Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1895-08-16
MORTON BURNS A HOTEL.
The Secretary Of Agriculture Gives . 10
TO 1 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 others. On
July % he wrote the following letter;
DEAR sIR-Returning from small furlough'
find your letter. In Il you state: =" Money,
whether made Of metals or paper, is merely
a fiction OF the law. The commodity value Of
the material out Of which money is coined or
created is Of no consequence in currency"
In Wyoming, Otoc county, Nob., there lives
n good citizen who on the field and in the
United States sonato has been a conspicuous
figure. He has in his time advocated nearly
all kinds OF money, including OF course tho
"poor mans money" meaning silver at 10 10
]. And now he advortses for sale for cash In
hand 10 tho highest bidder half mile square
OF his large domains. Many thrifty citizens OF
Otoe county arrive at tho Hotel Wyoming the
night before tho sale 10 be On hand when the
bidding begins AZ O'Clock next morning.
During the night the hotel is burned 70 the
ground Sixteen Of the would be purchasers,
each having 600 silver dollars melted In the
confederation so that the Goddess OF Liberty
and "fh God we trust" arc erased and swat
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 the market, they find It worth only
GO cents, whereas they bought IL at a mint
value with labor and labor's products, at 81.
an ounce Sixteen Thousand dollars Of silver
coin accidentally melted into bullion brings
its owners less than $500
But there was also one would be purchaser
who had melted in that same fire 81 600 Of gold
coin, so that the goddess and "In God We
trust" were lost TO Wow In lump OF yellow
bullion without n single sign Of governmental
stamp thereupon.
And this one who held gold finds that tho
commodity value Of his bullion Is nearly il
not quite equal to that stamped upon 1t as
coin by the United States mint He has learn
| ed at least that the bullion value and the mini
value Of gold arc very much the same, and
there therefore gold Is by far the best metallic
money.
IL Is safe to wager 10 to that the gold COR
| owner feels 10 times as much consolation wheI
| selling In bullion his gold thousand dollars a
does any one Of the other selling his thousand
dollars Of silver reduced to bullion. And the
moor mans best money Is that which loses
| least in value when by fire or otherwise Il
loses the stamp Of tho government.
| And II At that fire some nat money advocate
lost few thousand paper promises TO pay dol
ular fallacy that "money is n mere fiction o.
the law" and vehemently denounce the vagarJ
that ga commodity value I'm money Is unnec
essary and useless"
Gold and silver were money before any Law
made them so-before any government coined
| them or any mint stamped them. And ther
each was volued by the demand for each, and
now also the relation Of the supply Of gold Z
| the demand for gold regulates It's value. And
the relation OF the supply Of silver 70 the de
mand for silver regulates It's value.
But you further say that the government
not taking silver for coinage ct 10 10 !, has de
stroyed the demand for silver.
In government like ours, which as on en-
tity is simply cali Of us, there can be no de
mand created either for silver or anything els
except tho integral parts Of the composite
/ evolve that demand. Only the people Of thu
| United States by their generally expressed de
sire for thing can create demand for 1t
Yours faithfully, J. STERLING MORTON.