People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1896-07-02


sterling" ss franc" means something as
absolute ass definite az 20 value az ton, "
yard" and quart" are as TO weight,
length and capacity.
Boz value Is neither $50 heavy" 80
long Dor "of such and such contents. "
You cannot see It. Value is nothing OBJ
solute Value IL q relation. It is the
ratio at which one thing exchanges for an
other. Ono thing may be worth as much
as another thing, moro than another thing
or less than another thing-thn. Ia, Of
equal, greater or less value. But IL takes
two things 20 express value-one is COM
pared with the other. And rhe relation
between exchanged commodities is perfect
ly reciprocal When / pay tlO0 for a
horse, as In the illustration used by the
gentleman from Virginia Mr.. Tuckerl
the other day, the horse buys the 400 just
as certainly as the 800 buys the horse,
and If &c be true to say that horses are high
II they cost $3.50 it is equally true to say
that money Is high when you hove TO give
two horses for tl00
Intrinsic Values
Gentlemen here have much to say Of
"intrinsio value" and deolae their will
ingness 10 vote for bimetalitsm when
somebody shall show them how 10 make a
gold dollar and a silver dollar equal in
intrinsic value" should IKE to hear
some d these gentlemen define intrinsic
value" They confuse, It seems to me,
the meaning Of value and utility. Things
may possess qualities THAI make them use
full, and hence will have utility, but the
measure Of their value is what they will
exchange for. You pick up a piece Of
Iron. 1t Is useful for many purposes, but
you cannot tell how much 1t is worth
that is to say, what Its value is-until you
find what you can get for It. Value in
exchange Is the only value with which
political economy has to deal.
Originally exchange was by barter
Commodities were traded one for another.
The cost Of production and the relation Of
supply and demand regulated the ratios at
which they mutually interchanged. Con-
venienoe necessitated the selection Of some
common medium into which all commodi.
ties could be converted and with which
any Of them could be procured. This
medium was money, and It's invention
marked an advance Of uncomfortable i'm
portanoe In the development Of society.
Gold and silver, by reason Of their special
fitness, finally displaced all other things
in the performance of this function. As
a consequence the demand for them for
money purposes, being equal 70 the sum
total Of the values Of all commodities seek
ing to be exchanged, became so vastly
more important than the demand for them
for any other purpose that cost of prOduc-
ton ceased 10 be large factor In deter
mining their value as expressed In COM
moditeS but that value practically be-
came the ratio between all the goods seek
ing exchange and the quantity Of gold and
silver In existence to perform the ex-
changes Men carried about with them
scd TO hest the purity OF che metals and
scales for weighing out the requisite
amounts Of them called for by numerous
and various transactions Tie exchange
relation between a certain unit number Of
grains Of gold or of silver and a gwen
commodity being once determined, ttre
was established In the nioas of these Who
came 10 market the idea Of IN vaiIe.
which, when expressed In terms Of Money,
was It's price, but when for any reason the
number Of grains OF mesl ont u which
those units could be formed grow eres,er
or grew less, other sondftions remaining
unchanged, then the valuo Of those grains
Of gold or silvd-thst h, their power to
command the products which were there
to be exchanged for them-bccame pels-
lively smaller or grnsr, and prices rose
or fell accordingly. And no change was
made In this principle wApn society began
70 put Its stomp upon those grains Of gold
or silver to show axtkoritati,sly the guam.
tity and 1nencss Of the metal. After the
coin Is stamped, whatever may be Its
name what Is Is worth depends at any
given time upon what 1t will buy-in other
words, upon what Is required 10 buy H.
Commodity demand and supply remain
ing constant an increase q decroese Of
the substance out Of which the coins are
made must correcpondingly lower or raise
the power q eech ootn, must raise or low
er prices
These observations, which seen 10 me
to be comfortable TO reason and In pre-
else aocord with what history teaches US,
are sustained by practically ell economists
Of recognized authority. The following
citations will illustrate Said Adam
Smith, the father Of English potitical
eoonomyi
Gold and silver, however, me every other
commodity, vary in their value, sre sometimes
cheaper and sometimes dearss, sometimes Of
easier and sometimes Of more dificuk pur-
chase. The discovery Of TIE mines Of America
diminished the value Of gold and silver In Eu
rope. Wealth Of Nations, Vorthington edi.
ton, pages "a and 3d.
John Locke, the great philosophers, In
his treatise On "Tbe Value Of Money, I"
said:
By which means II comes TO pass that the
intrinsic value (of gold and silverj ''' Is moth
ing but the quantity which men give or re-
oeive of them, for tbsy having. as money, nc
other value but as pledges to procure what
one wants or desires, and they procuring what
we want or desire only BY their quantity, IL is
evident that the intrinsic value Of silver and
gold used In commerce Is nothing but their
quantity Principles Of Political Economy. Z"
by McColloch, and Essay on Interest and
Value Of Money" by John Locke edition Of
Ward. Lock q Co, page 2s3
The same writer declares IN another
place Works, volume 8, Pare 49,:
For the value Of money in general b the
quantity Of all the money in the world In pro
portion 10 al the trade.
In his Principles OF Political Econ
omy" Appleton edition, 1880, volume 3,
pages $500, John Stuart Mil declares:
The value or purchasing power II money
depends on demand and supply. Money is
bought and sold Ike other things Whenever
o4ko- thi,oo ,ra f-o,oht and ella for v,~o<a.-