Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1896-09-05

tne tMIure 10 appreciate tne ulHeI6nCe
between money. as such, and value, as
ssrch, IT will help TO arrive at clearer
idea Of the subject Of money to discuss
some Of them in this connection, slough
they will come up for more complete
consideration later on.
One of these arguments is the 'pari
/ ty' ghost. We are told with grave
confidence that the government cannot
use both gold and silver metal for coin
age purposes without making one or the
other the standard by which to measure
the value of the one not SO used that
the silver money cannot be kept on a
parity with the gold money. Avery
little close thinking will dispel this de-
fusion. so far as their real uses as mon
ey is concerned. Nowwhen we speak
of a certain quantity of products as being
of a certain value, as ten dollars worth,
we simply speak Of the product in terms
Of the unit of quantity by which it is
usually measured, and in terms of the
unit of value i'll use in the country =
When we say ten bushels Of wheat are
worth ten dollars, we simply mean that
the quantity Of the wheat is ten in the
unit of measure adopted by the govern
ment for estimating quantity, and that
the value of the wheat is ten in the unit
Of value adopted by the government. =
That is all that is meant. Now parity
simply means equality. When we say
that silver dollar is OF a parity with
the gold dollar, or any other dollar, we
simply mean that the silver dollar, as
money, is on an equality with the gold
or silver dollar. That is all. We don t
mean that the amount Of silver used in
making the silver dollar is equal, in
market value, with the amount of gold
used in making the gold dollar. Now,
keeping in mind the fact that the term
money is here used simply as expressive
of the value of the wheat in the mar
ket, how is it possible that the material
out Of which the money is made could
cut any figure, or come up as an ele
ment to be considered And if it be
immaterfal what the money is made of,
how could the question Of parity -
between gold and silver, or anything
else, have anything to do with it 1t
could not. AS money all dollars are e.
quail, regardless of the material out of
which they are made The sole and on
ly function of money, per Sc, being as a
representative of value, any and all
kinds of money that represent the same
amount of value, are necessarily on a
parity ; the confusion grows out of the
fact of confounding money, as such,
with value, as such. A simple illus
tration will bring the idea out clear to
any one who is not SO prejudiced that he
will not believe even though he sees.
Suppose A has ten dollars worth Of
wheat and sells 1t to B for ten dollars,
and B sells it to c for ten dollars. They
each take the ten dollars received and
invest it in groceries and other things
they desire. The result is that they
have taken the wheat and exchanged it
for other things that they wished. ALI
that the ten dollars did was to enable
them to do so with the least inconveni-
ence. They were neither concerned a
bout the material out of which the ten
dollars were made ; all that they were
interested in was the fact that with the
use of the money they could the more
conveniently exchange the wheat for
what they wanted. That must be clear
to every one. 1t was immaterial to
them whether the money was in silver,
gold or paper; or whether the'silver met
al in the money was worth, as a com
modify in the market, twice or three
times as much as the gold metal in the
gold dollar. 1t was the money that
served their purpose, and not the metal
used in making it. Parity there
fore, cuts no figure with money
The same fallacy underlies the propo.
sition that silver must be redeemable in
gold in order to make 1t money the same
as gold. People who use such argu-
ments fail to realize, what every one
must see who thinks honestly moment,
that money, as SUCH in the very nature
Of things, never is, never was, and new
err can be redeemable in anything; be-
cause it is not substantial thing at all.
1t is simply unit Of measurement, or
estimate, of value, just as the gallon is
a unit of measurement, or estimate, of
quantity. Did any one ever hear of the
proposition to redeem gallon, or a
mile or any other unit of quantity p
And yet such proposition is no more
absurd than the talk about redeeming
money. To redeem means to take up OF
replace one thing with another. Now
how would you go about taking up or re-
placing money with something else p
just ask gold bug how he is going to
redeem money, or what he means by
redeeming money. and he is dumb He
will talk very profusely about making
paper or silver redeemable in gold by
compelling it to be taken up and re-
placed with gold coin but when you
follow him up and ask what the gold
coin is to be redeemed OF taken up in he
sees his fallacy, and gets mad and rants
about silver cranlzs' and Ignorance
Of financial matters, and so on. The
truth is that anything that depends upon
something else to fix its character or sta
tus as money is not money at all. II is
only makeshift OF substitute for mon
ey. The silver certificate, the national
bank note, the gold certificate, bill of
exchange, bank check and all that
class Of paper are fair specimens. They
are used to large extent as substitutes
for money, but they are not money