Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1894-08-17

In the New York Tribune of a recent
date, Roswell G. Horr presents one of
the clearest and ablest Of articles on the
money question. The article is based on
the demands of the fat money cranks
for a practically unlimited coinage, and
is a convincing argument for sound
currency. Mr.. Horr says:
Experience shows this and nothing
more: That our government can issue a
limited amount of notes, payable on de-
mand, and keep such notes at par so long
as it redeems them when demanded. Ex-
perience also shows that when the amount
is so large that the government fails to re-
deem them on presentation such notes fall
below par. A government might issue
S6O,O0O,O00 of such notes and keep them
good, when it could do nothing of the kind
with ten times that amount. A man worth
$4,000 might issue promissory notes of 500
each to the amount of $1,000, and those
notes might all remain good. His well
known ability to pay that amount would
give people confidence in his promise. Let
it be once understood, however, that there
are 10000 Of such notes out against him,
and those notes will instantly fall below
par. Because a government can issue a
limited amount of promises to pay and
keep it good, it by no means fellows that
it can do the same thing with an unlimited
amour
The populist writer nowhere indicates
how much of such money can be issued by
a government, and be kept good. l assert
that the amount is limited. Does he deny
this? If not, why did he not name the linn
itation? Or does he believe that the gov
eminent can issue money payable in moth
ing, and that. too, without any limitations
as to time or amount, and yet that such
stuff will be good money as long as it ex-
lists? A populist may believe such a thing
possible. l do not.
People earn money by all kinds of labor.
Men who mine gold and silver furnish the
world with substances which have been
used for ages as money. The government
coins those substances for the purpose of
showing the quantity and quality of each
piece. The people furnish the metal out of
which the coins are made. By the process
of coming, the government creates nothing.
Money is used to facilitate exchanges.
People make money by producing the ar
ticles out of which money is made, or by
producing the articles that can be exchang-
ed for money. When a man gives his note
for 800 in exchange for a horse, the man
is worth nc more than before he bought
the horse, if 800 is the fair value of the
animal. He has the horse, but he owes its
full value. When the government issues a
%greenback or a bond, no value has been
created by the transaction. The govern
ment may exchange them both for gold,
but the government at once becomes in
debted for the full amount of these Obli-
cations.
No doubt it is better to max money than
to borrow IT.; but do not forget that the
government never received a dollar for a
single %greenback or for any government
bond without borrowing the full amount
thus received. The moment such a paper
obligation leaves the treasury it is a sprOm-
Use to pay" real dollars, and the property of
the nation Is pledged to such payment.
These pOpulists are all the time crying
out against mortgages; and yet they would
put a mortgage of untold billions upon the
entire property existing in this country.
Or do these gentlemen think that demand
notes and government bonds need never
be paid? To listen to their talk one would
think that they believe that a kind of
money is possible simply for purposes of
circulation, and that such circulation can
be obtained for paper money without any
kind OF redemption. | have been for years
endeavoring to get some one of them to
send me a sample of slch wonderful paper
money. l am anxious to look at it, to ex-
anime 1t, so as to find out what it is like.