41 m 1 Vol. XIV. LINCOLN, NEB., FEB.' 12, 1003. No. 38. RECRUITING FOR 1904 Why You Should Assist in Helping to Extend the Circulation and Influence of The Independent Plutocrats are Always Alert There may be some who at first thought wonder why they should be expected to assist in helping to ex tend the circulation and influence of The Independent. A little thought will convince them it is a privilege, almost a duty to do so. Do you realize how thoroughly the money power is or ganized and how thoroughly it con trols every branch of the government at the present time? Only last week the Standard Oil company, with John D. RocKefeller at its head, demon strated its power and control of con gress by delaying, which means ulti mate defeat, all anti-trust legislation. President Roosevelt found it neces sary to threaten the congress with an extra session unless it should show itself able to pass some kind of a bill to put an end to trust extortion. But the president will be helpless against the combined organization of the trusts so long as the congress is republican and the trusts, through Marcus A. Hanna, control the repub lican party. The millions contributed by the trusts to the republican cam paign funds were not given without some consideration in return. With all these things readers of The In dependent are familiar. But the read ers of trust literature and the subsi dized press of the country know noth ing of the real condition of political affairs. The Independent has no trust funds to draw upon. We cannot af ford to employ traveling agents to solicit subscriptions. We cannot use the postmasters of the country to boom the circulation of The Inde pendent. It must depend upon the patronage of the plain pecple whose cause it champions for- its support. The Independent is the leading pa per of its class in the United States. It advocates certain principles of gov ernment believed to be for the best interests of all the people. It pub lishes facts without fear or favor and endeavors to furnish the information to its readers necessary to enable them to cast an intelligent bal'ot. If you believe in the principles advo cated by The Independent and that their enactment into law would bene fit the nation as a whole it is your duty as a patriotic citizen to do your part in helping to ma' e tlrra law. When the nation ne-ds sold ers in time of war to defend itself frcm its destroyers and presrve the bkssings of our free institutions it is your patriotic duty to volunteer yonr ser vices as a soldier. If the privileges you enjoy are worth so much s?crifice in time of war, are they not worth the lesser sacrifices of time and atten tion to preserve them in time of peace? As prevention is better than cure, so it is better to kep the ma chinery of government moving in such lines that war and revolution will be unnecessary. The citizen who gives time' and attention to problems of government in time of peace is as truly a patriot as he who fol'ows the flag in war. The man who studies to improve his country in qniet time i3 the man who can be depended upon to fight for it when heeded. A political coward always mal.es a "cold-footed" soldier. - The man who PRETENDS to b TOO GOOD to interest himself in po litical matters and dismisses the sub ject with a contemptuous sneer that "he don't care" should be reminded that he cannot escape the annual vis its of the tax collector and that he and his children will be required to assist in paying the political fiddlers. He should be reminded that he and his family must, use kerosene oil and that John D. Rockefeller, head of the Standard Oil trust, has arbitrarily raised the price of that household necessity from 9 cents a gallon to 16 cents a gallon, wholesale, and that the retail price has gone up according from 14 cents to 20 cents in five-gallon lots. That is the tribute he pays to a single trust In the same man ner on every pair of shoes he pays tribute to the leather trust and down the list on nearly every household necessity. Will he help to right the wrong or suffer the injustice to in crease until the burden becomes heav ier than succeeding generations can bear and the sword and bayonet be come the only cure? He should be reminded that he cannot escape his part in the revolution. If he pro claims his ' neutrality, then it will avail him nothing, for the govern ment, if need be, would draft him and his children in its service. The citizen who "don't care" about politics is of doubtful patriotism. He is the political rogue's delight and they only wish that his kind may in crease. As Nero fiddled while Rome burned, so the indifferent citizen fid dles while his liberty perishes. He growls a little, but payi; the bills and does nothing to check the robberies and political extravagance. If you believe in the principles ad vocated by The Independent the principles of the people's party it is your duty to help extend its circula tion and influence in order that those principles may be made law. It is your duty to assist in electing men who will support and advocate the same principles you believe in. You have read The Independent and know of its loyalty to the cause of good government. Will you do your par' in helping to overthrow the rule of Mammon and substitute Abraham Lincoln's government of the people, by the people and for the people? The Independent has announced a special rate, only $1.00 for NEW sub scriptions to run until after the pres idential election in 1904. Recruiting coupon books containing five coupons n each book have been prepared. Each coupon is good for a subscription to The Independent to be sent to any address in the United States until November 17, 1904, twenty-one months from this time. Every reader inter ested in the cause of good government should send for a recruiting coupon book. No charge is made for the book or coupons in advance. We'll send you the book andwhen you have sold the coupons send $1 to The Inde pendent for each coupon sold. Any unsold coupons may be returned. It costs you nothing to try. Send for a book today. Here are those who have already ordered coupon books. Why not have your name added to the list: O. S. Williamson, Beaver City, Neb. J. M. Knox, Cambridge, Neb. A. W. Gingery. Lamar, Colo. A. R. Cross, Lewis, Kas. A. F. Parsons, North Platte, Neb. J. T. Sims, Simsville, Ala. W. B. Essick, North Benton, O. J. M. Babb, Clayton, III. James Mcllduff, O'Connor, Neb. Ralph Ashton, Emmett, Neb. J. B. Vaughan, Clifton, S. C. Neb. Mut. Ins. Journal. Wm. Bailey, Eldorado, Kas. August Uhde, Curtis Bay, Md. William Hancock, Loup City, Neb. Wm. Surman, Carlinville, 111. David Marshall, Milltona, Minn. H. J. Mason, Fullerton, Neb. Jerry Johnston, Miola, Pa. Mr. Martin's Mistake Editor Independent: It is incom prehensible how any man who has been reading with attention any thing I have said on the subject could have got it into his head that I am in favor of letting the banks, under any possible condition or favoritism, issue their notes as money. The is sue of money is a prerogative of gov ernment and ought under no possi ble set of circumstances to be dele gated to any individual or corpora tion. And let me say further in this connection that every dollar of ev ery form of money ought to be a full legal tender. I hope Mr. John T. Martin will not again misunderstand me on this question. FLAVIUS J. VAN VORHIS. Indianapolis, Ind. Good for The Outlook! In discuss ing the action of the Chicago city council, deciding by a vote of 51 to 1G to ask the legislature to pass a bill allowing any city in Illinois to pur chase street car lines, The Outlook believes that "the amendment provid ing for a referendum of all consider able extensions of a railway fran chise should be urged." That is good populism. IHE VALUE OF MONEY Mr. Da Hart Raturna to Ilia Old Lot, tha Subject of Monty CHAPTER I. Editor Independent: Adam Smith said: "The word VALUE, it is to be observed, has two different meanings, and sometimes expresses the utility of some particular object, and some times the power of purchasing other goods which the possessor of that ob ject conveys. "The one may be called "value in use,' the -other 'value in exchange.' "The things which have the greatest value in use have frequently little or ho value in exchange; and, on the contrary, those that have the greatest value in exchange have frequently little or no value in use. Nothing is more useful than water; but it will purchase scarce anything; scarce any thing can be had in exchange for it. A diamond, on the contrary, has scarce any value in use, but a very great quantity of goods may frequent ly be had in exchange for it." Thus spoke Adam Smith, and it would have been a great deal better, if he had said only half as much. What he said about value as being a "power of purchasing goods" was very true, but that part about value as being "utility of some particular object" was certainly erroneous. It is no more correct to say that value is utility than to say that value is wealth. We also need a definition of value that will separate it from price as well as from wealth and utility. Economists are obliged to use these four words and they all should be used, without one being used for the other. - I have quoted all that Adam Smith said about value. The next great political economist coming along was David Ricardo born in 1772, dying in 1824, in his fifty-second year and it is a great pity that he could not have had twenty years more. He made great improvements on Adam Smith, and he would have done much more if he could have lived longer. Un fortunately, however, he had a con fused notion of value or at least a confused way of explaining it. The probability is that he was more de ficient in language than in ideas. He undoubtedly saw clearly the differ ence between utility and value, al though he did not express it -clearly. He made a mistake in following too closely the great Adam Smith. Ricardo commenced the discussion of his political economy by quoting Adam Smith approvingly, and then adding more illustration, in order to show that "value has two different meanings.". He said: "Water and air are abundantly useful; they are indeed indispensable to existence, yet, un der ordinary circumstances, nothing can be obtained in exchange for them." Gold, on the contrary, though of lit tle use, compared with air or water, will exchange for a great quantity of other goods." Ricardo continues: "Utility, then, is hot the measure of exchangeable value, although it is absolutely essen tial to it. If a commodity were in no way useful, it would be destitute of exchangeable value, however scarce it might be, or whatever quantity of labor might be necessary to produce it." What nonsense! How can value be "exchangeable?" If it is a "power of purchasing," as Smith said, how can it be exchangeable? Two commodities may be exchangeable, but two pow ers of purchasing cannot be ex changeable. Ricardo then says: "Possessing utility, commodities derive their ex changeable value from two sources: from their scarcity, and from the quantity of labor required to procure them." He then devotes thirty pages for the purpose of showing that commodities get their "exchangeable value" he ought to say "value," because thes is no such thing as exchangeable val uefrom two sources: "from their scarcity, or from the quantity of la bor required to obtain them." While Adam Smith could dispose of value by a dozen lines, yet Ricardo re quired thirty pages to give his notions about it. And it is singular that each subsequent economist devoted more and more space to the subject, before he could come to the discussion of wealth, the real subject of the sci ence. Ricardo thought that It waa 4 very necessary to prove what was the' cause of value, namely, labor or scarc ity. Adam Smith had said: "The value of any commodity to the per" son who possesses It, and who mean3 not to use it or consume it himself,' but to exchange it for other commod-, ities. is equal to the quantity of labor , which it enables him to purchase or command." "Labor," says Smith, "Is the real measure of the exchangeable value of all commodities." Then we read from Smith as fol-. lows: "The real price of everything" . . . is the toil and trouble of acquir-; ing it. What everything Is really, worth to the man who has acquired, it, and who wants to dispose of it or exchange it. for something else, la the toil and the trouble which it can save to himself, and which it can Im pose upon other people. What is bought with money or with goods is purchased by labor, as much as what we acquire by the toil of our own body. That money or those goods In deed save us this toil. . . . Labor was the first price, the original purchase money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labor, that all the wealth of tha world was originally purchased; and its value to those who possess it, and who want to exchange it for new pro ductions, is ''precisely equal to the quantity of labor which it can enable them to purchase." r I am quoting from the 5th chapter of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, which chapter is entitled "Of the real and nominal price of com modities, or of their price in labor, and their price in money." ... He takes the ground that "labor is the real measure of value." You notice he does not say "standard of value," a phrase we use so much in modern times. He is looking for something that will serve as a measure of value; and this something he concludes, must be a commodity that Is the product Of labor. He argues that although la bor is the "real measure of value," yet labor cannot be used in every-dayj life as a measure. On this point he says: "Every commodity is more frequently exchanged for, and there by compared with, other commodities than with labor. It is more natural therefore to estimate its changeable value by the quantity of some other commodity than by that of the labor which it can purchase. The greater part of people, too, understand better what is meant by a quantity of a par ticular commodity, than by a quan tity of labor. The one is a plain and palpable object; the other an abstract notion, which, though it can be made sufficiently intelligible, is not alto gether so natural and obvious." Exchanges of labor for labor takes place in the .infancy of society. Af terwards the people begin to exchange commodities for commodities. This is barter in its advanced stage. After wards the community finds that there is some one commodity which is uni versally useful and which everybody, wants. Then those who have more of any one commodity than they can use themselves, begin to exchange it for that one commodity which every body wants. This one single com modity is called money, and those who have a superfluity of one or more commodities, begin to exchange them for the commodity called money. This commodity becomes acceptable, first, because taxes can be paid with it; secondly, because damages adjudged to be paid by the courts, can be paid thereby; third, fines and all penalties can be paid thereby; fourth, rents are discharged thereby. What the landlord and government will accept for rent and taxes the merchant, manufacturer and labor will accept, for their goods and labor. Smith insists that although labor is the "real price" of commodities, yet money is the "nominal price" of com modities. His idea is, that money (gold or silver) gets its value from the quantity of labor necessary to mine and bring these commodities to market. In this respect both Ri cardo and Smith agree. This, however, is a disputed point. Undoubtedly the value of gold and silver ought to de pend upon tin quantity of labor nec essary to mine and bring them to market. But nations are not doing business as they ought to be doing. Mr. Del Mar has made a long and laborious examination of this matter.