The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1894-08-31
Money.

Money may not be the greatest OF man S
needs but it is the only tool he can eml-
ploy to accomplish any extended business.
This being an irrefutable fact, it is all i'm
portant for the tool to be perfect and so
adjusted that it can be used to the best
advantage, with the least possible friction
or expense.
What is the proper function of money
is the first inquiry to be answered. This
may be illustrated by supposing farmer
has a thousand bushels of wheat in his
granaries. He has no personal use for
more than few bushels of this wheat but
the miller can use the whole crop to man
ufacture into flour. The first need of the
farmer is wagon to convey the wheat to
the miller. Without the wagon the wheat
is almost useless. He wonld consume a
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 the grain
how is the farmer to be recompensed for
his labor? He wants in exchange for his
wheat twenty or more things indispensa-
BILE to life i'll 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, gov
ernments have created medium of eX-
change, 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 OF
produce from one partys premises to an.
Others money transfers the value Of
merchandise, whatever it is, from one
person or owner to another. Therefore
we see that the first function of money is
to transfer values. Society found some
thing of this kind necessary or it couldn't
get along at all, and the human family
would have been doomed to remain i'll a
primitive state of barbarism, without some
means of exchanging and distributing
their products 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 produce
or merchandise of all kinds, this money
must be legal tender for debts. A debt
is always created when one person passes
a package of merchandise into the hands
of another in the ordinary business Of
trade. The government has provided a
means of extinguishing the debt by max,
ing money legal tender. That is, COM
polling 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 i? And
the conclusive and unacceptable answer is
that they are not. The use of these ex
pensive metals for money is habit
handed down from the primitive ages o.
man when barter was his only means Of
conducting commerce. Every nation
makes its own money, and gold and silver
are only kept i'll use for money because
they are dear commodities, and were
handed down from more barbaric age
The commodity value of gold and silver
does not enter into use when these metals
are used for money. They cannot be
used as merchandise and retain theil
money function. Their use as merchan.
disc is to manufacture into jewelry, table
ware, gliding, plating and to supply many
other demands of art. They cannot sup
ply any of these demands and retain
their function as money.
Many persons are puzzled by the fake
claim that the silver dollar is worth only
nifty cents but when met with the fact that
1t will always buy hundred cents worth
or as much as gold, which they boast is a
tull hundred cent dollar, the reply is that
fifty cents is fat" that is law money,
the other half being natural money. A
great many we'll informed people accept
this answer as true. 1t is not true. The
entire money value is law-made 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 money function in the gold or
silver coin has no more value than the
paper in the treasury note. If you bruise
the coins with hammer or punch ever
SO small 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 the paper would sell at the
market price of paper stock, if the print
ing were obliterated on 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, etc, is
under all circumstances creation oflaw,
made for the purpose of enabling trade to
be transacted among men, and the Gin
trinsic value" of metals does not enter
into the money into which they are con-
verted, 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 Prooe his denial what
becomes of your gold basis" money of
hnal payment" and all the other cant
phrases made use of by the traders in
money called " fianciers?" This entire