The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1894-05-03
CORRESPONDENCE AND COMMENT.

all right, but as | am one of the Con
trary Club l thought it my time to
chip in My kick is on the intrinsic
value theory The intrinsic value Of
money is delusion and fraud,
which has been played on the labor
ing class for thousands Of years,
until 1t has become kind of second
nature. The writer says, "And this
state Of things will always exist if
the money of the nation has not got
intrinsic value of itself In the
first place, money has no intrinsic
value; or, in other words, money is
fiat Silver has the same intrinsic
value now that it had prior to 1873,
but the fiat is taken from it, This is
proved by taking the silver dollar and
the same weight of bulhon-the diff
ference is about half. Second, if we
were TO advocate the decentralization
of gold, She men chat hold the gold
of the world would be the first to
kick. Why? Because they know
the intrinsic value theory is myth.
On their own argument they could
not be injured, for they would still
have their gold with all Of its intrin-
sic value, but it would be shorn Of
its power to rob the balance of the
world. Gold is the base of the pyr-
amid, turned wrong end down. and as
long as these men have the base they
have control of all that rests on that
base ''To give silver its proper
intrinsic value it is only necessary for
the United States to resume free coin
age, etc. " No nation can give in
trinsc value to any metal it must
have the value in itself Now, sup
pose silver was remonetized, then we
would only have enough com to do
one per cent of the business Of the
country; then with one per cent the
coin men can control the other ninety
and nine. This intrinsic theory is
about like the theory that God could
not make man, but could make a
monkey and turn him into man.
The nation can't make dollar, but it
can make two half dollars, as in the
silver dollars of our day. Now, if
the bulk Of the business of the world
must be done with paper, why should
we have to redeem that paper over
and over thousand times, and con
tinually make new? Why not let the
nation make it and put it in crcula-
ton? That would give it the same
intrinsic value that it gives to silver.
Here is the reason: Every bill that
is lost or destroyed gives the amount
of that bill to the issuer, under the
coin base thus it builds the Issuer
up and the loser is no better Off.
What we want is free coinage, plenty
of silver and gold, all of same legal
value and interchangeable, so that we
can do business with cash and not he
robbed by the intrinsic delusion.
Ed FLETCHER.
The above is good Without aim
ing any shafts whatever ut our Min
eral correspondent (wno is sound on
the silver question: for his thought
less use of the word 'intriEsic, we
desire to add that the fumbling and
jumbling with that high-sounding
word during the financial discussion,
has made us sick long ago. 'In-
trinsic' has been knocked and kicked
about in senseless manner by every
writer, even the most intelligent,
without ever analysing or giving Il
seconds thought to the true meaning
of the word. If they had, they would
soon have sscn what a flimsy pham-
tom they were chasing about with n
dripping pen AS Mr. Fletcher says,
the word signifies ga value within
itself" pure and simple; just that
aud nothing more. \ sack of pota-
toes or bushel of wheat has an IN
trinsic value-a value within itself
because as food it is valuable to sus-
tain life. A sack of wool has an in
trinsic value because it is valuable to
make cloth to clothe us and thus sup
plies want of the human body. The
tree in the forest has an intrinsic
value because it can be made into a
house to shelter rs from the elements
and prevent physical suffering, Thus
5 to have n value within itself, thing
must be able to supply some physical
want Of the human body. Among
metals iron possesses this in the
greatest degree, as it can be put tc
. innumerable uses that supply necessi-
. tics--stoves to warm our frames,
utensils in which To aooE our food