The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-06-20
Senator Stewart on Money.

The Hon. WILLIAM NJ. STEWART, United
States Senator from Nevada, rightly con-
ceiving that his fellow Senators constitute
too limited an audience for his discourseS
on the money question. has condensed the
substance of them into a small. and rather
cheaply printed volume, which he has sent
out to the world In general. He entities
the work Analysis of the Functions of
Money" and he astutely dedicates It to
the young men and women of the United
States who are contemplating matrimony."
For, IL but a small fraction of these young
people buy and read the book. the Senator
will obtain for 1t a circulation equal even
to that claimed by the most mendacious Of
the yellow journals.
AS a scientific treatise this Of Senator
STEWARDS leaves much to be desired in
the two essentials Of ~truthfulness in regard
to facts and logicality in reasoning. Thus,
it declares that the comforts of life with
which the young women of this country
lave been surrounded in the homes of
their fathers, built in the better days
of the republic, canno be provided by
the young men Of the present day
on account of the hard conditions which
environ them,' and, again. every few
wage earners are receiving the same a
which they formerly did, and those that
have employment are seldom allowed to
work full time. There are millions out Of
employment entirely, and hundreds of
thousands, II not millions, of those who
find work are forced to be idle a large part
of tho time" Both of these allegations
are 30 VIGOROUSLY untrue, that they need
no refutation. In regard to historical
events the Senator Is equally reckless Of
the truth. He declares that the various
commodities used as money in past times
were "never money in themselves. but
the money function connected with them
while it existed was created and main
tanned by force Of some law which the
people obeyed." forgetting, for the mo.
ment, one of his f~avorite illustrations of
the early use of silver, namely, the pur-
chase by the patriarch ABRAHAM of the
cave of Machpelah for our hundred shek-
els of silver. " current money with the
merchant" There was no legislature in
Canaan at that day, INT no law compelling
silver to be accepted as money. 1t was the
use and custom of the merchant which rem
dered it such. Nor does the Senator con-
slider, that cattle. skins, tea, salt, shells and
all the other articles which have been used
as money at different times and In different
countries, were merchandise before they
were money, and became money only be-
cause they had value as merchandise.
In the matter Of logic Senator STEWART
is radically at fault, in that he constantly
confounds the power Of law to compel cred.
itors to accept, in payment of debts owing
them. whatever tho law declares shall be
money, with the power to compel own.
ers of property to sell 1t for depre-
ciated money on the same terms as
II that money were not deprecated. Dur
ing our suspension of specie payments,
from 1862 to 1879, the law compelled
creditors to accept Rreenbacks at par in
payment Of debts due them, but those same
g~reenbacks could be used to buy goods only
at their market value IN gold. There never
was a more striking proof that legislation
cannot override popular estimates of value,
and Senator STEWART ought not to have
neglected it.
1t would be tedious and improbable to
go through Senator STEWARDS book and
point out his numerous other misstate-
ments of fact and unjustiled conclusions.
His point of view is uniformly that of
a debtor seeking to pay his debt rs
cheaply as possible and ready to accept
any plausible excuse for his dishonesty.
On one point only are we In accord with
him, and that is In his advocacy of Govern
ment paper money In preference to that of
banks, but, considering his vagaries In other
respects, we had rather he had taken the
opposite side.