WEALTH AND POVERTY.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4604, 6 October 1883, Page 2

WEALTH AND POVERTY.

(To the Editor of the Evening Star.) , Sic, —Man mars the earth with ruin, and by ascribing it to Omniscience, blasphemes Omnipotence. Man robs -his brother of his inheritance, and mocks his enforced poverty and misery by falsely ' translating the word "driven" into ' " cease "in the Scriptural passage, " The . poor shall never be driven out of the land." Man starves his fellow man, and slanderswhe bountiful Creator by the false doctrine that over population presses against the limit of subsistence. From man's greed of land, gold, power, am- ' bition, and inhumanity come covetousnegs, batcles, oppression, arrogance, poverty, . theft, fornication, murder, premature death, and all the deadly sins and crimes of life, and then he complaisantly folds ,his hands, and most hypocritically' declarrs that the presence of evil in -{fie ... vptrld is a metaphysical puzzle. These," sell deceiving, selfisb, shallow pretextsmust be exploded, and raan himself stand accused and condemned as his brother's destroyer, and the sole source from which all wickedness flows. ' Let us repent iv the true etymological sense of the word, by reflection, consideration, and animad* versiop. Let mystery be sunk by science, and imposture by honesty, so that aiblced* [zing and starving world", may have^soroe L hope in a-'beiter s<atq oftho igiih-, _ The immediate present and b-morrow \« , that which it beromes man ( 'providing for. In the present general state of the public mind, there is great difficulty to comprehend the currency question. Like every other kind of knowledge it is dark ai?d apI parent'y difficult to those who are ignorant ; but c'ear and easily comprehended "* by those who understand it aad its beac-> ings on wealth and poverty. ,The very lnguage necessary to state the case is a novelty to most readers. There is ho.w»_ ever an agreed opinion that such '»/,, thoroughly sound and scientific system of'-'.' currency is essential as a circulating- T ' * medium of e\xcbauge, at any time or place -- ' which should realise an exact mode of calculating vaiue, and facilitate exchange where barter could not take place. It should be constituted to avoid restrictions • "*■" on commerce and trade. That it should be divisible, uniform in quality, and that its value should depend on all money in,' actual circulation anoVaU goods offered for sale, or supply aTd demand remaining constant, -ralue would consist in the cost of production only. The great object to be consummated being that .currency should truly represent, and to be, used for » ' no other purpose than to repreieat, no ',- f more and no less, the value of produce *'■»-■■ tions; so that "the wealth producer. *'- should be confirmed in the full and \ " actual value of his labor in production; In olden times copper was extensively. ' u^ed at Rome, and iron exclusively at? Sparta. The modern mercantile school v I confsnded that the precious metuls coiHV;'l^ stituted the only permanent wealth, anefcf-\ that therefore gold and silver.ware the > • best bases of exchange. Violent fluctua* %.- tions however in the prices, of these v-<\ metals have led to disastrous effects oa icade, erasing panics, crises, and whoW;7 - s^e failures of merchants and bankers,' -'.'• involving losses amountin^'tohundreds of/\ millions of money. Government"! using/ .'. this currency have been compelled tot' guarantee its purity and directjts accepWd "-- tance. At' one time the silver penny of 5 ' the Plantagenets varied co much from the Scotch money that £103 Scots was ". equivalent to £8 6s 8d sterling. 4 ? Locke-.i,'. Somers, and Montague tried their hand£ *■- at currency making with the effect of> lowering the value of the golden guinea from 30s to 21s 6d. The Scots marks l-§d were at one time more valuable than the English shilling, and when called iv pre* mium was claimed on £40,003 worth of English shillings, which had been calculated in. Scotland as eqtivalent to Scots marks. Prom 1797 to 1819 the cash payments of the Bank of England itself ' were sus-' pended. The agreed definitions- of a cound currency and the instances above - cited, to which millions more might be .' added, shew that the prpent system has not only miserably and completely failed to realise the objects of its founders, but , that it is.a demon standing between the wants and industry of man, whose power to produce wealth ls^ practically -u«hmited. The earth, ajr, and sea leem with the means of sustenance. Whole '.-r harvests of grains, millions of sheep, cattle and birds, can be transported from one part of the earth to another. All that man requires and.asks for is that land and labour should be free and that he should be secured in his right to live and be happy, by establishing a system of land law and exchange that would afford him a market or labour mart where, as proposed by "Observer of current events," he could deposit the result of bis toil and receive its' full value in equitable currency or kind.—l am, &c, ,■. - Seitobmee.