People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1896 — PAPER MONEY. [ARTICLE]

PAPER MONEY.

A Cnrreapendenc submits * Few Frwyw •itlana. By J. G. Malcolm, M.D., Hutchinson, Kan. The following propositions concerning money are submitted for the purpose of eliciting criticism: 1. The common idea that money must have intrinsic value has not yet been proved. Money is a medium of exchange and it is not consumed. It simply represents value, as a deed to a piece of land represents the land. It is the land that has the value, So a paper dollar may be considered as a deed to its share of the wealth of the country with all the other dollars in the country. It is this share of the wealth that has value. 2. Value is an ideal thing and is not one of the component parts of anything. It, therefore, cannot be measured, any more than love or hate or ambition. When we say that the dollar is worth so many grains of gold it does not fix its value, for grains of gold have no fixed value, any more than pounds of butter. No commodity can have a fixed or unchangeable value. 3. The dollar is a unit of value, but not a measure of value. All values are spoken of in dollars or in fractions of dollars or multiples of dollars. In this way we can compare the value of things. 4. The value of the dollar depends upon the amount of wealth in the country and the number of dollars in the country. No dollar can have any value where there is nothing to buy with it, nor can it have where the number of dollars are unlimited. 5. The price of all commodities, gold included, is regulated by the law of supply and demand, and must vary with these factions.

6. When we make the dollar so many grains of gold the value of the dollar must rise and fall with the rise and fall of the value of gold. 7. To increase the demand for gold must raise its price. During the last two years our government has bought $262,000,000 worth of gold. This has greatly increased the demand for it, and this has raised its price, and this is manifest in the low price of everything else. 8. The high price of the dollar is always expressed in the low price of everything else. One dollar is always worth 100 cents, but when the value of the dollar is based upon any commodity, neither the dollar nor the cents have any fixed value, because the value, of the commodity changes with the law of supply and demand. 9. If value could be measured a unit of value which changes its value, as gold does, could not be a good measure of value, any more than a unit ol length can be a good measure of lengtl if it continually changes its length. 10. Any kind of money would be goc< if the unit value could have a fixed an<! unchangeable value, and no kind c-l money can be good that does not ful fill this condition. If the dollar did ncr change its value the average price o things would always be the same. By this is meant that if the average prio* of all the things should be taken thsum of the-e nricos would always b* the same. The gold standard does nosecure this result, and therefore it 1? not good money. 11. The average price of things coul 1 be made unchangeable on the fol’owiny plan: Demonetize all commodities am issue a new national paper money Make it the only legal tender money Establish national banks, just as wc now have national postoffices. Accep all money now in circulation at par Jj these banks. This would give us about as much money in circulation as wt have now, and prices would remain about the same. But, since the average prices of things now are lower than they were a few years ago, we should seek to restore prices to some extent, at least. This could be done by making a present of say $5 or $lO to every man, woman and child in the country. This would increase the supply of money; this would make it cheaper, and this would raise the price of commodities. But, If at any time prices should too much we could take money collected in taxes out of circulation, in sufficient quantity to restore former prices. In this way the price, or purchasing power, of the dollar could be kept constantly the same. 12. Paper money should not be made a promise to pay in gold or silver, but might read as follows: We, the people of the United States of America, agree to accept this token as one dollar in payment of all debts and in exchange of all commodities. 13 People wishing to trade with foreign nations could buy gold, or other commodities, and trade as they do now. 14. No gold reserve would be needed at Washington, as the paper money would not require to be redeemed. 15 All deposits in national banks would be safe so long as the nation was solvent, because bankers would be mere agents of the government.

Ilxvo Tittle to To the Editor of the World: In reply to your question to workingmen I think I can give you in a few words subject for much consideration We wage-earners have little to lose and much to gain, and I take it we cannot lose much while our fellow-wage- earners, the farmers, are prosperous. I would, prefer, although I do not belcfng to the class of agricultural wage-ewn-ers, to risk the decrease in the purchasing power of my wages if thereby the farmer is to be more prosperous; especially in view of the howl which has arisen from the moneyed classes against free coinage, the howl apparently being caused by the fear of the curtailment of their power of absorption. WAGE-EARNER.

.. is said that Cleveland wants a third term. He ought to have it—on some St. Helena.

The free silver roar drowns that of he British lion. The bankers want more bonds; the people want more money. Cleveland couldn't be elected constable in Hoop-pole township. Let it be plainly understood that it is the new born democracy which Bryan represents. It may never be the People’s party again, but no power on earth can iheck the onward tendency to a general reform. If the Populists are going to vote for Bryan the men who are managing the affairs of the new born democracy should either compel the gold bugs to leave the party or fumigate themselves. The money power is impartial in blacklisting and discharging men who dare express opinions of their own. Wm. P. St. John, the free silver banker of New York, has been compelled to resign his position as president of the Mercantile National Bank. The money power will use all available means for enforcing its purposes.