Page:David Atkins - The Economics of Freedom (1924).pdf/153

 tions than are we, who now aimlessly hold, as a pledge, the one accepted medium of communication.

The domination of gold, both nationally and internationally, is due to tradition, political disorder and lack of faith, and results in sudden unforeseen economic disenfranchisement. It is a negative, a restrictive, power. In spite of repeated disasters we still permit measurement of value by arbitrary check instead of flow—and it is not always our own citizens who decide upon the periodic days of atonement for over-confidence.

The orthodox economists will turn and assert that they make no pretense that gold represents value, but is simply a focal point which is measurable, and is also where we can see it, namely with the United States Treasury or the Federal Reserve Banks. As a matter of record the United States Treasury on Jan. 1, 1922, held as assets, gold amounting to $380,188,972. Of this amount $152,979,025 is definitely ear-marked as a fund to support the issue of Greenbacks, and the balance, $227,209,946, is held against other obligations, such as National Bank Notes, Federal Reserve Notes and Federal Reserve Bank Notes. It does not belong to the Government: