The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1921-03-03
FUNCTIONS AND VALUE OF
MONEY, HIGH PRICES
ETC.
BY Rev. George Candee, NJ. A.
CONTINUED from last week.
CAUSE OF HIGH PRICES

Does not this initiation of the cur
rency in this country account, in part,
II not In whole, for the high prices
of labor and general commodities
II does not come from a scant sup
ply Of labor or Of general commod-
tiles in this country as it does in
Europe. In this country the open
markets are full Of high-priced labor
and all kinds of goods. 1t must
come from the cheapened dollar; il
takes more dollars to equal the value
Of things.
The people must adjust themselves
to the situation. 1t is a war cas-
ualty. They must accustom them.
selves to demanding and giving more
of these low-priced dollars for what
they have to sell and what they want
to buy.
: Money being a public utility, the
Government should keep the supply
of currency commensurate with the
demand. This it can do and should
do, by providing an emergency United
States National Currency. not
founded on any private securities,
but founded on the National security
as are all Government BOnds-to
be issued or retired as emergency
requires. This is necessary to keep
the price of the debt-paying dollar
uniform with that of the ultimate
debt-paying commodity from year to
year and from age to age.
The gold standard method for this
purpose has broken down! The pur-
chasing price-power of the gold dol
lar is affected just. as much by in
flation and contraction of the cur
rency as are any other legal dollars.
| II will buy no more wheat than the
bankers paper dollar will, or than
! anv other legal dollar will.
The evil of our present cheap dol
lar, caused by the influx Of Euro
pean gold and the issuing and cir
culation of exchangeable Government
bonds is a casualty of the war AM
should not be duplicated by raising
the price of the debt-paying dollar
again, by contracting the currency,
as it was done in the resumption of
specie payments by buying up green
back money with Government gold
bonds, and burning il up!
This may be done in a similar way,
i.e., by permitting and requiring the
bankers to return their bank notes to
the Government for the gold and
other securities they may have given
the Government to secure the cur
rency of their paper money. This
would be great gain to the bankers;
for it would enable them to collect
millions Of dollars of debts in a
much higher-priced money than that
in which they were coptracted, be-
sides, increasing the price of their
dollars.
Already We have ominous signs of
swarms of coming hoboes, as in for
mer resumption days. In those days
men refused to MAZE contracts to be
i paid in higher-priced dollars. Hence
the hobo. So it is today!
THE BETTER WAY
The better way for the Government
TO bring money and things to a par
ity with each other, than by contract
ing the currency, would be for it II
help the producers of money pur-
chasing goods, to initiate the volume
of such goods until they come down
in prices TO parity with current
money. And to maintain this par
ity with any increasing amount OF
such goods, the Government should
furnish the needed supply of United
States emergency currency. This
would be a world blessing and would