People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 February 1895 — THE IDEAL CURRENCY. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE IDEAL CURRENCY.

PAYABLE AND RECEIVABLE BY THE GOVERNMENT. The Flan Set Forth by C. F. Taylor Would Make a Good Substitute for Bonds —How It Could Be Floated* Among the People. The chart on this page shows the operation of the Ideal money. It is issued directly by the government for service and supplies, and it goes from hand to hand, being “redeemed” at each transaction, and finally received ('redeemed”) by the government in payment of taxes, duties, internal revenue, etc., this being the final redemption. The material of this money need not be gold, silver, rubies, diamonds nor any other scarce material. The government issues postage stamps, and receives them back again in payment for the service of carrying letters, papers and packages. They are made of paper (not gold). They are not “based" upon gold; they are based upon the fact that they will be received in payment for certain services. This is sufficient to keep them always at par, equal to gold, and better for their particular purpose, for the service of carrying a letter cannot be paid for in any other material nor tn any other way than by affixing a postage stamp. Paper money has become the necessity of the age; but the prevailing fallacy is that it must be “based” on gold. The government’s promise to receive (in payment of taxes, etc.) will give as much value as its promise to pay wheat or cotton? Or if the promise to receive is(the simpler and better operation, why not adopt it? In fact, this is really a payment in service. In return for the money the tax gatherer gives us a tax receipt, which represents service, as in the case of the postage stamp.

So the ideal money would be a paper money, bearing a promise to receive, rather than a promise to pay. The ‘basis” will not be what little gold that can be raked together, or what silver happens to be coined; but It will be, first: the authority of the government; and no substance, whether gold, silver, nickel or copper, is money without that authority. Second: the wealth, stability and integrity of the government, and the faith of the people in the same. The wealth of the government in lands, buildings (White House, capitol, department buildings, etc., at Washington, postoffice buildings all over the country, custom houses, etc.) coats, river and harbor improvements, ships, franchises, etc., etc., etc., makes a basis enough to satisfy any stickler for ‘actual value.” But the service to be rendered is sufficient to keep at par a postage stamp; so the many kinds of ser vice rendered by the government it highly sufficient to maintain at par a currency based upon such service. The amount of the currency should be carefully adjusted to the population of the country and the wealth now in existence. The total wealth of all kinds now in this country is about $68,000,000,000, and the population is about 68,000,000. As population, wealth and business increase, the medium of exchange should increase in a similar ratio.

Some non-progresslve people Insist that we must have gold as a basis, because of its “Intrinsic” value. Do they not know that about 90 per cent of the present value of gold is “fiat?” If the world would quit using gold as money today (and it will some time), what would the gold dollar you have in your pocket be worth? Perhaps about ten cents. As a metal it has very few uses that are not as well or better filled by other metals; and this is the measure of intrinsic value. You could use your gold dollar for filling teeth, covering picture frames, etc., or sell it at a low price for these purposes. Silver has fallen in value by the partial removal of the fiat, and it will go down to the true level of its real value when it ceases to be used as money; so also will gold. If mastodon teeth were made the arbitrary “basis” of our circulating medium as gold has been, they would immediately rise to phenomenal value; and men would eagerly dig in the beds of old rivers and search dark caverns in quest of the precious material. In early colonial times the people groped in the dark just as we are doing now in regard to the financial question. Gold and silver were then very scarce, and they had to have a medium of exchange for transacting business, as barter (giving five sheep for a cow, or several bushels of potatoes for a pairbf boots) was too awkward and unsatisfactory? Some of their attempts in the way of paper money would be amusing if it were not so scrioqs a question. But some of the colonies were wise enough, or fortunate enough to reach almost perfeo-

i" spite of the objection of the English crown to the colonies issuing money. For example, the following is a copy of the phraseology on an early New York bill:

«». TWO FOUNDS. By a Law of the Colony of New York, this bill shall be received in all payments in the Treasury for Two Pounds. New York, February 10, 1771.

This came very near the ideal currency. Some might think it should have a “legal tender” clause, but I doubt its neccessity. When a nation will receive its own currency at full par for every obligation due it, its citizens will do the same thing, provided the government is a stable one. The credits st the Bank of Venice were maintained at above gold value for several consecutive centuries —until the government fell before Napoleon. We now have numerous kinds of currency. Please read carefully the text on all the different kinds (silver certificates, gold certificates, “green backs,” national bank notes, treasury notes, United States notes, etc.), and then consider something like the following, appropriately embellished by the finest steel engraving, as a substitute for all the different kinds of currency now in circulation:

On the reverse side there might be a form to be filled, stating to whom each individual bill was paid, and what (service or material) the government received in return for same. In the present depleted condition ot the treasury, why not issue a few million dollars of the above as an experiment? It would soon be proven that gold is not necessary as a basis. Balancing the pyramid on the “little end” has always led to panics and disasters. Call the above currency bonds if you wish (bearing no interest). Do you realize that if our national bonds drew no interest they would go into circulation as money, and be a blessing instead of a burden? Place interest upon “green backs” or postage stamps, and they would be taken from the channels of business and locked up as investments. C. F. TAYLOR.

THE IDEAL CURRENCY.