The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1895-09-27

G. Stuart Patterson. chairman execu-
tive committee Sound Money League
of Pennsylvania, recently had pub
lished his idea Of what constituted
Sound money"
When first published, the Item
thought his idea too nonsensical for no
tice. But as a demand upon the Item
has since been made for its analysis,
the nonsensical features will be made
clear:
Sound money" says Mr.. Patterson.
''is OF only one Of two possible kinds;
first, that whose market value as
commodity is equivalent to its face
value as money; or, second, that which
Is representative in character, and hav-
ing little or no market value as COM
modify, is convertible at par into money
o. -y first kind. Gold alone
Is sound money Of the first kind"
Let ali the governments of the world
to-day open their minis to the free
coinage of silver and silver at once be-
| comes as sound as gold. according 70
Mr. Patterson. although he does not
say 1t. He does not say it, because his
definition shows ignorance Of what 1t is
that makes the money of the country;
he Is ignorant that fiat of a government
alone makes money. He Is ignorant
that fiat alone gives the present COM
mercial value Of gold; he is ignorant
that there is no such thing as having
a commodity value equivalent to its
face value aside from its fat value; be-
cause the commodity value is alone
made ND by the coinage or fiat demands
of tho world.
All OF Mr.. PatteTson's definition is
! based upon the long-ago exploded doc
tr!n3 Of intrinsic value in money indie
pendent Of its minting or fiat value.
No ore bat F'a"i- ignoramus ever
now claims an iItrinsic value aside
from the fat value put upon coin by
the various governments. When one
comes fOiG ID again with this old non
sense of intrinsic value, as Mr.. Patter
son does, he is not worth needing; he
3 too little OF the subject for print.
Any school boy now knows and can en-
|
! gold in the void to-day were demon
etized, its fiat value reno we'd. the COM
mercIal value of gold instead OF being
| the present fac" value of gold. might
! drop to twenty cents or the dollar of its
'rC oLt face value; il would drop TO
/ Cv' fly what It would be worth for
! N .cantile or manufccturin. purposes;
mi oh In 3 10
doi'a t. D. y, ,ad., because
! nearly four thcLs.A1 r'"lion dollars
! Gcrih of 1t would be suddenly thrown
upon tn market. Naturally, so large
a sum would s.st nd swamp all de-
mands for gold for mercantile purposes.
| That is all the intrinsic value or
sound money value" there is in Mr..
Pattersons GOLD dollar
Regarding the second kind of Sound
money" there is no soundness in il.
There is not enough gold in the coun-
try to redeem five per cent of the de-
maud obligations which this second
form Of money daily promises to re-
deem. Hence, instead of being
! 30 md" 1t is rotten with fraud and
corruption. lie on its face, and the
foundation Of panics.
| To maze the money Of the second"
! class sound, according TO Mr.. Patter-
sen. no more of ii could remain in cir
i.ation than could be redeemed at any
one moment OF time "a, gold, which
would mean in practice that there
could only be a quantity of Sound
money" in a country equivalent to the
amount Of gold in it. In the United
States this might be two or three hun
dred million dollars, which might all
90 abroad tomorrow If Europe sold
that much worth of American securi-
ties held t4ere. Now without any
money left in this country all gold be-
{, Ing exported. where would the Sound
money" to carry on internal United
States trade come in?
The truth is, Mr.. Patterson does not
know enough about sound money" p
last him over night; much less TO be
chairman Oh Il Sound Money League.
Yet this very ignorance which would
disgrace primary school is consid-
cred 80 Sound" that Mr.. Pattersons
convincing" definition is being incor-
porated in pamphlet: Document No.
z. "one of the Money Leagues valu-
able co and instructive CD publIca-
tions." says the Public Ledger.
What In the world are these usurer
spologists coming to? Have they no
common sense left?-Philadelphia
Item.