54: Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



fallacies that are afloat upon this subject. Professor Walker has 

 done excellent service in the economic field. He always writes 

 with clearness and vigor, and whatever he says upon any topic is 

 sure to command attention. " Money," he says, is that which 

 passes freely from hand to hand throughout the community, in 

 final discharge of debts and full payment for commodities, being 

 accepted equally without reference to the character or credit of 

 the person who offers it, and without the intention of the person 

 who receives it to consume it, or enjoy it, or apply it to any other 

 use than in turn to tender it to others in discharge of debts or 

 payment for commodities." This is an almost faultless descrip- 

 tion of money as a fact, and if we were dealing with facts only and 

 not with their interpretation, it might be allowed to pass without 

 comment. The core of this description lies in the words " final 

 discharge of debts and full payment for commodities." In their 

 correct interpretation rests the whole matter in dispute. In the 

 view of Professor Walker the question, money or not money, is. 

 in respect to anything that could be taken, wholly a question of 

 degree — the degree of the extent and facility of its use in ex- 

 change. If the thing be a paper promise, another distinction is 

 called in, which is that the promise must be that of somebody else, 

 and not of the one who offers it. " If I purchase a farm from any 

 one," he says, "and give him ray promise to pay him at some fu- 

 ture date, that promise, whatever form it takes, whether written on 

 paper or stamped upon brass, whatever my character or compe- 

 tence, whether I be rich or poor, honest or dishonest, is not money. 

 The goods are not yet paid for, but are yet to be paid for. I have 

 taken credit; I have not given money. Tbe seller still looks to 

 me for the equivalent of the goods he has parted with. * * * 

 I buy a horse, and give the owner thirty $5 notes. Have I 

 taken credit? Not at all; I have paid for the horse. -^ -^ * 

 He takes the notes from me because they are money — that is, be- 

 cause they have such general acceptance throughout the country 

 that he knows men will freely and gladly take them from him 

 whenever he wishes to buy anything." 



As a matter of fact, the credit element enters into both of these 

 transactions. In each case it is between the maker of the prom- 



