The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-08-23
THE NuMERARY SYSTEM.

Tho Unit Of Account Is Ideal, Abstract
and Imaginary-Truth Tersely Told.
1.-THE following article by Edward
Evans in the Buffalo Courier, contains
the most lucid and clearly defined ex-
PLANTATION of the true and scientific
PRINCIPLES of finance have ever seen
in so short an essay. What pity that
the suggestions the writer makes stop
short of the idea of entirely divorcing
the money of the country from the
metals, gold and silver, leaving them to
be handled as bullion, in settlement of
foreign balances. GEORGE C. WARD.
The present financial condition of
the country seems perfectly alarming.
The large increase of population since
the close of the war, and the rapid de-
crease of the circulating medium con-
sequent upon the absorbing of the gov
eminent greenback by the issuing OF
Understanding bonds at the close of
the war. has practically left the coun-
try without circulating medium suf
ficient to carry on the commerce of the
nation.
To give to this increased population
$25 per capita, which is only about one
half of the per capita of France, would
require the enormous sum of $500, OOO,-
OOO-a sum greater than all the gold
and silver money in the country, with
out taking into account the loss of
dollar by abrasion, or the use of these
metals in the fine arts. Add to this the
same per capita for the former popula-
ton before the war, and you require
81, 900, 600, 900 more.
It is believed by many that in order
for us to enjoy the same prosperity that
France is enjoying, we must raise our
money per capita to that of France,
which is very near $50 per capita, which
would require about $500, 600, 900.
Now, the question is, how can this be
done? Certainly it cannot be done by
the use of metal money alone. The
entire output of both the gold and sill
yer of the country will not do it. Be-
sides, the entire commerce of the ma
ton must seriously suffer if it is not
driven into absolute bankruptcy, be-
fore a sufficient amount of the precious
metals can be found, if found at all.
What are we to do? The stringency
of money, superinduced by the enor-
nous contraction since 1868, by the re-
tirement of the old ''greenback" and the
national bank currency, and the phe-
nomenal increase of population during
that time has placed the nation in
predicament which demands speedy
relief
I believe that our trouble all lies in
the fact that we have been following
the old feudal systems of the past in
our attempts to make prices of metal
the only basis of circulating medium.
We have heard good deal of ''cant"
ne" of gold and silver money. deny the
proposition. Gold and silver, when
formed into discs, without the govern
ment stamp on them clothing them
with legal paying power, would place
these metals into the most useless form
known to man; but when authorized
by an act of congress, fixing their
weights and fineness and stamping up
on their face the measure of their legal
value, then and only then can these
pieces of metal be called money and
become legal tender in payment of
debts.
The world must yet learn the lesson
that money does not inhere in any ma
terial thing in it's normal condition.
The thing we call money" is only the
the material substance upon which we
stamp the subdivision of mathematic-
al proposition. Let me illustrate what
1 mean: We have in our mind unit"
a ''dollar" to "dole out"
We then proceed to select piece of
gold metal of certain weight and fine
ness (25.s grains, 80 fne), which we call
dollar" and which represents one
of these mathematical units which
we had in our mind. We then multiply
these units by ten and then proceed
to select piece of gold metal ten times
larger than the piece selected to repre-
sent the first unit" and then stamp
upon it ten units $40, which gives us
a SO gold piece; and likewise do we
proceed to select 4121a grains of silver,
80 fine, to represent the unit" which
we had in our mind when we Sc
lected the piece of gold to represent
the same unit" The point I wish to
make is that money is purely and scien-
tifcally mathematical proposition
and only applies to material things
when certain pieces of gold and silver
are taken to represent these ''ideal
units" or decimals which we first have
in our mind. We commence to enumer-
ate by decimals or by scale of deci-
mails such as ten mills make lone
cent" ten cents, lone dime" ''ten
dimes lone dollar You see that the
practical decimals are first determined
before we arrive at the unit cent.
Then we proceed with our numerals of
ten to find our dime" Then again by
our numerals of ten to find our dol
lar" Then we proceed by an act of
congress to determine upon proper
material to represent these mathemat-
ical divisions and so we take piece Of
copper to represent a cent, a piece of
silver to represent dime, and a piece
of gold to represent the dollar, and
each piece in it's turn to represent a
mathematical ideal. This makes
money the creature of mathematical
"a an ord ~,rno1r1oc o--