The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-10-10

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very truly argues that there is no need
that money. from this point of view, shall
have intrinsic value But he oyeriooks
the fact that money is also "a pledge"
and that pledge or security must have
intrinsic value. If it, has no intrinsic
value. It will be accepted in trade only
on trust, as a memorandum of indebted
nes to be discharged at some future time;
and, the moment that confidence is shaken
in its ultimate redemption. its nominal
value begins to decline, until, when con-
fdence in its redemption Is destroyed, it
no longer passes current.
Concerning the vexed question of the
amount Of money required. Locke re-
marks that it IS hard to determine the
necessary proportion of money TO trade,
because IL depends not barely on the
quantity of money, but the quickness OF
Its circulation. The very same shilling
may, at one time. pay twenty men IN
twenty days; at another, rest In the same
hands hundred days together. He an
ticipates the argument of Mr.. Bryan and
others who advocates the cheapening OF
the American dollar, and even Mr.. Bry-
ans quaint Illustration .aken from the
"teeter-board,' in the following words:
There is another seeming consequence of
the reducing Of money to a low price.
which at first sight has such an appear
ance of truth in il, that have known it
to impose upon very able men; and that
is, that the lowering of interest against
which he was writing) will raise the value
Of all other things in proportion. For
money being the counter-balance to all
other things purchasable by it. and lying,
as it were, in the opposite scale of COM
merce, it looks like natural consequence,
that as much as you take off from the
value of money, So much you add 10 the
price of other things that are exchanged
for it, "ss The mistake of this plaus-
ible way of reasoning will be easily dis
covered, when we consider that the mea-
sure of the value of money, in proportion
TO anything purchasable by il, IS the guam
tity of the ready money we have in COM
parison with the quantity OF that thing
and its vent: (by vent he means demand
in it's relation to supply or, which
amounts to the same thing, the price of
any commodity rises or falls, by the pro-
portion of the number of buyers and sell
ers." In other words, the ratio which
determines prices IS not the ratio between
money and property. but the ratio be-
tween the number of producers and that
of consumers of any article in the mar
ket. This ratio is not affected, directly
or indirectly, by the volume of the cur
rency. Money he says, serves us
commonly by its exchanges, never almost
by it's consumption" and he adds, in
direct contradiction to the theory held
nd NIL tod hxyM Mr. ha
only honest dollar is a stable dollar):
Though the use men make of money be
not in its consumption, yet it has not at
all more standing, settled value. in ex-
changes with any other thing, than any
other commodity has"
The idea that legislation has power to
alter the value OF money moves him TO
mirth. 'grhese men," he says, have
found out by cunning project how, by
the restraint of a law, to make the price
of money one-third cheaper, and then
they tell John a Nokes that he shall have
$1,000 of it to employ in merchandise or
clothing; and John Stiles shall have
10000 more to pay his debts; and so dis
tribute this money as freely as Diego did
his legacies, which they are to have, even
where they can get them. But till these
men can instruct the forward borrowers
where they shall be furnished, they have
perhaps done something to increase mems
desire but not made money one jot easier
to come by; and. till they do that, all this
sweet jingling Of money in their dis
courses just goes to the tune of If all the
world were oatmeal"
This is all very entertaining and in
ef,- h,rt he In fn
and now Of Locke's teachings on the sub
ject of money eliminates in his discus
sion of the nature and effect of Clipping"
or raising coin. Money is raised" in
the sense which he attaches to the word,
when its nominal value exceeds its actual
value What he means by raised coin is
what we mean by deprecated coin. When
ever coin has two values, one actual and
one nominal, We may of coarse fix our
minds upon either; the nominal value is
raised when the actual value falls Clip
ping was an unauthorized method OF rails
ing coin, closely allied to counterfeiting
Every student of English history knows
that it was once SO common and serious
an evil as to demand the severest mea-
sures for Its repression, so that it was
treated as capital offense. being such an
encroaclIment upon the prerogative of the
crown as to smack of veritable treason.
Any alteration in the legal standard of
value which has the effect to depreciate
the mint valuation OF the coin OF the
realm, is, on the part of the crown, the
equivalent of clipping by private persons.
Against this folly Locke inveighs with a
restrained power OF logic almost amount
~ FL oil Ia
he SAYS about it is susceptible of direct
application TO existing conditions in the
United States and to the financial con-
troversy which will decide the preSiden-
tial election next month.
Locke was not a bimetallist. nor be-
lever in the so-calIed double standard"
as apears from his remark that silver.
and silver alone, is the measure OF COM
merce. CThere was then little gold IN
the world: and silver was far less plentiful
than now) To metals. as gold and silver.
cannot be the measure OF commerce both
together in any country; because the mea-
sure of commerce must be perpetually the
same, fnvariahle. and keeping the same
proportion in all its parts. But so only
one metal does, or can Go, to Itself; so
silver is 10 silver. and gold TO gold. An
ounce OF silver is always OF equal value
TO an ounce Of silver and an ounce OF gold
to an ounce OF gold. and two ounces OF.
the ore or the other, OF double the value
TO an ounce of the same. But gold and
silver change their value one 10 another;
end one may as well make a measure vs.
a yard. whose parts legthen and shrink.
as a measure OF trade Of materials that
have not always a settled. invsriabis value
20 one another" He therefore desired
that silver might alone be recognized az
the legal standard OF valuation. and gold
be treated as a commodity. But he eau
.s--oz ~ - .ha- ssrbe r&iue Of ST.