The herald., 1895-11-20
TO THE EDITOR
A rlonetary Conundrum

Euitor Herald: In the Express Of No
vemher nth the vivacious end man OF
that institution propounded this:
Will some of our gold bug contempora-
ries, tnc Times for instance. tell us what
would be the value of gold bullion if it
was placed on an equality vita silver
and its free coinage at the mint stopped"
What is the intrinsic vllue of gold aside
from its monetary value?
Without being able to comprehend what
difference it can make whence thirst
flr Knowledge will be assuaged, have
waited patiently, anxiousiy, but vainly
for tua Times to respond. so l be the
use Of your columns to s'tisfy the viva
clous propbunder's cravings I0r element
AIRY instruction.
Pernaps the briefest and most ettica-
cious way to answer this question would
be by asking another. Such as. for in
stance, What would be the value OF wheat
if it was lareG on an equality with COCK
leburs and its conversion Into flour at
The mills stoppe !? Or. What is the IN
trlnsic value of wheat aside from the uses
to wi ch 1t is best adapted and to which
it is better adapted than any other known
product?
But. seriously considered, these inqur-
les relate to tue elementary brant h OF the
money question. Mr.. Express seems to
share W tn the blatant uninforn ed-the
less informed the more blatant-the no.
ton that the adoption al the precious
metals for monetary purposes was u freak
or an accident, instead OF being the result
of ages Of experiment and oh losophIcal
observation. The use of metallic mo ey
was the wise result of slowly ascer-
tanned but absolute nee ssity for some
tning more than mere medium OF OK
hat hpin
a sound, cert in, stable, ciompact, dura-
bic ana convenient measure ana repre-
sentative of va ne. To be this it must be
a thing OF value; thirg OF the value
measured or represented, 80 that value
msht be measured just as accurately as
length, volume or weight are measured.
Otherwise It would indeed Lave been a
freak rank absurdity, to have expend-
ed the human intelligence, energy and
toll requisite to the production u the
precious metals with reference to their
use as money, except that, as money,
they truly and honestly represented the
intelligence, energy and toll required foi
t,eir prod uction, as measures OF equlva-
lent intelligence, energy and toll eXpend'
ed in other directions.
1t is thus, and only thus-with reference
to supply and demand AID cost OF produc-
tion-that the precious metals can be
used as true measures OF value ana non
est money. MS, AT ltaSl, 10 tuc ohiy
rule that can appl Ito money OF final re-
demption. For small Transactions and
local exchanges anything that il accepta.
bic ~ til Sc making the exchanges may
serve as useful purpose as token money,
but i: is wholly dependent on 'cunh-
dence,' which may be strengthened BY
the stamp and guarantee Of the govern.
ment. but that does not make it honest
money.
Y For world wide commerce. heavy trans
actions, loans having a long time to run
and investments requiring long period
tor their fruition,a measure of value pos
sessing the value represented, a dollar
worth dollar, which legislation cannot
affect, is requisite. These qualities gold
possesses and has maintained. The gold
coin of the United STATES gains nothing
by the stamp. double eagle contains
m ore than $40 worth of gold and silver,
to say nothing about tn" copper and tho
cost of coinage. We actually coin our
gold at loss. And yet, for export to