Avoiding the very purpose for which it was devised, money at such times seeks seclusion and declines to circulate. Its owner finds that he can better afford to leave it idle in a vault or bury it in the earth, than subject it to the probability of diminution by investing it in business on a constantly falling market. Thus, contrary to all principles of progress and of natural justice, the man who keeps his money idle, and deprives society of its use, is rewarded by an unearned increment, while he who puts his money into active business, where industry and labor may profit by it is punished by unmerited loss. Under such conditions it is impossible for a community to reach that degree of material progress which, under proper circumstances, it would readily attain. At every turn distress and discouragement stare the people in the face. In every town and village men, willing to work, stand idle. Even their misfortune does not end with themselves, for not only are they a tax upon their friends, lessening to some extent the meager income of those who give them temporary assistance, but their necessary and eager competition for the little work that offers, tends to reduce the compensation of those to whom they are thus indebted. Stores, workshops, and factories, unoccupied and unused, are found in every direction. Crime increases, bankruptcies multiply, and even though the aggregate of wealth augments, it is unjustly distributed, and consequently barren of beneficent results. A GLANCE AT THE HISTORY OF MONEY. The system of relying upon the precious metals as money has long been known as the Automatic system. Accurately, it should be called the _Accidental_ system. It has been called "automatic" because, so long as money was made to depend solely upon the yield of the mines, the supply regulated itself by what was believed to be a natural method, namely, by the expenditure of labor in its production, and was limited only by the rude obstacles which nature opposes to the production of the metals. The necessity of expending this labor placed the money volume of any country beyond the control of the kings and conquerors who, in the primitive periods of society, exercised despotic sway over their subjects. It was undoubtedly better for the people of those early times to risk the accidents of production than the follies and sinister designs of rulers. This automatic system grew out of barter. It is a survival from the period when articles were exchanged directly, not for gold and silver as money, but for gold and silver as commodities--on the basis of their cost of production--as in the case of the articles for which they were exchanged.