The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-12-13
THE METALLIC DELUSiON.

THE METALLIC DELUSlON.
A Pernicious Fallacv " hich Results In the
Spolation of the Toiling Millions
The following article by Wilfred p.
Bor.and, in the current number of the
Locomotive Firemen's Magazine, is .
scholarly elucida ton of the money prob
lem and a complete expose of the me-
tallic deiusion. 1t is earnestly COM
mended to the careful consideration of
all populists who entertain the IDEAS
thus expressed by Harry Hinton in the
Progressive Farmer He says: 1.-The
scientific dollar is something spoken of
by many as yet to come. but no one has
properly defined this dollar. beyond the
common greenback. We have seen
what is necessary to make a perfect
dollar: unit of value determined by
the value of another unit which has
the value per Sc, government legal
tender, etc. Therefore, the very first
thing to do in evolving this dollar is to
determine its unit of value with value
in ITSELF
In this language Mr.. Hinton betrays
the fact that he does not understand
what value u.s. while in his proposition
that with perfect ease, the scientific
paper dollar can be made to refer to so
much bullion of silver and gold as it's
unit and have greater stability as to
permanent value than it now has. To
make half of the bullion in our silver
dol or and half Of the bullion in our
gold dollar the unit and for the govern
ment to keep this bullion on deposit
always in sufficient quantities, half and
half, to determine its value would
make a safe, simple and scientific paper
dollar without going into nationalisn."
He shows that he is profoundly igno-
rant of the fact that we never can de-
termine just what gold and silver are
really worth, until we entirely cease
to use them as money metals OF course
when we declare, by fat law, that so
many grains of gold or silver, or so
many goose eggs, shall be one dollar,
they will always be worth one dollar.
Mr.. Borland says:
ut is the function of money to facil-
itate the exchange Of products, and for
this purpose men express the value of
the products they wish to exchange in
terms # money, thus arriving at an
easy and convenient mode of compar-
ing the magnitude Of the values of diff
ferent products with each other and
determining the proportions in which
they shall exchange. Thus, in ex-
changing wheat for hats, when we say
wheat is worth 81 per bushel, and hats
50 a piece, we simply express the fact
that one hat Of the same value as
two bushels of wheat, and thereby de-
termine the ratio of exchange between
wheat and hats. 1t is utterly impossi-
BILE to affect this ratio through any al
terations in the money medium itself;
the only way it can be affected is by
alterations in the relative values of
wheat and hats, which will be brought
about permanently by variation in the
labor time necessary for their produc-
ton, or, temporarily, by variations in
the supply of and demand for wheat or
hats. These conditions remaining the
same, if we say that wheat is worth 50
a bushel instead of 81, then hats will
be worth 81 piece instead of 50, and
the ratio of exchange between hats and
wheat remains unaltered. This being
as true of all products as it is of the two
mentioned. it will be seen that it is i'm
possible for men to manipulate the
money medium so as to increase their
own values at the expense of the values
of others, as long as money is restricted
to it's natural and legitimate function
that of differentiating and comparing
f1,o E.,
purposes. 1t is a mistake to suppose
that a commodity has value because it
can be exchanged for money. On the
contrary, a commodity can be ex-
changed for money simply because it
has value, and the expression of its
money equivalent places it in value
relation with all other commodities for
exchange purposes. How to convert
the money medium into an instrument
Of spoliation is a problem that has been
easily solved by placing it in the list of
commodities and subordinating it's
money function to the value relations
of the material of which it is composed.
The wise fnanciers tell us that money
is commodity, subject to the same
laws as other commodities, but it is an
entire fallacy and it is because men
have believed this fallacy for so long
that they have permitted themselves to
be robbed for the benefit of others.
Money is not a commodity; it is impos-
sible for it to be commodity, for if it
were a commodity it could not be
money. Commodities step into circula-
ton, express their value in terms of
money, exchange with other commodi-
ties and drop out of the sphere of cir
culation to be replaced by other COM
modities. Money, on the contrary,
does not drop out Of the sphere of cir
culation at all; it keeps continually
within that sphere and moves
about in it. Whenever it does drop
out of the sphere of circulation it is
no longer money, but becomes either
mere commodity, like gold Or silver
bullion, or hoard, or store, of value,
function which is entirely separate and
distinct from the legitimate funct ons
of a money medium. The idea that
the exchange of commodity for mon
ey is an exchange of commodities hav-