Year: 1878

"AbsOlute Money"


One of the commonest Of the errors cher
ished by the Greenbackers, and set forth
week after week by the journals published in
their interest, is that 'money is creation of
Government. A greater error was never
advanced. As no Government is or can be
producer, it, of course, cannot produce money
more than it can any other commodity.
Governments exist to consume, not to pro-
duce. They can neither earn nor create
property, for they do not exchange nor pro-
duce. nor save. They only expend or destroy
what is given to them in the shape of taxes
or revenues by society. They are, as all the
publicists maintain, in reality paupers, exist
ing by the contributions of others, supported
by the labor of others. Any other pauper
might as well assume to create wealth as for
government to make that assumption. And
when government issues notes it says mere
ly that it has expanded the contributions
made for its support, and is anticipating the
next contribution, and that these notes are
to be paid out of that next contribution. The
note or greenback simply shows that the
government has spent so much property CIV
en- to it by the citizens; SO that the green
backs do not represent existing value,
but extinct value that is, they rep
resent no property at ALL The right
of the government to issue them is only
the right to create debt, for it cannot create
property. When the rebellion broke out the
expenditures Of the Government vastly ex-
ceeded the contributions to its support; so it
issued notes, some interest-bearing, the bonds,
some on-interest-bearing, the greenbacks,
promising to pay them out of future surplus
revenues. Now its receipts are greater than
its expenditures, and it has no possible ex.
cuse for running into debt. Yet that is what
the Greenbackers virtually want to do. They
want it to issue more notes, receiving for
these notes value in various shapes, in
shape of labor, in shape of services, in
shape of property. Then they propose
that the Government shall never pay
these notes. That is they want the
Government to make forced loan upon the
people. They want it to pay its employees
(for in no other way can the notes or pieces
of paper stamped as money get into circula-
tion) in bits of paper that have absolutely no
value,fo they are not redeemable in property
of any kind. They want men to work and
receive no equivalent for their labor.


The Greenbackers claim that their assump-
tion that Government can create money is
recognized in the Constitutional provision
that "Congress shall have power to coin
money" and 'sregulate the value thereof"
This simply means that the Government has
the power to assay gold and silver at mint,
purify them, shape the bullion into coins and
put mark upon each coin to denote its fine
ness and weight. 1t has the power to regulate
the coinage, to establish denominations of
coins, to regulate their size and weight as it
has power to regulate other weights and
measures. As it has power to displace the
yard in favor of the meter, so it has power to
displace the dollar in favor of the sovereign
or the franc. That is its power to coin
money. The power ''to regulate the value
thereof" refers to the regulation of the coin
age. That is it may order that the dollar
shall contain so many grains of gold. 1t has
fixed upon 25.S grains of gold as the standard
dollar. 1t might have fixed upon 20 grains,
as it did fix upon 4123 grains of silver for
dollar, instead Of 42O or 1926, or 44O as was
proposed. But having said that 1858 grains
Of gold shall make dollar all it does in coin
ing is to certify that the coin contains Just
that amount of gold. 1t cannot make the
gold more or less valuable. So its mark upon
piece of paper cannot make that paper
more or less valuable, unless the mark is
promise to pay so many grains of gold or sill
yer. Then the value is not in the paper but
in the promise. A hundred-dollar greenback
has no more intrinsic value than a ten-dollar
greenback, and would be worth no more
were it not for the promise of the government
to pay certain weight of coin for 1t.


Government can regulate the value of
coinage, that is, say how much gold or silver
coin shall contain, but it cannot regulate
the value of money more than it can the
value of any other commodity, wheat for
example. 1t may say how much wheat shall
uC Pos III q OoahCh IL lhiSu1 ludt tuF6e
of the present pecks should constitute


bushel, but it could rot make the new bushel
equal in value to the old. All it could do


would be to uDjustly compel the man who
had contracted for ten bushels of wheat old


measurement to take ten bushels new meas


urement. That would however be impair
ing the obligation of contracts. So with q
dollar. Congress may say how much gold


or silver may be put into it, but Congress
can neither increase nor diminish the value
Of that gold or silver. Only the laws OF trade,


the laws that govern production or exchange
can do that.


The power that is wanting in the case of
wheat and the gold is surely not present in


the case of the paper. Government may
stamp piece of paper with the dollar-mark.
but it can give no value to that paper. 1t
may compel creditors to take the paper in
discharge of contracts, but it cannot compel
any man to give anything for that paper be.
| yond its real value. This "absolute money,


will be worth just the value OF the paper it
contains aud hat is all. 1t will have the
| same value as dishonored check that is
printed on paper of the same size, quality
| and weight.