Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1895-05-24

comes at once the object for which all
otner products seek the market. II
thus mas an unlimited market, as the
Ihints are open to all of It that comes.
silver Is the peoples money. 1t was
SO regarded by our forefathers. and was
the Favored money Of the two. 1t was
| given the position of honor in the coin
| age or our two metals by having the
unit or value made from 1t and gold. its
companion metal, measured in IT. Gold
was and Is the money Of the rich. This
was TO be government of the people
and the peoples money was to be tn
most favored. Twice when the com
| mercial ratio between the two metals
| made 1t advisable to change the legal
| ratio, the change was made by recoininp
the gold coins. This was In 1884 and in
1887, and the gold coins were changed
| IN weight and size. In 1884 the gold ca
gle had IL grains taken out of 1t. In
1887 the eagle had two-tenths of grain
added to 1t. No change was ever made in
the quantity of pure silver in the silver
unit. Inc rich mans money-gold-
was recoined when the commercial ra-
ito interfered with the legal ratio.
This Is the law we would re-enact
We would make both legal tender in the
the law of 1878 and the Sherman law of
1890, authorizing contracts, bonds. notes
and mortgages, to be taken payable in
gold only. We would allow no discrim-
nation to be made between the legal
tender character of the two metals. We
would allow no private individual to
dictate to the government what its
legal tender money should be. We
would place the white metal on an equal
footing with the colored metal. without
regard to previous condition of race or
servitude."
THE OTHER SIDE.
Professor Laughlin, replying for the
negative. said:
Apart from the well understood use
OF money as medium of exchange
money is used like common denomin- |
ator or value with which other articles |
are compared. AS a measure of value |
II serves In similar way as a quart cup |
may serve as measure of capacity;
and as there Is not needed a separate |
cup for every quart of milk in exist
ence, no one can measure hundreds of |
thousands of goods by comparing with
the same standard of value. There Is |
no need of an amount of money equal |
ure of value is that in which prices are |
stated and debts are paid, provided the |
measure of value is also made a legal |
tender in any country. 1t Is evident. |
then, that the quantity Of measures is |
not so material as the unvarying stabil-
ity OF the standard of measure The alb
surdity of supposing that much money |
is required in order to have something
with which to measure goods Is as alb
surd as to suppose that a community
must have hearses in number equal to
the population. All goods are neither
exchanged at the same time, nor are
they offered in comparison with a stand
ard at the same time. What is important
to point out Is that goods when express
ed In terms Of the common denomina-
tor of value are daily exchanged in
enormous quantity mainly without the
use of any money. For the exchange of
these goods, therefore, money is not
needed in proportion to the transactions.
This function is that of the medium of
exchange. The necessity of an increas-
ing quantity of money is growing less
important with the development of this
system of exchange From 90 Der cent
TO 70 per cent. of the transactions are
performed by this machinery without
The use of money, and recent investiga-
lions made by the comptroller of the
currency show that "a per cent. of retail
are similarly performed
without the use of money"