The Forrest City times., 1898-08-12
THE GOLD STANDARD.
lacious aad without
Foundation.

When we speak of value we speak Of
subject around which the goldites
have cast halo of superstition, which,
in the language of Senator John +.
Jones, has contributed more to the
martyrdom of men than war, pesti.
lence and famine. The gold standard
advocates claim that money must have
intrinsic value; that gold only has in.
trinsic value; therefore. gold alone Is
fit for money. This doctrine has been
thought false by a reputable econ
omist. 1t has been refuted by scienee
and denied by experience. Value in
economics is purely a relation, and the
idea of value being intrinsic, or inde-
pendent of anything intrinsic, is an
unthinkable absurdity. The value Of
| anything is what we exchange for it.
The value of u dollar is SO many BUSH
els of wheat or so many barrels of
pork, or 50 many bales of cotton, or so
many days of labor. etc. Conversely.
the value of suit of clothes is the
number OF dollars for which it can be
had. the value of days labor is so
many dollars. Each measures the
other. Thus, the value of dollar de-
pends upon its power to command
labor or .he products Of labor. A dol
lar that commands two days labor is
| twice as valuable as dollar that COM
mands one days labor. This is self
evident, and the truth 10 virtually de-
MED in every argument that is made
for the gold standard. This value 10
absolutely independent of the intrin-
sic elements which. combined. consti-
| tute the substance of the dollar.
| 1t is not the substance but the func-
tion given to the substance which
makes the dollar valuable. 1t Is be-
cause the function impaired to 1t gives
II power 10 perform certain work that
a dollar has value. That is, the value
of dollar depends upon the work
which it has to perform. Remembers
ing that the demand for money il
equal to the demand for everything
else, it is obvious that the amount Of
work which each dollar will have to
do will depend upon the amount OF dol
lars that are secured by law to do this
work. To state IL in another way, the
value of money is determined by the
law of supply and demand. Now the
word STANDARD" itself suggests the
idea of stability and invariableness.
Absolute stability is necessarily an im-
possibility. The degree Of stability de-
pends upon the ratio of stability be-
tween the demand for the dollars and
the supply of dollars. The most per-
feet monetary system is that in which
the supply of money just equals the
demand, for such system gives sta
bility. If the supply does not keep
pace with The demand the result will
be an appreciating dollar, the evils
of which we will mention when we see
how gold performed the function OF :
standard Of deferred payments. When
under bimetallism both gold and sill
YER flowed freely into the channels Of
trade and supplied the demand SO that
there was stability in the value of the
dollar, fair level of prices was main
tanned. Since that time, while the dee
mand for money has been increasing,
the supply has been decreasing. be-
cause the work formerly done by both
the metals has been placed upon one
alone, AMI that one has been entirely
inadequate. The annual production
of gold Is approximately $500, ,000. 900.
of this the demand for use in the art 5
absorbs $t20.000.000, leaving for none
tary use about $s0,000.0 900. For this in
significant sum all the nations are
clamoring. The universal scramble
for gold Is illustrated by the fact that
the annual coinage of gold is greater
than the total annual production.
This simply means that it is taken as
commodity in the form of coins from
one nation to another. where ii 10
coined into the coins of that nation.
That such a standard could be stable
will not be maintained by anyone that
is at all familiar with economic