The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-11-29
A LESSON ON MONEY.

A LESSON ON MONEY.
Give Us Paper Money and Government
Banks of Deposit, Loan and Discount.
Our esteemed correspondent, John
McGovern, contributed an able article
entitled, THE Silver Question" to our
last issue, A perusal of the article
clearly proves that he does not under
stand the nature of money or it's
powers. Like great many other
men who take their financial opinions
from the politicians who serve the
money kings of Wall street, Mr.. Nc
Govern believes that all money should
contain an amount of gold or silver
whose commercial value is equal to the
denomination of the coin, or is redeem
able in coin on demand. His objection
to what he calls a 58-cent dollar is that
it would not be worth dollar the
world over, and he does not wish this
country to have the free coinage of sill
yer unless England is party to it. In
other words, we make our tariff and
other laws, but we must not make our
of England.
But the silver question, after all,
simply involves itself into the question,
What is money? Francis A. Walker
defines it as follows ("Money, Trade
and Industry" p ~: "That which
passes freely from hand to hand
throughout the community in final
discharge of debts and full payment
for commodities, being accepted equal
ly without reference to the character
or credit of the person who offers it,
and without the intention of the per-
son who receives it to consume it, or
enjoy it, or to apply it to any other
use than in turn to tender it to others
in discharge of debts or payment for
commodities Money, regardless of
the material of which it is made, is
that into which all commodities must
be finally converted in order to legally
discharge debts Any money itself is
an article designated by government
as good for the discharge of debt,
whether made of gold, silver or paper
The material of which money is made
does not make it money. All the pow
ers of money are given to it by law. It
does not acquire an extra value to dis
charge debt on account of he material
of which it is made A dollar is dol
lar, whether made of gold, silver or
paper. Anything, therefore. is money
that the government recognizes as 3
legal tender and good for the payment
of all public and private debts If
gold is used for money, on the ground
that money must be composed of ma
terial whose commercial value is equiv
alent to the denomination of the coin,
its scarcity as material must restrict it's
volume as money. It possesses no Pc
culiar or inherent excellence that all
other commodities should be measured
by it. If $50, 600, 600 worth of go used
in the commercial world for purposes
other than money, such as
watch cases, rings gold-plate
and personal ornaments, were
shipped to Europe tomorrow, business
would continue the same as usual But
if the same amount of gold coin were
shipped to Europe, specie payment
would be stopped, banks would sus-
pend, business firms be bankrupted,
and millions of workingmen thrown
out of employment This fact proves
that the business depression would be
caused by the loss of the gold as
money, not by the loss of the gold as
metal Commodities made of gold
have no debt-paying qualities any
more than other commodities. The
value of gold does not depend, like
wheat or corn, on the amount of labor
required to produce it, but on the will
lingness of the government to coin in
to money certain number of grains of
gold.
When traced to it's bottom, money is
the creation of law And money, to
properly facilitate the exchange of
commodities, must be sufficient in vol.
ume to perform that function No one
desires wheat or potato famine, but
many men desire a money famine. And
just as potatoes are dear and beyond
the purchasing power of many people
when the crop is scarce, so money is
dear and interest high when the vol
ume Of money is less than the amount
AOOUO@ III OuoAHOSS PuA pOSCS. OO1l Is
insufficient, and so is silver. Paper
currency is the only kind of money
with government banks of loan
and deposit in connection-that will
furnish the people with sufficient and
stable money. Such currency will
perform all the functions of money,
and gold and silver can do no more. The
country is in need Of peoples money,
not bankers money. With paper
currency good for the payment of all
debts, both public and private, there
would be no money panics. and the
hands of the Shylock would be re-
moved from the throat of industry
The material of which a paper dollar
is composed may not be worth two
cents but it will discharge dollars
worth of debts There never was. and
never will be, such thing as 5S-cent
dollar.-Cleveland Citizen.
The old theory that gold and silver