The Monitor-register., 1896-05-22
The Money Question Again.


the speakers.
The Money Question Again.
EDITOR Of MONITOR REGISTER I'm
your last issue, Edward Atkinson makes
an assertion and offers Henri Cernuschi
as authority, that coin only is true money
which will stand the fire test, and of
which the bullion is worth as much after
it is melted as it is purported to be worth
in the coin. Also, that coin which does
not meet this test is not good money, and
clihches his theory by asserting that gold
is good money, and silver bad money.
He further ~insinuates that the issuing
of our National money, the g~reenback,
were acts of force for the purpose of
forcing unwilling persons to take pay
ment for their labor in bad money. Has
Friend Atkinson forgotten that at the
outbreak of the rebellion, when the gold
mongers Of the nation refused to loan the
Government their boarded wealth, to aid
in its suppression, except at ruinous dis
counts, that Father Abraham, backed by
a solid Congress, acting strictly within
the true Interpretation of the Constitu
ton, which declares that Congress shall
be empowered to coin money and regulate
the value thereof, said: "Keep your gold,
gentlemen; I will coin or issue money
based upon the credit of the Govern
ment,'' and the nation was flooded with
legal tender-the greenback-as leaves
of the forest, which fought down treason
and was at all times at par with their
gold, and at times above that so called
honest money?
Does Friend Atkinson call that an
honest dollar which takes two bushels of
wheat to buy one? When the true
metallic value of a gold dollar is worth
but ten cents, is 1t not expensiveIy
used as money throughout the world ?
The balance is fiat-a peremptory decree.
The greenback to-day stands at par
with gold, which is rated at ninety per
cent. above its coin value. Why? Sim
ply because the good faith of the people
of the nation stands as a pledge behind
it. This great bugaboo about intrinsic
or true money has ceased to frighten
intelligent people. They have long since
learned that money is, or should be,
simply a MEASURE of values, and that
there is no more reason why it should
possess intrinsic value than the mer-
chants yard-stick or scale.
People are fast drifting back to the
idea of National money, tased upon the
good faith and credit of the people, and
that the Government deal with the miner
of gold and silver as a marketable CON-
modify at the current prices throughout
the nations of the world in exchange for
the current money of the nation, which
will have superseded coin money in this
country; and it'll the gold and silver
purchased of the miners pay the holders
of its bonds, both at homo and abroad,
in gold or silver, according to its CON-
tract; aud henceforth and forever be its
own banker, as is prescribed by the Con-
stitution, which explicitly declares that
Congress shall coin money and regulate
the value thereof and it is optional
with the Government whether it be gold,
silver, paper, iron Or wood.
/ think Friend Atkinson will agree that
it is a uniform and cheap measure Of
value rather han an expensive measure
| that is most desirable. Neither gold,
/ silver nor paper, in itself, is valuable to
the holder of it, except that it is ex.
changable for that which adds pleasure,
qualification to those possessed of it.
This iHcessant and increasing din and
clatter about sound mony, honest money,
that has been ringing in our ears from
Grover Cleveland down, is infinitely
worse than the effects of an emetic. All
ordinarily informed persons know thai
there is not enough gold coined in the
whole world to transact the maritime
and commercial traffic of New York City
for one week. AS before said, it is thu
purchasing quality of gold, silver Of
paper, and not their corporiety whicf
gives value to them.
Land which supplies s%ustenance to thu
people Of the whole world, notwithstand
ing the vast increase of population, hal
decreased in value in many parts of thu
country from forty to fifty per cent. of 1T
original value. Thirty years ago Their
were in the United States but three thou
sand men whose wealth counted millions
To-day there are thirty.three thousand
And who does not know that this vas
concentration of wealth is elbowing on
all the middle GLASSES, as is the case ii
certain parts of Europe?
Abraham Lincoln said shortly befor'
his tragic ending, and his words hav'
proved to be prophetic, that be looked
upon the vast concentration of wealth
which was about to menace the countr.
with far greater concern and alarm thai
he had during the darkest hours of tn
rebellion. l fear that his firm faith tina
this was to be not only in name, but II
fact. A Government of he people, b.
the people and for the people was some
what weakened before bis death.
A SUBSCRIBER.