28 
Annual Report of the 
things, hence must have a fixed value in itself. Fix the value of 
money by limiting the rate of annual interest it shall accumulate, 
and that rate to be as low as the average increased wealth arising 
annually from all the industries, and a just standard or measure of 
value will be established, producing stabilit^y in the price of all 
products, and allowing the law of “supply and demand” to legiti¬ 
mately obtain. Until this is done, fluctuation and uncertainty in 
prices will prevail, the same as would exist in weights and measures 
if the standard fixed by the Government was changed at the will or 
cupidity of the owner. 
What is the office of a yard-stick ? To measure length. Does it 
or its owner determine its length? Not at all. This has been deter¬ 
mined by the government. What is the office of money? To 
measure the value of land, labor, and all kinds of property. Does 
it, or its possessor, determine its value? The latter does, by demand¬ 
ing for its use all he can obtain. He should not be allowed to change 
a fixed value or measure in the one case more than in the other. 
The supply of money and its just regulation is one of the most 
important foundation principles in the science of government. 
There has been, and still is, a mystery surrounding it which the 
people do not understand. They know that the property of the 
country is rapidly accumulating in the hands of the few, but the 
cause is not so fully comprehended, or so easy of solution. They 
know that while money is commanding 10 to 15 per cent, the gains 
for labor are not to exceed 3. They are told in explanation, that 
this is all light, a sort of Providential arrangement, that the many 
should be born to labor for the few and support them in idleness 
and luxury, when in fact, the true cause is an unjust distribution of 
the wealth which labor creates, by unwise enactments of law in 
favor of money, giving it an accumulative power it ought not to 
possess. The sooner the government adopts a strictly mercantile 
currency, a dollar in paper for one of gold or silver in her vaults, 
or cuts loose from a gold basis entirely, issuing paper money exclu¬ 
sively, based upon the faith and credit of the country, at low, fixed 
rates of interest, the better for industry, trade and business generally. 
Paper money, based upon gold, under existing laws of this, and 
nearly all other countries, is dishonest, a deceit, a fraud, and a lie. 
No honest and just reason can be given why a person or corpora¬ 
tion owning a million dollars in gold, should have the right to issue 
