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INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT.

Data, such as the quantities of the different kinds of money in the world, are questions of fact and our knowledge of them is derived from statistics.

Facts, such as occurrences in Congress, at Conventions, etc., will be proved principally by presenting declarations appearing in print and made about the time each particular fact occurred. We shall always

present the best evidence we have.

The leading differences in this case relate to Principles. Here the evidence will be cumulative and you will experience very little difficulty in following. A great help to us in disposing of the opposing claims will be their Inconsistencies. You know it to be a fact that truth is consistent, and therefore whenever you find an advocate who, understanding his case, presents to you an inconsistency, you feel warranted in believing that his claim as to that precise point is not supported by the facts. Inconsistencies are put forward by counsel who have "no case" yet seek to win (and only such counsel are employed in desperate cases). They attempt to deceive juries by actually misstating facts; they draw erroneous conclusions from facts correctly stated; state half-truths-the most dangerous species of sophism; claim as important facts which do not touch the issue, and abuse those who attempt to unmask their deceptive utterances.

In judging the trustworthiness (credibility) of each witness and advocate, an important thing to consider is his Motives. In ascertaining. these, his past history is of great importance, as individuals usually change slowly. The importance of this method of ascertaining the character of individuals and classes will be demonstrated to you.

Facts are to be distinguished from Opinions. Where a fact in dispute is capable of demonstration, it is, of course, the height of folly to accept any one's opinion as to its existence. Therefore, in our consideration of the money question, the opinions which individuals have put forward should not influence us in our judgment of the facts which go to make up the case, except as we compare the opinions of recognized leaders in finance and see how they compare with the conclusions we have reached. Where there is a disagreement we must search for the incon

sistency.

We will now present the evidence in the case. It would have pleased us had we been able to present it in a less number of pages, but the facts exist and the principal ones should be placed before you.

CHICAGO, August 19, 1896.

G. H. S.

Money is the Pricing Instrument or Measure of Prices (General Prices, page 11, below). The Government controls it as it does other measures (page 9, below) and therefore should dispense equal and exact justice to the moneyed interests and the Interests other-than-moneyed.

Admit that money is the pricing instrument or measure of prices (general prices) and the money question is simplified. Deny it and you are in error, and as the error is basic your entire superstructure is a mass of error.

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(For an analytical table of what follows see page 724. This table ould be consulted frequently, as it is a brief resumé of the subject.)

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I. DEFINITION.

Money" is a Medium of Exchange. Observation demonstrates at such is the case. For example, we exchange wheat for money and is money we exchange for clothing. Here the wheat is exchanged for othing through the mediumship of money.'

"Currency" is also used to mean a Medium of Exchange.'

'John Stuart Mill says: "The mere troduction of a particular mode of exanging things for one another, by exchanging a thing for money, and exchanging the money for someelse, makes no difference in the tial character of transactions. It not with money that things are really rchased. Nobody's income is derived om the precious metals [except that of e gold or silver miner]. The dollars or uts which a person receives weekly yearly are not what con-titute his come; they are a sort of tickets or ders which he can present for payent at any shop he pleases, and which title him to receive a certain value any commodity that he makes choice

The farmer pays his laborers and landlord in these tickets, as the st convenient plan for himself and em; but their real income is their are of his corn, cattle, and hay, and nakes no essential difference whether distributes it to them directly, or Is it for them and gives them the

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price. There cannot, in short, be intrinsically a more insignificant thing, in the economy of society, than money; except in the character of a contrivance for sparing time and labor. Money is a machine for doing quickly and commodiously what would be done, though less quickly and commodiously, without it; and, like many other kinds of machinery, it cnly exerts a distinct and independent influence of its own when it gets out of order." (Mill's Principles of Political Economy, p. 292, Laughlin's Edition.)

2Professor Marshall uses "Currency," "to include everything which passes from hand to hand as a means of purchasing without regard to any special or trade knowledge of those who handle it," thus including gold and silver money and paper money but not including checks on banks, as they require "the receiver to have formed some opinion for himself as to the individual from which he receives it."

A more restricted meaning of the term money is, a medium of exchange clothed with legal tender qualities.'

(Testimony before the British Gold and Silver Commission of 1888, 9630-9632.)

The Most Convenient Currency. Professor Jevons says: "It is entirely a question of degree what commodities will in any given state of society form the most convenient currency, and this truth will be best impressed upon us by a brief consideration of the very numerous things which have at one time or other been employed as money. * ** There is abundant evidence that furs or skins were employed as money in many ancient nations. They serve this purpose to the present day in some parts of the world "

In Virginia, in the 18th Century, tobacco was used as a medium of exchange, it being placed in storehouses and receipts on paper passing from hand to hand. (White's Money and Banking, pp 4-8.)

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It appears, then, that money is a term not confined to gold and silver; to thus confine it is fallacious. In the words of Professor Jevons: Living in civilized communities and accustomed to the use of coined metallic money, we learn to identify money with gold and silver; hence spring hurtful and insidious fallacies. It is entirely a question of degree what commodities will in any given state of society form the most convenient currency." (Money and the Mechanism of Exchange, p. 19.)

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Silver and gold were at an early time used as currency. In these later days the tendency is to issue certificates against both gold and silver except for fractions of a dollar.

The money which is a "legal tender" is money which the law provides shall be received in the discharge of obligations calling for money.

The United States Statutes designate the money which is a legal tenderwhich shall be received in the discharge of obligations calling for "dollars." They provide that certain quantities of gold and silver when stamped by the United States with the insignia designated by law are legal tender, except that denominations less than $1 are legal tender only to the extent of $5.

The law also provides that gold certificates and silver certificates shall be issued by the government whenever individuals prefer them to coins, the coins to be stored by the government until such time as certificates are presented for exchange. These certificates are made legal tender.

Paper Money-The act of March 17, 1862, provided that 60 million of dollars, the insignia of which should be stamped on paper by the United States, were to be "lawful money and a legal tender."

The law under which the "Greenbacks" now in use were issued (act of February 25, 1862) provide that they "shall be lawful money and a legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private, within the United States, except duties on imports and interest upon bonds and notes owing by the United States."

The law providing for the issue of paper money by national banks does not make it a legal tender for private debts.

Treasury Notes-By Act of July 14, 1890, the payment for the further purchase of silver bullion was to be in paper money-money the denominations of which should be stamped on paper by the United States. This money is termed Treasury Notes and "shall be a legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private, except where otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract, and shall be receivable for

EXCHANGE VALUE DEFINED.

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In each of the civilized countries, their laws carefully designate what shall constitute money, thus limiting the quantity.'

II. EXCHANGE VALUE DEFINED.

That which we receive in exchange for anything is termed its Exchange Value; for short, Value.

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Usefulness" is frequently designated by the term Intrinsic Value; that is to say, value in itself - value in use. A thing may be useful, as, for example, air, and yet no one will give anything for it.

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In pursuance of the exclusive authority thus conferred upon Congress, it by act of April 2, 1792, provided for a mint and set forth the rules which should regulate the coining of money and its value.

Since 1792 Congress has passed many laws concerning money and its exchange value.

Laws for the Punishment of Counterfeiting have been one means of regulating the quantity of the medium of exchange; another means has been to prohibit all individuals and corporations from issuing anything in their oren names which shall pass as a medium of exchange, except as special permission is by law granted; for example, the law granting to National Banks the right to issue paper money.

It appears then that in the United States only that money is in circulation which is BY LAW permitted to circulate. Gold is by law given unImited coinage while silver is by law kept from being coined into money; to now coin silver into money is counterfeiting and is a grave offense. In 1893 there was passed a law stopping the coinage of about 4 million dollars of paper money each month to be used by the government in purchasing silver bullion.

2 The distinction between "Value in Use" and "Exchange Value" is thus pointed out in the writings of Aristotle (Politics, i. ix.):

"Every commodity may be used in two ways, first to help to satisfy the want to answer which it was created and secondly to serve for exchange. Boots are of service in walking, but they may also, by means of exchange, serve to procure other objects, such as money, food, or any other product."

Most economists employ the term Usefulness or Utility to designate "value in use" (intrinsic value) and designate "value in exchange" by the term Value. Of course it is a matter of definition. But even so careful a writer as Jevons does not stick to this definition of value which he lays down for himself in his Money and the Mechanism of Exchange (p. 11), for later he says (p. 32) "substantial value," meaning, of course, value other than in exchange.

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