St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-01
'APRIIo FOOL Us
FAVORS FIAT MONEY.
A Few Remarks on Il Subject of
Deep Interest.


To the Editor of the Globe
What is money? Many would an
swer by saying that money is gold,
and that gold is money. This is the
position of all conservative finan-
cial writers, however absurd
it may be. These people are fond of
speaking of gold as the basis of
money-of it's being the money of
ultimate redemption. a little thought
will show us how false and mean
ingleSS are such assertions. The
things which man wants and which
money will procure for him are what
make it good, and these thing are
its ultimate redemption.
What do men want? What do
they work for? Gold? The mere
suggestion shows the folly of the
idea. When a laborer agrees to
work month for $20 he does not
desire certain commodity, whether
gold, or silver, or copper, but a def
mite value of food. clothing and shell
ter. These things, then, and not
gold, are what make money of ulti-
mate redemption-thesea are the basis
of money. If a man could eat gold.
or clothe himself with 1t, there would
be some truth in calling it basis
of money, for such necessaries are
wealth, but so far is any in
trinsic value in gold from constitut-
ing it money that the very in
slant 1t assumes the form in which
1T can be made of real value, that
minute it ceases to be money.
No one will accept gold leaf or
chloride of gold as money-scarcely
will he take even bracelet or ring
as such. But that which will en-
able the trader to procure what he
wants, whether gold or diamonds
or -four or wool-that is money.
Money, then, is a means of trade
and 1T is a means of trade by
measuring the value of the things
traded. No trade can be accom-
plfshedc without weights and meas
ures. The yard-st;ck, the pound
weight, the bushel define and ex-
press quantities, and therefore are
symbols by which men express to
each other their wants. What is
true of these concrete or particular
values is true of value in general.
How shall we measure that which
is common to all values? Labor,
the abstract of all concrete forms of
wealth-that which is common to all
things men are willing to pay for
can in the nature of things have but
one standard-itself. The totality
of all work, the aggregate of wealth,
is the only true standard by which
any part or form of it can be meas
ured. Let the amount of gold be
doubled, and though wages may in
crease 100 per cent, they will buy no
more than If 1t were diminished by
one-half; but let the total product
of labor be doubled, and wages will
be doubled.
Gold cannot measure a mans want
Of clothing, or food, or of anything
else, excepting itself. 1t will always
be constant measure of gold, but
so always will wheat be a fixed
way, in the same manner that a de-
gree measures a circle, the circle
itself being the basis, and the 36Oth
part of it the degree. In exactly the
same way is the totality of labor
as represented by it's products the
| standard by which a part or unit
of itself can be measured. Expert
ence has confirmed the correctness
OF these ideas.
The paper money of Venice was
for centuries as good in every re-
spect as money could be. The ''irre-
deemable" paper money used during
the Napoleonic wars was universally
received as final payment as far as
money could be payment The first
$50, 100000 that was issued in paper
during the late civil war never de-
preciated, and none of it would have
done SO had it not been repudiated
by the governments refusal to re-
ceive it as payment of duties.
F. R. HAYS