The herald., 1896-07-18
"PRIMARY MONEY"
BY JOHN K. BERRY

A writer in the Times, who seems to
have set for himself the task of writing
| u series of articles on the money ques-
ton, appeared in Tuesdays paper with
the first of the series, under the title of
Primary Money.
| From an editorial reference thereto.
as well as the earmarks of the article it.
| self, think 1t is easy to guess without
| missing that the writer thereof is Mr..
| It. S. Van Dyke.
Assuming the guess to be correct,
will take the liberty of suggesting to Mr..
Van Dyke that if he expects his articles
| to be convincing he must look more to
his facts and his logic and less to epithet
| and ridicule.
This article on primary money is in
| troduced as follows:
''The most stupid of all alleged prin-
ciples are two that are cornerstones of
the whole free-silver craze.
First. That nothing is a measure of
value but primary money
Second. That nothing is primary
money unless it has free and unlimited
| coinage.
BY the first they do not mean values,
| but prices, and intend 1t shall be so un-
| derstood by the ignorant. And they
| ihCdh tiidt pIlCeS W Ill IiOl IlSc WltliOdl dii
| increase of primary money"
| And then the article proceeds to an
alleged elucidation of the fallacy Of the
aforesaid corner stones of the free-Sil-
yer craze" and the teachings of Coin s
| Financial School, with an illustration
drawn from the war period when specie
| payments wore suspended and there
Was no primary money in use.
| Mr.. Van Dyke would have added to the
value of his writing if he had explained
what is generally understood by the
| term primary money, or what he himself
understands by it.and what the dis
| tinction is which he more than once re-
These things may all be clear enough to
the mind of Mr.. Van Dyke. but it does
not so appear from his writing.
The term 'primarWmoney" is used to
designate the kind of money in which
promises to pay money and subsidiary
coins of inferior metal or lighter weight
are redeemed or paid upon the demand
of the persons holding them.
In monetary system where any kind
of redemption is maintained, or profess
es to be nominated, the sole purpose
of such redemption is to give to the
money that is redeemed the same value
as that in which it is redeemed
Where gold redemption is maintained
| the sole purpose is to give the value of
! gold to that which Is redeemed in gold.
| This being so, the volume of money that
| can be so redeemed will depend upon
| the volume of gold that exists for re-
| demption purposes. And so, in the last
analysis, the value Of each unit of the
| whole mass of money is fixed by the
value of the unit of redemption money,
and the value of the unit of redemption
money depends upon the number of
units or the volume of such redemption
money.
Before free silver was demonetized
both gold and silver were primary mon
ey. After silver was demonetiZed gold
alone remained primary money. By so
much as the demand for gold for use as
primary money was increased by silver
demonetiZation, by so much was the
value of gold increased, and by so much
was the volume of redeemable currency
! that could be based on primary money
| decreased.
| free silver people teach'tha nothing Is
measure of values but primary mon
| ey," although they would want to bt
| guarded against misrepresentation
by being permitted to explain what they
mean by measure of values"
1t is not true that free silver people
teach that nothing is primary money
unless it has free and unlimited coin
age" Free silver people do teach, how
ever. that where free and unlimited coin
age is permitted to one of the two prec'
! ious metals, which prior to 1873 and from
time immemorial. were both used a.
| primary money, then the other meta
| can only become and be made primary
! money by treating it In all respects the
same, both in the law and in the admin
| istration of the law.
Free silver people do teach that IL an!
| legal limitations are put upon thu
money use of one of the precious metals