Show ITS liNn AND USES OSES Full Report of Hon C. C C. C Goodwins Goodwin's Lecture Delivered Before the Students of the University University University Uni Uni- Friday Evening Jan 93 Room 28 was filled to overflowing on the the occasion of Judge Goodwins Goodwin's lecture on the Values and Uses of Money J There were but few students who did not avail themselves of this opportunity to hear one of the ablest editors in the Vest West and a pronounced pronounced pronounced pro pro- of the free coinage of o sil silver ver President Kingsbury in a few words introduced Mr Goodwin who arose amidst much applause Following is a full report report report re re- port of his address LADIES AND GENTLEMEN GENTLEMEN- The splendor of the world is due to mining and to the perfect- perfect ness of mans man's ability to work the minerals which the mines supply The fields of the world give men food j with food furnished a few souls turn to the contemplation of higher things but no grand civilization ever came to toan toan an agricultural ral until people their intellects were quickened by something beyond their usual occupation How man first emerged from utter barbarism Is a story that is lost but when history first firstI I began to pick up the threads of events and to weave them into a record the loom upon which the record was woven was made of gold One of the rivers that flowed through Eden also compassed the whole land of Havilah where there is gold j and the gold of that land is good Tubal Cain was an instructor of every artificer artificer artificer arti arti- of brass and iron Abraham and Jacob bought fields with money and when Pharaoh sought to make Joseph next in power to himself himself himself him him- self he took the ring from his finger and put it upon Josephs Joseph's finger j and he put a chain of gold about Josephs Joseph's neck Thus the grandchildren grandchildren grandchildren grand grand- children of Adam in holy writ were artificers in brass and iron and when civilization in Egypt began to make an impression upon the world its sovereigns had already discovered the omnipotence omnipotence omnipotence om om- of gold Assyria that came next to be the concern concern- ment of mankind had mt n who could perfectly fuse gold and glass s and their work is still an object of wonder to the world Their queens wore raiment which was woven from threads of gold The splendor of the Hebrew nation culminated culminated culminated when the roof of their great temple laid with beaten gold flashed back the sunbeams and when all the magnificent caparisons within the temple were wrought from gold and silver and brass The The- invincible Greeks had chariots chariot and javelins javelins javelins jave jave- lins of iron helmets of gold and brass and now as their tombs are rifled there is found beside where their bones went back to dust the metal implements with which they wrought and the imperishable coins with which they carried on their commerce The power of Rome came when her artisans learned how to fashion the short sword and her soldiers learned how to wield it and her splendor came when through conquest she brought under her dominion the gold fields of Spain and Asia and le learned the power which money carries with it Her civilization b began gan ganto to recede when the money supply began to falloff fall falloff falloff off and when it became too precious for the masses to possess it then the race degenerated until the men were no longer fit to be soldiers the women lost the grace to become the mothers moth moth- ers of soldiers and darkness settled upon Europe England remained little more than a rendezvous rendezvous rendezvous for wild tribes until her people learned mining and began the study of how to reduce the metals which the mines supplied and her adv advancement since can be rated exactly by the progress she has made in bringing the metals into effective forms and combinations When first the rude Saxon acquired the art to mend the broken links in a knights knight's armor and how to temper one of the old-fashioned old two-handed two swords it was possible to comprehend that from that germ would expand the brains that would by and by construct a steel ship or bridge or steam engine j when the first rude spindle was made all the commencement necessary to create and work the worlds world's looms was made Out of these accomplishments commerce was born Foreign commerce required ships and so the ships were sup supplied lied with commerce commerce was was vas developed a financial system and s soon on it was discovered that after all the power of the world was money that the swiftest swiftest swiftest swift swift- est way to win money was to perfect machinery so that out of raw material forms of beauty and use could be wrought ht and thus in regular chain the majesty of England expanded from the first day that an Englishman was able to convert the dull iron or tin ore are into something which the world would want until ships laden with her wares reached all the worlds world's ports and to barbarous u lands she became an iron nation nation nation na na- tion more terrible than the first Iron Nation The worlds world's highest civilization does not come from the fruitful fields but from the darkness of the deep mines Power and independence independence independence inde inde- come with the digging and working of the baser metals full civilization waits upon the production of pf enough of the royal metals to give to the people wealth in a form that enables enables enables en en- ables them to command the best attainable talent to serve them and enough of leisure to enable them to p put t forth their best efforts In all communities some men assert themselves themselves themselves them them- selves and take the lead of their fellow men I suppose it was so among primitive men The legend i i i. that Sisyphus began as a cattle thief that having stolen many cattle he bribed the oracle to predict a famine that he prospered exceedingly that in his old age he founded Corinth and finally died greatly respected and mourned If the legend is true then mankind are much muchas as they al always ways have been Success is the angel that men worship and they are not especially anxious to inquire into how the success was achieved But when Sisyphus traded his cattle for some other form of property that was only barter At some time in the long past men learned that there were certain substances of which only a limited amount could be secured that these substances possessed certain wonderful qualities that they could be melted by fire and cast into any form but that the fire could not destroy one grain grairt of their weight that as s they were indestructible so also they were bright and beautiful and moreover of all the minerals minerals minerals min min- only two gold and silver possessed these characteristics As both were very malleable and very beautiful beautiful beautiful beau beau- I suppose it was earl early the custom of barbarous barbarous barbarous bar bar- barous men to beat or mould them into ornaments ornaments ornaments orna orna- ments and our savage great great-great-great great away away away- back grandmothers back grandmothers coveted these things and smiled upon their beaux even as aR their more enlightened descendants continue to smile when their beaux came wooing a-wooing with rare ornaments as gifts So we presume it became a habit of the beaux beaux to o struggle to possess these ornaments and it is IS reasonable to believe that they ther often traded for them their surplus clothing for no doubt they reasoned that in admiring the ornaments ornaments orna orna- ments the young joung ladies would forgive or not notice the absence of neckties cuffs and collars and possibly the shirt itself As man at first had no weapons given him he had to make them from the flints or native other mineral copper or some Rome T To catch a deer he had to run him down this thi is a days day's w work rk for a trained traine hunter huner We can can imagine that one man having run down and killed a deer and wanting the gold and silver silver- silver ornaments ornaments was willing to give half the deer for as much of either metal as a man could dig from the stream or pry out of the cliff in half a days day's toil When later th the bow and arrow were invented and the deft savage could steal upon a band of deer and kill three or four or six in a day then the the price of venison began to fall and the product product pro pro pro- duct of one days day's labor in the mine paid for many deer Later when gold and silver became more plenty and venison more scarce then venison advanced again in price or what is the same thing gold and silver depreciated it depreciated it it required more of either to buy a certain number of pounds of venison We Ve can well believe too that many a youth hunting but still anxious to conciliate his dusky sweetheart mortgaged d his future labor agreeing for the ornaments not only t to supply the usual amount of venison but an an added supply for the accommodation The Th holder of the gold or silver who made that exaction exaction exaction ex- ex ex ex- action was the worlds world's first banker At last when there was war between two tribes and both sides sought to make alliance with other tribes it was found that the tribe which could offer most of these 01 ornaments could gain all the help it needed and from th that t thour hour to the present the rule has never been broken the power that controls most treasure is the sovereign power So too brooding over the success which came of advancing these metals to the impecunious impecunious impecunious impe impe- noting too that men and wom women alike were worshippers of the gold and silver ornaments the first money-loaner money hit upon the idea of dealing direct directly y in those metals and causing the great bulk of his neighbors to work for him hint In the summer he exchanged his gold and silver for or robes and furs when th the winter was come he traded his stock for mare gold and silver working both in summer and winter upon the necessities of his neighbors and naturally doing well He soon became the foremost man in the village and his neighbors who had gold and silver which they were afraid would be lost brought them to him for safe keeping lie Ie put these into use likewise and he continued to do well After awhile he learned to melt the gold and silver and running the melted fluid into a mould he lie gave names to the different pieces according to weight and they were the first real money At last Jast when this man became very powerful power power- ful the chief of the tribe tried to put him down whereupon the man used his gold and silver in hiring volunteers and he lie worsted the chief and became chief himself and he lie then decree decreed that henceforth the sovereign power alone should have the right to coin the metals and declare the value of them j I At first they were rated according to the value of the labor required to produce them in modern times their value has been indirectly indirectly indirectly indi indi- rated by the recognition given them by bythe bythe bythe the nations Long ago because of their peculiar properties properties properties proper proper- ties they were precious metals and the themore themore themore more one studies their effect upon the civilized world the more appropriate se seems ms the title of precious when applied to them When coined we call caIl them money that is they are perfect functions through ough which values of all forms of property and all varieties of commodities can be measured They are too the only perfect money ever known Substitutes of many kinds are are used and some of these are called mone money Moreover in times of prosperity rity and peace the substitutes answer every desired purpose But when a famine comes or the exhaustion of a great war cause men to fear for the result then all other forms of money begin to decline in value but no disaster changes the money made of gold or silver The only thing that can be of any effect upon them is legislation the adding to or withdrawing withdrawing withdrawing withdraw withdraw- ing from them of national recognition We Ve have seen the effect of this in our own country during the past twenty years Gold and silver have drawn apart because three great nations withdrew recognition from the one and and- placed and placed all the burden upon the other They have drawn apart forty points Men Alen say silver has declined but those who say that forget that silver may may be dil dishonored honored but that no legislation can take from it one iota of its purchasing power Silver is not depreciated now y as s measured by any other substance except except except ex ex- gold The silver dollar buys as much now of the worlds world's products as it did twenty years ears ago Silver has not depreciated but gold has appreciated appreciated appreciated ap ap- and hence all pr producers are placed at a direct disadvantage of forty per cent because be cause with the of silver the volume of money real money real money we mean was mean was wasso so greatly reduced that all forms form's of property at once began to fall or rather gold the gold the only money left left began began to to appreciate The effect on men who were producers and who were in debt at that ti time e was as a rule to either cause them to fail outright or to live on perpetual debtors This leads us to study the eff effect ct of money upon a civilized people The experience of the world has always been that after a nation reached the point in civilization where each family had its own distinct home where there had ad been attained the intelligence to frame a code and to reduce society to order then after that the civilization of the people advanced or receded precisely as the amount of money in inE E circulation among the people increased or di die di- It was was so of Egypt so of Assyria so of Greece Tyre Phoenicia Carthage and Rome Let me try to explain why this must be so A farmer owns ovens a farm worth It is mortgaged for drawing six per cent He has a son eighteen years of age a daughter sixteen He Ile is able to clear eight per cent per annum on the value of his farm or His children are in school he employs a hired man to help him a hired girl to help his wife Still after paying his interest he has left With two t hundred and fifty bushels of wheat he goes out and buys the in money to pay his interest Silver is demonetized In two years everything everything everything every every- thing on his farm and the farm itself has fallen in value 15 per cent 1 1 he value of his product has fallen off 15 per cent j his farm which was worth is worth but j his profits are reduced accordingly The hired help are sent away j the boy and girl are called home from school j the hired man becomes a tramp i ithe the hired girl after a few struggles to find another another another an an- pother p- p other place descends to living by her wits The farmer tells his children that it was an unfortunate year it will be better next year They work they see their father and mother work only at the end of the next year to find the home ome has lost five per cent more of its value and this year the interest cannot quite be paid The home which a little while before was the dearest spot on earth has become a place of torture The boy begins to smoke cigarettes cigarettes cigarettes cigar cigar- ettes the girl sees how the daughter of the money-loaner money who holds the mortgage on the he farm is dressed and she begins to believe there is no justice in the world Can you not see how nations decline when there is a contraction in the money in general circulation That process has been going on in our country country country coun coun- try until property has fallen forty per cent The farm that was worth is worth only it has been sold to satisfy the mortgages |