Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1895-08-26
THE MONEY QUESTION.


EDITOR JoURNAJ:-Ip your editorial
answer to Mr.. u. w. scott, in your
issue Of Aug. ~, you fall into two very
common errors. You say: ave
want more paper money, but we want
all paper money redeemable in metallic
money Of intrinsic value" No govern
ment should issue any money that IL
redeemable at all. II is not money, "
II Is not full money" Money is only
n measure Of value after II has received
the stamp aud authority Of the govern
ment. That was another trick played
played by the minions Of shylock after
the war OF the Rebellion. The 6rsi
was the demonetizltIon Of silver; the
sscond the resumption Of specie pay
msnt.
The demonetlzation Of silver doubled
the burden Of gold aud the resumption
OF specie payments more than doubled
IL again, without accomplishing any
good, except t, bring greenbacks-tten en-
worth 9S cents--to par. That cou'd
have been done by simply giving them
the same power that was given the
legal tender issue Of 1850.
But shylock Is n cunning rascal, aud
banking on the innate honesty Of the
masses, as we'll as their ignorance, after
having made all that was possible TO he
made out OF greenbacks, as then consii-
tuted, they raised the plea for an
'honest dollar" and had them made
redeemable In gold. But for fear that
'the people" might demand gold for
them occasionally, they had them
made redeemable only In sums Of $50
or more, and then only at the sub
treasury In New York. So that even II
q citizen Of Minnesota or Oregon had
S50-and there are not many Of them
have that-they can let II lie idle for is
days; they must send 1t there for re-
demption. They, at that time, were
laying the wires for the raid on the
gold OF the nation that IL now being
carried on. 1t In now being done for
two-fold purpose: First, to discredit
the greenback and have them called In
and cancelled. The government, In
payment for them, 10 issue interest
bearing bonds, rs Is being done, osten-
sibly 10 keep gold In the country. But,
in reality, rs 1 say to discredit the
power of the government TO keep them
at par with gold, and then to get, as ]
said, interest bearing bonds as q basis
for national bank notes, that are to be
Issued by the banks As currency, but
not redeemable by the banks At all.
or course, each bank agrees to re-
deem "it's own notes." But would
ask you TO examine all the bank notes
In your possession and see how many
OF them were Issued by q bank In
Salem, then see how many Of them
have been issued by bank In Oregon,
and see how easy II would be to get
them redeemed ION demand" or
rather, how hard 1t would be to make
a demand at all on the proper bank Of
Issue. They say: "They want to take
the government out Of the banking
business" Quite likely, they find IL
too profitable to divide. But are the
American people ready TO turn the
money Issuing" power over 10 shy.
lock9
Why IL II that the "power" OF the
banks TO redeem their paper money
has never been questioned ? Because
IL IL not 10 the interest OF the banks to
have Il done and that alone. Your
other error was In crediting metal
money with intrinsic value. No money
has any intrinsic value. When the
metal receives the stamp and author
ity OF the government II then and there
loses any "lntrlnsic value" II may
haYe had before and becomes, simply,
money, ard its value just what the
''stamp''desIgnAtes and no more,And no
less, unless the iiat that was given Il
as 10 its debt paying power was
limited, have before me = silver Ger
tlficate series OF 1891 which on one side
says; "This csrtines that there has
been deposited In the treasury of the