The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1895-08-03


WASHINGTON July 23.-DEAR SIR: Return
Eng from i small furlOugh. l find your letter.
IN il You State: Money, whether
made OF metal, or paper. is merely u fiction Of
thc law. The commodity value of the material
out OF which money is coined or created is Of no
consequence in q currency"
In Wyoming, OtOe county. Neb., there lives a
good citizen. who, on the field and in the
United States senate, has been a conspicuous
figure. He has in his time advocated
nearly all kinds OF money. including. Of
course. the poor mans money" meaning sill
yer at l6 TO l.. And HOW he advertiScS for sale,
for cash in hand. to the highest bidder, a half
mile square o! his large domains. Many thrifty
citizens Of Otoa county arrive at the Hotel
Wyoming the night before the sale. to be on
hand when the bidding begins at 5 O'Clock the
neNt morning. During the night the hotel is
burned TO the ground. Sixteen of the would-be
purchasers. each having a thousand silver dol
lars melted in the cOnfiagratiOn 50 that the
Goddess Of Liberty and IN God We Trust"
are easel and swallowed UP in ragged chunks
nj bullion. awaken to lind that the commodity
value of none" is OF consequence. For. plac-
Ing their bullion of silver on the market. they
ina it worth only 6S cents. whereas they
bought II at a mint value with labor and
l1bOrS product at Sl.2a an ounce. sixteen
thousand dollars Of silver coin accidentally
melted into bullion brings its owners less than
$3.50.
Bat there was also one wOuld-be purchaser
who had melted in that same lire 5000 OF gold
coin 50 that the Goddess and In God We
Trust" were lost to view in a lump Of yellow
bullion without 4 single sign Of Governmental
stamp thereon. And this one who held gold
finds that the commodity value of his bullion
IS nearly, il not quite, equal to that
stamped upon it as coin by the
United States mint He has learned. at
least, that the bullion value and the mint
value OF gold are very much the same and
that therefore gold is by far the best metallic
money.
1t is safe to wager I6 to I that the gold coin
owner feels sixteen times as much consolation
when selling in bullion his gold THOUSAND dol
lars as does anyone OF the others selling his
thousand dollars Of silver reduced to bullion.
And the poor mans best money is that which
loses least III value when by fire or otherwise
u Loses the stamp Of the government.
And if at that fire some fat money advocate
lost a few thousand paper, proniSeS-tO-pay
dollars. he also Will rise up aud dispute the
popular fallacv that money is 4 y mere fiction Of
the law and y~Chemently denOUncc the yagary
that a commodity value in money Is unncceS-
S2ry and useless. Gold and silver were money
before any law made them so. before any gov
eminent coined them OF any mint stamped
Shcm. And then each was valued by the de-
m2nd for each. and now also the relation of the
supply Of silver to the demand for silver -cgu-
iates its value q 1N g. ESsN %Hr
but YOU futhefasay that She Eoferhzdent.
not takig%si.Yer for cGsnagea ti6-t0 Haas de-
stroyed thC deIand for silver. In a gOverr-
Incnt like OURS, which as an entity is simply
all OF Us, there can be no demand Great &c,
either for silver. or anything else, except the
integral parts OF the composite evolve that de-
nard; only the people c. the United States b.
their generally expressed desire for a Thing
can create 4 demand for it.
Yours Faithfully.
J. STERLING NGEroS.