A Letter to Grover Cleveland: On His False Inaugural Address, The Usurpations and Crimes of Lawmakers and Judges, and the Consequent Poverty, Ignorance, and Servitude Of The PeopleSpooner, Lysander
Philosophy
A Letter to Grover Cleveland: On His False Inaugural Address, The Usurpations and Crimes of Lawmakers and Judges, and the Consequent Poverty, Ignorance, and Servitude Of The People
Spooner, Lysander
Cleveland, Grover, 1837-1908; United States -- Politics and government
They need all this _money capital_ to enable them to buy the raw
materials upon which to bestow their labor, the implements and machinery
with which to labor, and their means of subsistence while producing
their goods for the market.
Unless they can get this capital, they must all either work at a
disadvantage, or not work at all. A very large portion of them, to save
themselves from starvation, have no alternative but to sell their labor
to others, at just such prices these others choose to pay. And these
others choose to pay only such prices as are far below what the laborers
could produce, if they themselves had the necessary capital to work
with.
But this needed capital your lawmakers arbitrarily forbid them to have;
and for no other reason than to reduce them to the condition of
servants; and subject them to all such extortions as their
employers--the holders of the privileged money--may choose to practise
upon them.
If, now, you ask me where these twenty-five thousand millions of dollars
of money capital, which these laborers need, are to come from, I answer:
_Theoretically_, there are, in this country, fifty thousand millions of
dollars of money capital ($50,000,000,000)--or twice as much as I have
supposed these laborers to need--NOW LYING IDLE! _And it is lying idle,
solely because the circulation of it, as money, is prohibited by the
lawmakers._
If you ask how this can be, I will tell you.
_Theoretically,_ every dollar's worth of material property, that is
capable of being taken by law, and applied to the payment of the owner's
debts, is capable of being represented by a promissory note, that shall
circulate as money.
But taking all this material property at _only half_ its actual value,
it is still capable of supplying the twenty-five thousand millions of
dollars--or one thousand dollars each--which these laborers need.
Now, we know--because experience has taught us--that _solvent_
promissory notes, made payable in coin on demand, are the best money
that mankind have ever had; (although probably not the best they ever
will have).
To make a note solvent, and suitable for circulation as money, it is
only necessary that it should be made payable in coin on demand, and be
issued by a person, or persons, who are known to have in their hands
abundant material property, that can be taken by law, and applied to the
payment of the note, with all costs and damages for non-payment on
demand.
_Theoretically,_ I repeat, all the material property in the country,
that can be taken by law, and applied to the payment of debt can be used
as banking capital; and be represented by promissory notes, made payable
in coin on demand. And, _practically_, so much of it can be used as
banking capital as may be required for supplying all the notes that can
be kept in circulation as money.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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