Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1895-11-14
MORTON BURNS A HOTEL.
Tho Secretary Of Agriculture Gives . I
to Object Lesson.


to Object Lesson.
Secretary Of Agriculture J. Sterling
Morton not only has clear ideas about
money, but he is ever ready with some
striking illustration or pat parable to
make his thoughts clear to othsrs. On
July 20 he wrote the following letter:
DEAR SIR Returning from small furlough,
I find your letter. In 1t you state: "Monoy,
whether made % metals or paper, Is merely
q fiction of the law The commodity value Of
the material out Of which money Is coined %
created Is Of TO consequence in currency"
In Wyoming, Otoo county, Nob, there lives
n good citizen who ON the field and in the
United States senate has been conspicuous
figure. He has in his time advocated nearly
all kinds Of money, including of course the
"poor mans money" meaning silver ut 16 to
]. And now he advertises for sale for cash in
hand to the highest bidder half mile square
Of his large domains. Many thrifty citizens Of
Otoo county arrive ut tho Hotel Wyoming tho
night before the sale to be OH hand when the
bidding begins at o'clock next morning.
During the night the hotel Is burned to the
ground. Sixteen Of tho would be purchasers,
each having 1.0OO silver dollars melted in the
conflasration SO that tho Goddess Of Liberty
and SIN God we trust are erased and swal-
lowed up In ragged chunks Of bullion, awake
to find that the commodity value Of money Is
of consequence. For, placing their bullion Of
silver on tho market, they find 1t worth only
GO cents. whereas they bought it at mint
value, with labor and labor's products, at 81 20
an ounce. Sixteen thousand dollars Of silver
coin accidentally melted into bullion brings
its owners less than $500
But there was also ono would be purchaser
who had melted in that same fire 81. 900 of gold
coin, so that the goddess and SIN God we
trust" were lost to view in n lump Of yellow
n Cd Sie NJ nj
stamp thcreupon.
And this one who held gold finds that the
commodity value Of his bullion Is nearly II
not quito equal to that stamped upon 1t az
coin by tho United States mint. He has loarn.
cd ut least that the bullion value and the mint
value Of gold arc very much the came, and
there therefore gold Is by far the best metallic
money.
1t is safe to wager lC to that tho gold coin
owner feels 10 times as much consolation when
selling in bullion his gold thousand dollars as
does any one OF tho other selling his thousand
dollars Of silver reduced to bullion. And the
poor mans best money is that which loses
.cast in .alue when by fire or otherwise 1t
loses tho stamp Of the government.
And II at that fro somo fat money advocate
lost few thousand paper promises to pay dol
lars he also will rise up and dispute the pop
u1ar fullacy that "moncy Is u mere fiction Of
the law" and vehemontly denounce the vagary
that ga commodity value In money Is unnec.
essary and useless
Gold and silver wcre money before any law
made them so-before any government coined
them or any mint stamped them. And then
each was valued by the demand for each, and
now also the relation Of the supply Of gold to
tho demand for gold regulates Its value. And
the relation Of the supply Of silver to the de.
mand for silver regulates its value.
But You further say that the government,
not taking silver for coinage ut 10 to /, has de-
stroyed the demand for silver.
In government like ours which as an en-
tity Is simply call Of u.s." there can be no de-
mand created either for silver or anything else
except the integral parts Of tho composite
evolve that demand. Only tho people Of the
United States by their generally expressed de.
siro for a thing can create demand for IL.
Yours faithfully, ]. STERLING MORTON.