The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1894-09-21
THE MONEY QUESTION.

the kew to all. Our civilization is such
in its structure that nothing can be &C.
complished without the free use OF
money. Money may not be the great
est of mans needs but it is the only
tool he can employ to accomplish any
extended business This being an irfef-
utable fact, it is all important for the
tool to be perfect and so adjusted that
it can be used to the best advantage,
with the least possible friction or ex-
pense.
What is the proper function of mon.
ey? is the first inquiry to be answered.
This may be illustrated by supposing a
farmer has thousand bushels of wheat
in his granaries. He has no personal
use for more than a few bushels Of
this wheat but the miller can use the
whole crop to manufacture into -four.
| The first need of the farmer is wagon
to convey the wheat to the miller.
Without the wagon the wheat is ala
most useless. He would consume year
in the attempt to pack the grain on
his back. Having the wagon he trans
ports the wheat to the mill, but the
miller being placed in possession of
ompensed for his labor? He wants in
exchange for his wheat twenty or
more things indispensable to life in our
present civilized state. The miller
does not have those things the farmer
wants, and cannot supply him. To
meet this condition which has arisen
between the farmer and the miller,
governments have created a medium
of exchange, which is known by the
name of money. The law has given
this money the power of exchanging
values, very much in the nature of the
wagon which is used for transporting
commodities. The wagon transports
the commodity or produce from one
party's premises to = another's;
money transfers the value of mer-
chandise, whatever it is, from one
person or owner to another. There
fore we see that the first function of
money is to transfer values. Society
found something of this kind necessary
or it couldn't get along at all, and the
human family would have been doomed
to remain in primitive state of bar
barism, without some means of ex-
changing and distributing their prod
ucts other than by pure barter. Law
came to the aid of society and said, in
order to promote commerce, which is
the exchange and distribution of pro-
duce or merchandise of dill kinds, this
money must be legal tender for debts.
A debt is always created when one per-
son passes a package of merchandise
into the Hands Of another in the ordi-
nary business of trade. The govern
ment has provided means of extin-
gushing the debt by making money a
legal tender. That is, compelling the
creditor to accept money which is legal
tender in satisfaction Of his debt,
The question naturally arises here,
why is gold and silver, especially gold,
any better for this purpose than paper?
And the conclusive and unacceptable
answer is that they are not. The use
of these expensive metals for money is
d habit handed down from the primi-
tive ages of man when barter was his
only means of conducting commerce.
Every nation makes its own money,
and gold and silver are only kept in
use for money because they are dear
commodities, and were handed down
from a more barbaric age.
The commodity value of gold and sill
yer does not enter into use when these
Metals are used as money. They can
not be used as merchandise and retain
their money function. Their use as
merchandise is to manufacture into
je.Velry, table ware, gliding, plating
and to supply many other demands of
art. They cannot supply these de-
mands and retain their function as
money.
Many persons are puzzled by the fake
claim that the silver dollar is worth
only fifty cents but when met with the
fact that it will always buy hundred
cents worth, or as much as gold, which
they boast is Full hundred cent dol
lar, the reply is that fifty cents is
''fat," that is law money, the other
half being natural money. A great
many people accept this answer as
true. 1t is not true. The entire money
value is lawmade or fiat" value. The
commodity value of the metal, whether
gold or silver, lies dormant in the coin.
1t is wholly in allegiance. The metal
as a money function in the gold or sill
yer coin has no more value than the
paper in the treasury note. If you
bruise the coins with hammer or
punch ever so small a hole in them
they cease to be money and are sold in
the metal market at the market price
of metal, just the same as paper would
sell at the market price of paper stock,
if the printing were obliterated on a
ton of treasury notes. There is no
such thing as natural or intrinsic
money. The claim is a gold-bug fake.
Money-gold, silver, paper, lis
under all circumstances a creation of
law, made for the purpose of enabling
trade to be transacted among men, and
the intrinsic value of metals does
not enter into the money into which
they are converted, is never thought of
and cannot be used while the coins are
money.
In the light of the plain fact which
no one can deny, and prove his denial.
what becomes of your gold basis, :"
money of final payment" and all the
other cant phrases made use of by the
traders in money, called ''fianciers?"
This entire financial business as con-
Quoted, is a bunco skin game, as any
body of ordinary reasoning capacity
will be convinced who will take the
trouble to investigate it.-Rising Sun
(Md.) Midland Journal.
WHAT DO WE WANT.