Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1899 — THE PEOPLE'S MONEY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE PEOPLE'S MONEY

An **H*nest*» Dollar. A' rise in prices, or, what is the same, a- fall in the valne of money, though also an evil, has this Incidental advantage, that, unless so marjted as to Imply undue speculation or other morbid commercial conditions, It tempts money out of Its. hiding-places into circulation, giving briskness to business. Bifit this never does good enough to compensate for the evil of unsteadiness In the value of money. To have Its value persistently the same—that is, the central virtue of good money. All admit this, aa has been said, yet many forget It We have, In this country, for many years been hearing much about an honest dollar. What lg an honest dollar? It IB to be feared that few of the people who love the phrase apprehend with much Clearness its trne meaning. It is very often taken for granted tlyrt the gold dollar mast be an honest dollar,- and one may hear this alleged by reasoners in the same breath with the admission made by all, that money Is good In proportion to Its stability of value. The two propositions are of course contradictory, except upon the pretense, which no well-informed person will offer, that gold never appreciates or depredates. Again, we often hear or read discourse to the effect that-holders of money have a sacred moral right to all the increment of value which can possibly come to It, so that any effort to regulate, at least to limit, shcb increment, must be wrong unjust to the creditor class. But this Is an implicit. If it is not an explicit, denial of the primary truth of monetary science, that good money must have a steadfast general purchasing power. Gain In money’s purchasing power is change in that power, and ought not to be. P* the two, lost to such power is more tolerable than gain; in others, a regime of rising prices Is less outrageous than one of falling prices. Bat either is a bad tbing. An Ideal dollar would buy always precisely the same amount of general commodity.—E. Benjamin Andrews.

Appreciation of Gold. Our opponents, In order to show that gold has not appreciated In value, point to the fact that the rate of interest on money Is less now than when silver waa demonetized. In that contention they confuse the idea of a sale of money with that of a lending of money. The agreement to pay interest does not contemplate the purchase of money, but the return of the same thing borrowed. The valne of money Is to bo determined by the purchasing power, not by Its interest-getting power. Tho demand for the purchase of money ia founded upon entirely different conditions from the demand for the loan of money. In fact, when the purchasing power is greatest the-lending power la least The increasing of the purchasing power of money is “falling prices” of everything else. Falling prices work ruin and disaster to Industries and business. Men do not increase their industries or start new enterprises when every one is losing money In their line. Industries and business are operated largely upon borrowed money. The demand for the loan of money Is created by tjje of industries ness. Therefore Interest Is highest when industries and business are moot thriving and lowest when they are diminished by falling prices. Consequently lower rates of interest, instead of proving that money has not appreciated In value, demonstrate the contrary. In other words, the appreciation of money, which is falling prices, lun produced diminution of business, and therefore less demands for credits and lower Interests.—John ‘F. Sliafroth.