The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1896-11-13
JOHN HENRY KEENE ON MR.
COWEN.

-ReDublicanS Contemplate Civ
ing More Monopoly to Banks Tor
their Valuable Aid.
1Iessrs. Editors:
The voice of MamnIon, the least erect
ed spirit that fell from Heaven; me
voicesof the Metropolitan press. OF plu-
tocratic swelIdom, flunkeydoni, and OF
the money grabbers of the gold Sect OF
the assassin- and conspirators, whom
Carlisle, the apostate, declares tine
greatest criminals of this Or any other
age,u The voices of bribery, ihtlnlda-
ton. corruption and coercion; the
voice of fifty millions of ctmp 'lgn u ~
die, and of hypocrisy, the only SIN
that walks the eat tin invisible to man,
visible to Col alone" are heard
throughout the laud. Their claim
for their cllieftain of plurality OF one
million of votes over those cast for
the simple, the brave and the noble
defender of the faith OF representative,
free and independent America is the
least of their claims.
To the student who would know the
/
commonwealth, the chorus of these
prayers must prove an Interesting and
instructive study.
ANY man of toIerabIe discernment,
looking underneath this surface noise,
will readily see that instead of its be-
ing the natural overflow of enlighten-
ed, patriotic public spirit, it is really
the braying of braggarts, insincere, de-
ceptive and thoroughly saturated
with cant political, cant moral,
cant patriotic. cant economic, but be-
yond admeasurement, cant hypocritic
and plutOcratic.
70 illustrate my meaning, and to
show how a skiful use of the mechan-
ism of language may present to coarse
intellects AS Il profound truisIn, merely
a ponderous thereon, full of sound aud
fury, signifying nothing more than
! crusade against common sense. / take
| the liberty to select from the columns
of the NetOs during the recent interim
| the following extract from its report
| ed interview with Mr.. Cowen:
GA body of cranks, who despite the
experience of the past, will iusist that
law creates value and that money can
! be made by the government and
ought to he made and made in plenty"
"Of course, hundreds of years of eX
perieuce have exploded this theory,
| but all parties such as the late POpo-
cratic party pick up rejected nostrums
and offer them as cures for every pOlit-
zeal disease"
1t must he conceded that as a re-
| ceiver of corporation whose shares
sank rapidly from $2l4 to $l4, Mr..
Cowen has enjoyed exceptional facllI-
ties for Discerning the forces which alb
sorb and destroy if not of those which
create and establish values; yet if by
his statement that law cannot create
value, Mr.. Cowen Intends to main
tain that the government by
its fiat cannot create aud establish
| the commercial value of coin or any
other commodity, the student of ecj-
nonIics knows That tn. cranks who as
serted that the governments fiat can
alone create money value, embrace
with the exception perhaps of Mr. At
kinson every writer of economic re-
pute at home or abroad.
When the British Council ordered
the miuts of India closed. in two hours
silver fell 80 per cent an ounce. When
our act of 1890 was passed silver rose to
$l.20. When Chevalier proposed in
| 1856 10 demOnetiZe gold because he
| feared the newly discovered mines
would depreciate Its purchasing power,
silver rose and gold fell at the bare sug-
geStiOn of governmental interference.
Suppose our States were not prOhib-
tied from coming bullion gold or silver
except in excess of a million per an
mum, that the output of our mines sup
Piled that limitation, aud also all the
demands of bullion for art purposes,
and any suTp Us for which there was
no demand, would depreciate the mar
lxSf V.aIlt nj ha
talion TO one million was extended to
two million, by such au act of the
government, the surplus would rise in
value until the demand was exhausted,
aud mended the government act au-
thoriZlng the States to coin two mil
lion instead of one million, it would Gre
ate value in this surplus commodity
equal to the demand.
The act of the government would
create value 10y increasing the de-
mand. lftne government needed one
million of horses and should confine
its purchase to white horses, the gov
ernment would create value for white
horses and all others would depreciate
Ill value. Ifan act of the government
should provide that only white wheat
should De exported, red wheat would
decline and white wheat would appre-
ciate ia value. Bullion like any other
commodity, owes the creation of its
value TO the laws which regulate sup
ply and demand, whether natural or
artificial.
In fact, law creates the only value
there Is in money, no matter what
form OF it be the medium of exchange
of values. No principle in political
economy is better established than
this.
Without law, there is no money. no
legal tender, no fixed value, no ratio.
no payment of any obligation at the
end of the law.
Without law gold and silver are
mere metals and have no fixed value.
no fixed price, no fixed ratio, and they
are only accepted as any other com
modify, at whatever price may he
agreed upon. Now, by law the gov
eminent creates its own money. Mon
ey is the creature of law and of
law alone. All money, whether skins.
salt or tobacco, gold or silver, is fiat.
Gold is fiat money just as greenbacks
or treasury notes. Gold has no intrin-
sic value-as money, but only as COM
modify.
John Stuart Mills SAYS: ''There could
not. in short, be a more insignificant
thing in the economy of society than