The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1900-05-31
/ VALUABLE ESSAY
Scientific Money.

BY Prof Thomas Elmer VIII.
The phrase Scientific Money" sug
gests that our present monetary system
Is not scientific. II not, wherein?
First, it is devoid of system. It II
metallic, consisting of gold, silver
nickel and copper; again, it is paper
including greenbacks, gold certificates
silver certificates, treasury notes
Of 1890 and bank notes. These
forms of exchange media are sup.
plemented by checks, drafts, bills of ex.
change, etc. 1t combines the socialistit
greenback. the plutocratic- national bank
note and the anarchistic clearing house
certificate. 1t includes the government
promise to pay (the maligned green
back and the corporation promise to
receive, based on a government promise
to pay (the lauded national bank note).
It is a bundle of contradictions. Its
sponsors insist at one time that there
can be no money but gold and silver;
then they declare that there can be no
money but gold. They demand that
money shall be sound" and honest"
and then exhaust their energies in an
effort to supplant government legal ten
der money with corporation evidences
OF debt not legal tender money. They
Insist that paper money must always
be based on and redeemable in gold,
and at the same time propose that bank
notes shall be based simply on bank
assets" of which gold is an insignifi-
cant factor. While holding that there
can be no money but metallic money.
they admit that incomparably more of
the money work Of the nation is done
with paper than with coin, and argue
increasingly that the total volume of ex-
changes performed with both coin and
paper is trifling in comparison with the
vast volume performed with credit
which lays no claim to the dignity of
money, either primary" or second
ary," hard or SOFT They demand that
our exchange medium shall be elastic. !"
contracting and expanding with the
needs OF the business community, but
they take care that these expansions and
contractions shall serve instead the in
terests of the banks at the expense of
the business community. Our alleped
system is hodge podge, crazy quilt,
the mad dream of the hasheesh eater.
complex of absurd survivals and of
criminal class legislation. 1t is defens-
IDLE on no principle and defended in it's
entirety by nobody.
Inc theory Of representative money
Is itself a superstition. Paper. we are
told, must rest on metal: the metal in
turn rests on intrinsic value" Upon
what now does intrinsic value rest?
What is it? 1t is interchangably one Of
TWO contradictory things. First, it is
natural, necessary and invariable
property of two precious metals, latter
~ OF one. So many grains of pure gold
OF given f1neness possess always and
everywhere a fixed and INTERCHANGEABLE
value; as so many grains of lead at the
equator, at fixed distance from the
earth's center. and at a fixed temper
AZURE and atmospheric pressure. possess
certain weight. Such proposition
the history Of money and prices shows
70 De insane 1t Is unworthy of formal
crltlclsm. Second, intrinsic value ia
commodity value, such as is possessed
by pig iron, coal, or mutton chops. not
nxed and invariable, but always some
tnlng, more or less, as circumstances
may determine. But granting so much
intrinsic value is seen to be in no re-
spect different from all other values:
and the gold dollar of mystic properties
created by the Almighty as the one sole
and final measure of the worlds values.
is revealed as false balance and an in
strument of fraud and spoilation.
The untutored Oriental claimed that
the earth rested on an elephant and
the elephant upon turtle. When ask
cd upon what the turtle rested, he said
'Oh, he goes clear down." So paper
money rests upon metal (gold): gold
rests on Intrinsic value, and intrinsic
value "goes clear down."
school boy can tell us. however
tnat the earth rests not upon elephants
or turtles, but on the balance of two
FORCES, centrifugal and centripetal
which govern it; and money, whether
nard or soft, public or private. social
lstic' anarchfstic or plutocratic, rests
likewise on the balance of two great
economic forces, demand and supnlv
upon human need and it's opportunity to
satisfy ITSELF
Inc theories Of representative money
and intrinsic value are not only srotes-
que superstitions worthy of a Mace in
Inc pages of Puck" they are expensive
luxuries. They necessitate the super-
nuous maintenance at great cost Of a
metallic money supply. II the law re-
CURED greenbacks, bank notes, checks.
ara1ts and bills Of exchange to be print
90 on gold leaf, If it required the ma
OF the various minis and the
'afes In which the public treasure ia |
stored to be made of gold, we should
protest against such reckless extrava.
sance. How much more reason for in
'isting that our primary" monetary
machinery (the elephant) shall be made
u gold than for insisting that our NOR.