State Convention—Dollars and Sense. 
281 
and by thirty billions of wealth which makes it good. The legal- 
tender feature of it may increase the value of it in one sense. 
Mr. Pashley: It is the only thing which gives it its value. 
Mr. Sellers: What gives your twenty-three grains of gold its 
value and makes it a dollar? 
Mr. Roberts: It is because it will always exchange, in this coun¬ 
try and every other country on the globe, for a dollar’s worth of 
produce of any kind. 
Mr. Sellers: It would not, any more than a piece of paper, if 
the governments of the world didn’t say it would. 
Mr. Roberts: Yes, sir, it would. The governments of the 
world cannot create value. Value is created by labor—yours and 
my labor. It is impossible to make a piece of paper of any value. 
It is not of any more value than what it cost to make the paper 
and print it. That is all the value there is inherent in the piece of 
paper. 
Mr. Sellers: What is it that makes gold more valuable than 
iron ? 
Mr. Roberts: It is the labor it costs to get it out of the earth. 
Any one engaged in mining iron can mine that iron and get it 
ready for market for five or six cents a pound. 
Mr. Sellers: What gives it its legal value? 
Mr. Roberts: There is no such thing as legal value. You can 
mine and put into market a pound of iron for five or six cents. 
Can you mine and put into the market of the world a pound of 
gold for five or six cents? I should think any man could see the 
difference in the value, and in the cost. It is labor that makes any 
thing of that kind valuable. It is the promise to pay on the green¬ 
back, and the promise to pay it in gold, that makes the greenback 
valuable. It is the obligation of the United States. 
Secretary Field: I wish to say to the gentleman, that he nor any 
other person has a greenback, but what, if he came by it honestly, 
has cost him just as much labor as to obtain the gold dollar. Neither 
can be had except in exchange for labor or other things of value. 
On motion, the convention adjourned until 9 o’clock, Thursday 
morning. 
