Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1896-05-30
FROSTBURG, Md.
The Dollar.

days ago suggestive dlleSoTy udSeu
on the fact that "a bushel is bushel'
"a fact, however, which becomes
theory when it assumes by the same
token that bushel of corn is equal in
value to bushel of wheat.
By similar rationale the silverite
pretends that q dollar is a dollar
whether silver or gold.
Bat as money is really trade in
transit and the measure as well as the
medium of exchange Of commodities
for other commodities, it is clear that
there must be some arbitrary, ultimate
test by which the equality of quantity,
the equality Of quality, and the
equality of quantity with quality are
to be determined.
There is, for instance, the yard of
silk and the yard of calico. If things
were to 60 with var Is as the silverite
wants them to go with dollars, then
mere length would determine that a
yard of calico is equal in value to a
yard of silk.
But the element CT quality, brought
about by more cost and better skilled
labor in growth and fabrication, comes
in and quickly demonstrates that, ex-
cept in mere length, there is no equal
ity between silk and calico. The yard
of silk is worth more perhaps than
twenty yards of calico, consequently it
requires more than twenty times the
money to pay for a small piece of
silk than for the large piece of calico.
1t is just at this point that the
absurdity of what are called "specifc
duties appears levied by
quantity without regard to quality, or
cost, or price. For instance, 40 cents
per yard on carpet, would make one
housekeeper's So carpet cost $2.40, and
the poorer housekeeper's 81 carpet
cost $1.40 per yard. This, tried by
the ad ga1orem, or the true method of
tariff taxation, it will be found that
the richer man pays only 20 per cent.
tariff, the poorer 40 per cent.
Taxed according to quality, or
value, say at 80 per cent, however, the
richer man would pay $3.50, the poorer
$1.30-a tax that would fall with equal
weight on each.
Suppose the commodity be coal at
30 per cent. at port Of entry-about
equal to the IS cents per ton specific
prevailing before the German Act
went into effect. To meet this at
Boston the foreigner would have to
come to that port with coal of quality
equal to ours at not more than $2.40
per ton, and must carry it to New
York, Philadelphia and Baltimore
with less, and less, and less profit, to
encounter more, and more, and more
prohibition by the cheaper, and
cheaper. and cheaper and better fuel
from this region.
But to return.
Whether correctly or mistakenly,
rlghtfully or wrongfully, the CONNER
cial world accepts gold as the final
arbiter of the marketable equation
between quantity and quality. Its
metallic eXcellencies are so numerous
tina, nothing in current quality or
quantity is equal to it. 1t is absolutely
vain to say in these days of merciless
exactitude that "a pint is equal to
pound,' for it is hardly more true in
silver and gold than in lead and
feathers.
Some people say, however, that gold
has no intrinsic value. This is untrue,
for value depends upon no condition
that does not imply an inherent need,
a natural scarcity or laborious, per-
haps dangerous development. We
hardly need clothing, food and shelter
more than we need the easiest, readiest
and most certain medium of exchange
ing the fruits of our labor for those
necessares. Gold meets allthese con-
ditions, not only by universal consent
but by universal desire. Even the
silver-owner's consuming greed is-not
to amass silver coin in exchange for
his silver bullion, bit to anass GOLD!
Like everybody else, he wants at last
the money concerning whose intrinsic
value there is no controversy outside
the comparatively small fraction of
people who, like him, are temporarily
interested in the attempt to force sill
yer into commercial use.
The main design of this somewhat
discursive article is to show that the
dollar, like the bushel, is measure,
but, unlike the bushel, it is in whole
or in part the current representative
of the article measured. Its Office is
three-fold-it exchanges quality for
quantity, carries, and saves carriage.
And its value as the universally ac-
ceptable dollar cannot be assailed with.
out striking a hurtful blow at every
commercial and Industrial interest in
this country-a blow which will recoil
to fall on our own heads with quick and
crushing effect.
The Part Of Wisdom.
I