The independent., 1903-06-11
Money and the Taxing Power
BY w. II. ASHBY.

tificates called "coin," as the only
means of securing deliverance from
his own obligation to meet tax levies
and Judgments; or else the need or
others for them, for that inevitable
service, will enable him to obtain in
exchange for them quantity of util-
ity of a valuation equal to that ex-
pressed in his judgment.
Government has no right to compel
people in their dealings with each
other to accept such certificates in
exchange for their services or
valuable commodities. But in deal
ings between the government and the
people this is always done; as where
it has conscripted men to form an
army, paying them with such certifi
Gates, and using that army to forcibly
impress needed commodities which
are paid for by the same means.
But whatever governments may d.
upon their own account, and for their
own advantage, it is not within the
power of government to extend the
power of tender" so as to compel
one private person, when dealing with
courts), to perform beneficial service
or deliver valu lble commodities in
exchange for such certificates Or
"eoin." But wherever governmental
power is supreme, as it is both Gin
the public offices" and "in the courts,
there it is competent for that govern
ment to make such certificates o.
"coin" conclusive proof of payment,
and also to compel their tender" as
the only means of making that proof.
When the United States stamps the
talismanic words, UNITED States Of
America-Ten Dollars" and declares
by statute that all taxpayers and judg-
ment debtors shall use that, and moth
ing else, as the only means of freeing
themselves from the burdens of tax
levies and judgments, by rendering
it ''in the public offices and in the
COURTS" and on the other hand de.
clares such tender shall be sufficient
proof that they have been paid;
these acts being performed in thu
public Offices and in the courts are
within the jurisdiction of sovereign
government.
We arrive, then, where we can per-
ceive that the American gold eagle
has exactly two powers-and nc 9th
ers. 1t can perform no Office except
as peremptory receipt, by it's ten
der" in the public Offices and courts,
as conclusive proof of payment prev
iously made by it's bearer. 1t has no
authority or power elsewhere. 1t does
not pay anything; it simply proves
conclusively that payment had al
ready been made.
The attempts of economists to ac-
count for the "value" of coin excite
pity. John Stuart Mill, smothered by
the received rubbish, gives the fol-
lowing explanation:
las the whole of the goods in the
market compose the demand for mon
ey, so the whole of the money con
stitutes the demand for the goods.
The money and the goods are seeking
each other for the purpose of being
exchanged. They are reciprocally sup
ply and demand to one another. -
Pol Ec., p. n.
$50 that the value of money, other
things being the same, varies in
versely as it's quantity; every increase
VI IHt fdIlS dIu
every diminution raising it in a ratio
exactly equivalent. This. it must be
observed, is a property peculiar to
money."-Id, p. 80.
Absurdity could go no further The
proposition that inert goods on the
market" could compose the de-
m and for money" is such a pre-
posterous statement that we are as
tonished to find it seriously put forth
by so distinguished a man as Mill.
$50 the whole of the money consti.
tutes the demand for the goods" II
you pile all the coin and all the goods
in the United States up in two heaps.
while all the inhabitants betake them
selves to distant countries, would the
coin and goods constitute the force
of demand for each other?
1t is clear that Man is the active
| factor, and that 1t is the expenditure
! of his energy in efforts directed to OBJ
| tain exclusive possession of things in
| the adverse possession of others
t.nose efforts being restrained from
| taking the form of violence) which
| produces the force of demand And
| this is necessarily as true of one COM
| modify as another; as true of coin as
il is of corn.
/ iTnn{in,,nJ