exchanging q gold dollar
for it on presentation. 1t ia only a
token for money. The silver dollars,
cost the government only about 60
cents each to manufacture. On every
dollar it pays out it makes forty
cents, that is it pays it out for forty
cents more than it cost, Or is
worth. Just as the gond dollars in.
trinsieally con be bought ct sixty
cents q piece, but then you could not
exchange them at the treasury of the
government fer one dollar each. The
next fact presented by Mr.. Hardesty,
is the paper dollar, Or United States
Treasury note, where the whole is
made out Of nothing, all fat value.
AS ia this instance, the material on
which the contract of the government
Is stamped, is no value whatever in,
trinsicaIIy, it will illustrate the illu-
sion and absurdity into which Mr..
Fl. aud others of that like, have fallen
more clearly.
Suppose the u. S. Government
prints complete, q $1,000 treasury note,