Harper's Weekly

“ It is plain, therefore, that the flat dollar itself, like the greenback, would be quoted at its value in gold, which is the real standard of value in the commercial world. The first effect of a “fiat” currency would be to banish gold from the country, and with its expulsion to introduce that uncertainty and fluctuation which are felt first by labor and productive industry. A paper dollar “based in some indefinite way upon an indefinite something” is not a dollar to satisfy men who intend to deal upon the principle of value received. ”

“ Schurz applies the principle that by the common consent of civilization a certain metal is the final measure of value. This is so because people have found by experience that they must have such a measure, and that each a measure must have certain qualities. ”

“ In the first place, the more dollars there are, the smaller is their purchasing power, so that the fiat money would constantly depreciate as to the commodities to be bought, until it would take a wheelbarrow load of dollars to buy what could be carried home in the waistcoat pocket. In the second place, we are a commercial nation. Our imports and exports will be soon counted by thousands of millions of dollars. But all that we sell and buy abroad must be paid and settled for on a gold basis. ”