Page:Money by Lang, George S.djvu/13

 With regard to the creation of true money, what the general Government declares to be the dollar is the dollar. There is no other way in which it can be created. It is therefore a legal document. The government made several declarations of the dollar, some inscribed on gold, some on silver; all equally dollars. They differed only in the quantity of the gold or of the silver on which they were inscribed; and this difference, in accordance with government usage, was always a diminution. As each declaration was made to supercede all previous ones, the latest declared dollar is meant when any promise of a dollar is made. With regard to the credit dollars now in use, though the people through their government have guaranteed their payment in gold, yet, as they are held by the people who authorized their issue, it rests with them to say whether they prefer to continue their use, to redeem them, or to replace them with true dollars.

The true dollar will be inscribed on paper, but on what else is a death warrant or a pardon inscribed? Are these of no value because they are not inscribed on gold? If the true dollar be of no value because it is inscribed on paper, then the government we value most is of no value for the same reason.

Heretofore through ignorance of the nature of money, and otherwise, repudiation in some aspect has been the rule almost from the beginning of the creation of money to the present day. Now, however, when the nature of money is known, and here, where the people have the supreme power, this nuisance should be abated by making the creation and maintenance of true money a rule of the organic law.

Money having been reduced to a science by the determination of its relations, the reduction of that science to practice will not only encourage industry by introducing into domestic exchange the element of constant value, but, by thus removing the chief support of spurious finance, it will be the means of achieving a great moral reform.

As the true dollar when declared will supersede the present dollar, and all existing substitutes, and as its relation to the unit of value will be strictly defined and constantly maintained, it will be the standard measure of the relations of value. And