The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-06-12
JUST ORDINARY FOOLS
GOLDBUGS ARE JUST COMMON
EVERYDAY SIMPLETONS.
Balaams' Long cared Animal
Droops His Ears In Shame.


For long time verify believed that
the goldbug leaders were knaves who
were working out deep laid plot Of an
archistic ruin. But recent DEVELOPMENTS
have compelled me to adopt the conclu-
sion that they are, at least majority of
them, simply fools; just common, every
day simpletons I always hated to ad-
nit this, for it is far more humiliating
to me as an American to be obliged to
confess that our so-called representative
men are fools, than to admit them to be
intelligent scoundrels. A. Jesse James
or Bob Dalton is more attractive than
hopeless idiot. And when we are
forced to confess that our public men
are set of utter incompetents, and that
they are being used simply as pawns in
a game of chess, played by the shrewd
financiers of Europe, our national pride
comes down with dull and sickening
thud, and our Fourth of July pyrotech-
MICS serve but to emphasize the gloom
of our surroundings.
The thing of all others which has
forced the above conclusion on my mind
is the persistent use on the part of plu
tocratic writer's, of the pet phrases which
they continually indulge in. The first
OF these is the phrase intrinsic value"
1t is, and always has been misnomer.
Things have qualities which make
| them valuable, because those qualities
make them useful to mankind. But
, what kind of brain is it which cannot
| discriminate between the quality of
| thing, and mans desire for the thing
| because of that quality.
"Value is an ideal thing" said the SUI
| preme Court. Why? Because it is the
desire for things which constitutes their
value, and that desire can only exist as
! an idea in the human mind. Bread and
meat possess qualities which make them
| desirable for sustenance, and hungry
man has an intense idea of the value OF
| bread and meat, and hence attaches
! great value to prospective dinner. But
after he has satisfied his hunger what
value does he place upon the contents of
the table he has just left? The food
still retains it's qualities but his desire
| is gone. and with it the ideal value, to
the extent that he would think you
fool if you insisted on his going back
and eating again just because OF the. in
| trinsic value" of the abandoned grub.
Our public men and our great CD mag
azine writer's are simply Anticipated pup
| pets in the hands of sharp European
money changers, who surely must ex-
| th0 iv,co nJ1f h
ings of our Clevelands, Carlisles, and
other so-called leaders of American pol
| tiles. when they talk Of intrinsic value
in money" and gold, as standard OF
value.
It is a wonder that the whole outfit do
not worship wooden gods! For it is self
evident that they have not reached the
stage of intellectual development that is
capable of realizing an abstract idea.
They cannot comprehend numbers save
by the aid of gold counters. The pound
sterling has been the English unit OF
value for many centuries, but there
never was pound sterling coined until
| 1915, excepting few during the reign
| of Henry VIII. What becomes then OF
the intrinsic value of the British
pound?
You say that 1t has had representa-
tives Certainly it has, as any abstract
idea may be represented, but the real
unit is the ideal, and must ever remain
SO. and the pound or the dollar, may be
represented by gold, silver, or paper
thing. lust as the ideal unit of space
called a yard may be represented by a
lath, string, or costly stick OF ebony.
The main requisite of any such repre-
sentative is that it shall do the necessary
work, and if a cheap thing will answer
the purpose it is far better than costly
thing which will do the work no better
The besotted mind of John G. Carlisle
becomes an object Of pity and commits
Grafton when he stands before Covlng-
ton audience and asserts that there was
| never a time in the history of the Wolrd
when the laboring mans dollar would
purchase more of the comforts of life
than now. and there was never time in
the history of the world when the labor
ing man received as many gOod COLLARS
for his work as now"
Once more has biblical event been
discounted and Baalam's ass may droop
it's ears in shame! If the shoemaker can
get more of the comforts produced by
the farmer for his dollars than ever be-
fore. how can it possibly be true that the
farmer gets more of the shOemaker's
good dollars for the produce than ever
before? An ostrich with it's head in the
sand, a sick chimpanzee on the Congo
or Joe Medill could see the absurdlty OF
such a statement But this great mouth
piece OF the Buzzard's Bay fisherman
goes on and makes such statements with
an innocent abandon that suggests a
chronic hypnotism, or cerebral paralysis
No, the knave theory must be aban-
doned. When men talk of intrinsic
value" the money of the world" use
the words anarchy and socialism as syn
onymous terms, and speak of congress
and the president as 1.-The government
we must sadly and painfully submit to
the cruel necessity of conceding the fact
that the old party leaders are in the
"sere and yellow leaf" That senility
has overtaken them and no TRANSMISSION
of blood can ever restore their thinking
machinery to usefulness again.
c.. w. STEWART.
| LittletOn Colo.