The independent., 1903-03-19
Money and the Taxing Power
BY w. III. ASHBY.

these priests of chaos are limited
when they essay into the field o1
money" to childish discourses con-
cerning "coin" and its substitutes
which their infantine imaginations
clothe with magical powers that put
to shame all that was claimed fol
Aladdin's lamp, in capacity to set al
defiance the laws Of nature.
The conflicting, cross action Of hui
man beings engaged in competitive
struggle to obtain or retain exclusive
possession of things endowed with
power to benefcially serve them.
driven by the impulse of self-preser-
vation, and restrained from violence
by government authority, generates in
that struggle the force OF demand. The
elusive resultant of differing estimates
and appraisals of the quantity or in
tensity of that force for those things
upon which the force OF demand acts
at any given time and place, culmi-
mates in valuation" of the quantity
of demand in action, and that result
ant of differing valuations of that
force is what is truly. meant by that
ignis fatuus, value" 1t is form or
mode of force less tangible and fur
ther removed from comparison with
material substances than electricity
or sound. And yet these Professors
of Political Economy" and "AuthOri-
ties" upon the Science of money" tell
us that disks of a magical metal called
gold are able to measure" that in
tangible force!
Having made clear the fact that
money is device instituted as an es-
sential part of the mechanism for
equitably exercising the taxing power,
by making it possible to express any
given quantity of the force of de-
mand, through term which stands
as the symbol of the fixed and un-
varying quantity of that force, chosen
as the unit" it was to be expected
that we should find it performing its
proper official functions in the public
Offices where tax levies are made.
Accordingly we find it's use in those
public offices is made mandatory in
making tax levies. Next by a stat
utory adaptation of the device, we find
the use of the symbol, which is mon
ey," is also made mandatory in the
courts in rendering judgments. 1t is
by statute compelled to perform the
functions pertaining to it's "office." :"
1t was created for the purpose of per-
forming those official functions, and
was not created for any other pur-
pose.
When we find people employing this
money" in other places and for 9TH
er purposes, to suit their private con-
veniences and as means of facilitat-
ing their private aims, we are COM
PEELED to recognize the fact that ali
such uses of the symbol (Which is our
money! are purely volun tary
and opt ional.
These secondary uses to which it
may be applied exercised no influ-
ence in its creation. 1t was not with
any view to it's being applied to those
voluntary uses, that it was devised.
AS an old hat, seen doing duty by
voluntary adaptation il place of a
broken pane of window glass, does
not justify the conclusion that any
such use was contemplated by it's
manufacturer; so also when we find
the symbol, which is money" en-
ployed by private persons in keeping
their accounts, in expressing nominal
quantities of value in promissory
notes, bills of exchange, private bonds
and stocks, and in market reports and
prices current (where it does 'facili-
tate exchanges between commodi-
ties'o, we are bound to take notice of
the fact that such uses were not con-
templated in its creation, and are
mere voluntary adaptations of an in
genious device, (Which was created to
fill public Office in making tax lev
les and rendering judgments), to the
performance of a service which was
not contemplated or intended by its
makers. 3s<t'
Its use in market reports, as
means of facilitating" the exchange
of heterogeneous commodities for each
other, was n OF a factor in it's Gre
alton. After it was devised as a
means Of accomplishing the just ex-
ercise of the taxing power, it was
siezed upon without authority and
voluntarily employed by private per-
sons in private transactions never