The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-06-21
!" HONEST MONEY.
ONE DOLLAR TO REDEEM 81 so.
Jonas HOwe's Pen Punctures the
Gold Basis Bubble.

l
For THE REPRESENTATIVE:
1t has been said by men in old time
and is exclaimed by moss-backs now,
that gold is money and the only hon.
est basis for paper substitute for
money, but the new dispensation de-
clares that even gold is not money
without the fat of law stamped upon
it and that no material is money
without laws, stamp on it's face;
and with the authority of law, any
| material that may be chosen becomes
money, or correctly speaking contains
the invisible, intangible essence
which alone is money, and with the
fat of law any material that may be
chosen may contain money as bal
loon contains hydrogen gas, and the
less expensive the material the less
the chance to humbug the peo-
pie who use it. The people
have authorized congress to is
sue money and regulate it's value,
but the constitution has not so much
as limited that congress could dele
gate that power to any one else, even
to the creditors of the nation. Money
is spirit and it is materialized in the
substance used to receive the stamp,
as witness the demonetizing of the
silver dollar in 1873, and the trade
dollar which contained 42O grains of
silver, troy weight, which was demon
etized in July, 1876, by congress, in
these words. "That henceforth the
the trade dollar shall not be legal
tender"
The fat that once made it dollar
was repealed and Notwithstanding it
contained u grains more silver than
the so-called standard dollar it's value
fell from ten to fifteen per cent be-
low it. 1t has also been said that
money was standard of value and
therefore must have intrinsic value
in it's material. But the best finan-
cierS at the present time say money
is not in itself wealth, but only rep
resentative of wealth in it's use in
exchange for real wealth as by the
power of it's legal tender authority it
has tax and debt paying quality.
Therein laysits value. Strictly speak
ing it is not measure of value-the
value must be determined between
the buyer and seller before the mon
ey comes in play, and then it merely
enumerates the amount agreed upon.
1t has also been held that money has
the power of increase, that money
lent to the other fellow will increase
like flock of sheep let out on shares.
But the new idea that is rapidly
gaining recognition that all wealth
is produced by labor as the active
and land as the passive. agents and
all that capitol gets above it's origin
al outlay is so much taken from la
Dor without returning an equivalent,
or in plain English, lawful robbery or
in other language it is one of the.
ways of gathering what some one
else has sOwn. Another way is in con-
tracing the quantity of money and
thereby regulating it's exchange
value in the interest of the creditor
and at the dire expense of the debtor
and producer. To quote /. E. Deem
in the Arena for June: ''The shrink
age of the volume of currency since
1870, throughout the civilized world,
has caused more business failures,
more misery, more heart-ache, more
ruined homes, and made more drunk
ards, than all other causes combined.
1t has filled our country with rented
farms, our cities with tramps and
millionaires, both inimical to the
best interests of the people" Again
it hath been said by the money
changers that all money must be
based on gold as the final redemp-
tion. AS though what gold money is
in the country was safer base than
all the wealth Including gold, ect.]
that is taxable in the United States.
1t is equivalent to declaring that a
part is greater than the whole. But
it is getting to be a puzzling ques-
tion among the thinking animals,
how the $3.50, 900, 900, of paper money
issued by the government is to be re-
deemed by the beggerly amount of
800, 0O0,0 600 of gold now supposed to
be in the treasury for that honest
purpose, without some poor late
bird finding himself just little. be-
hind time to secure the alluring vel
low worm. Oh! the honesty of 81 to
redeem $3.50!
But the comfort in the condition is
that the gold bugs have demon
strated the unwisdOm of their finan-
cial schemes; the bubble will burst
and let out the gas and the fact will
become apparent to the dullest mind
that money is not wealth.; for if all
the gold is drawn from the treasury
at the behest of Wall street bankers.
the real wealth of the country will