The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1896-08-04
A CoRREsPONDEN REvIEWED.

ACORREsPONDENTR REVIEWED.
writer in Sundays Times, signing
| himself r. y. f.. and replying to a COM
munication from Mr.. J. s. Moore. put
the silver argument astutely, but In
most misleading way. Mr.. Moore had
said: Government cannot create money.
r. Il. +. asks: "Who Gan create it, Them
| and he then argues that II you destroy
the stamp on a gold coin you can COM
| pei no one to take it in payment Of debt.
| In the question "Who can create it,
and In the statement that Without the
| Government stamp you can compel no one
| TO take a coin Cor debt" Turk all the
| fallacies Of the Populists and free coiners.
| These people think the whole business or
| money is to pay debts, and that money
| IS worth nothing unless you can compel
men to receive it for debt. But there
never was a greater fallacy than this. In
the affairs OF life there is not one trans
action In ten million Of transactions IN
which a creditor is compelled 10 receive
the money Of the country that Is rendered
him. He receives it voluntarily, and ne
does not receive il because ne can be
compelled to receive II. but because,
whether It IS q silver dollar, or silver
rote. or a greenback. # can be converted
into its equivalent in gold dollars. or
what practical value. then, is the legal
tender quality of money! 1t is Of abso-
lutely no practical value except for en-
abing a debtor to settle his account with
a creditoE when they differ about their
rights, and these cases. compared TO the
whole mass Of monetary transactions
amongst men, are as one sand 10 All
the sands Of the sea-shore. Business Is
not payment Of debts TO men who re-
quire that the money of the country
shall be forced on them. 1t consists OF
transactions in which the credit values
of property are exchanged between men
through the entire willingness and con-
sent of both parties TO the transaction
and in which, therefore, no one ever
thinks OF the legaLtender quality OF
money
The other error in Il. b. F.'s commune
cation IS contained in his inquiry: "Who
can create money" No human power can
create money. Money depends for its
value upon the labor involved in digging
the money metal out of the ground. as
modified by the demand OF the world FOR
that money metal The money metal lies
hidden in the bowels of the earth. value
less while there. The sweat Of mans
brow brings it to the surface. and man
then says it should be valued according
TO the amount of labor that he has ex-
perdod in digging it out If there IS a
gcod demand for H. the world WIFI con
cede his claim and value il accordingly.
II the demand is slack the world will
say to him that he must abate his claims
10 a certain extent II is valuable, then,
according to the labor required TO pro-
duce it as modified by the demand for it.
r. Il. L. says copper IS not one OF the
precious metals. And why is IL not? Why
should one metal be more precious than
another? What constitutes precious" I'm
a metal? If we should discover a people
who had no gold or silver hut who had cop
per we suspect they would consider cor
per a precious" metal Gold and silver
are ranked as precious" metals by us
because men have an ardent desire for
them for ornamental purposes, and because
they are scarce and hard 10 obtain. Gold
is scarcer and harder to obtain than sill
yer and more ornamental, and therefore
II is more precious" than silver But its
''preciousness" has relation TO mans desire
for II and the difficulty OF obtaining IL
and in no SEE 10 any magical quality
Of ''preciousness" that 1t possesses. The
same is true Of any other metal
r. b. T. says that under FREQ and IN
limited coinage OF silver no man would
take less than sl.29 for an ounce of silver.
as he could take'it to the mint and have
that much money coined out of it,"
1t is true that when sixteen ounces Of
silver are valued in the markets OF the
world as the equivalent OF one ounce OF
gold, then an ounce Of silver is worth
Sl.D OF gold coin. But when. ,as now. il
takes thirty-one ounces 157 silver to rank
in the markets OF the world az an equiva-
lent for one ounce Of gold. an ounce OF
silver is worth only sixtynine cents OF
gold coin. You may get from the mint. in
return for your ounce Of silver coin That
you can arbitrarily say is worth s12q
but it is Sl29 Of silver cents and not Of
gold cents. 1t is a case in which YOU
have taken the word cents" and forced
it to mean different thing from what II
has heretofore meant. You have preserved
the form of things but not the substance.
For Il. b. +. to argue in this way
is for him to allow shadows to delude
him.