changed at will by any combination that profits by discounting the future. is able to control money supply. The fluctuation in the value of money can be more easily comprehended by considering the total supply of gold in the world. The money measure fixed in gold makes its total value equal the money demand for gold to make the world's exchanges, plus the demand for gold in the arts. To double the gold supply of the world without changing the demand for gold would not change the total value of gold, which would remain the same total value as before; the dollar would buy but half the quantity it did before the supply was increased. Prices would rise one hundred per cent, or the dollar would be worth only half as much as before. Diminish the gold supply of the world one-half, under the same conditions of demand, and gold would appreciate in value one hundred per cent, prices would fall one-half, or the dollar would double in purchasing power. The fact is well known and does not admit of any doubt, that the quantity of money in circulation in any country makes it prosperous when money is abundant, and bankrupt when money vanishes, regardless of the natural advantages, wealth or virility of the population; and though the vaults of the treasury were filled with money, or should speculators corner the supply and hold it out of circulation, the effect would be the same as if the money did not exist. Whenever a supply of money cannot be put in circulation to meet a demand for money, credit will cease and panic, suspension and bankruptcy will follow until money reappears in circulation or confidence is restored. Every one possessing wealth, whether it be much or little, is constantly menaced by depreciation and possible bankruptcy. The greatest financiers have been caught in a panic and ruined by falling prices. Financiers control money supply, dominating finance with absolute authority that can make money stringent by precipitating a panic, or restore confidence immediately, by skillful manipulation, and make money redundant. The The silent operation of the law of money (flowing out of the country of high prices to the cheapest market) often gives speculators an opportunity to make enormous On the other hand, every increase in the quantity of money in circulation raises prices, which frequently carries the speculative fever to such excess that prices mount to the limit of inflation, when reaction sets in and prices fall, producing panic and disaster, until the return flow of money is released to absorb the wealth of the country on its own terms. The financial system of the world based on gold is like a pyramid set on its apex. The richest nation holds but a few hundred millions of money in reserve, and as long as the money remains in the treasury it is valueless to the country's prosperity, and it cannot be put in circulation but by methods that entail a risk of loss and give large profit and advantage to favorites at the expense of the people. that History gives positive evidence money has been the prime factor in the progress of civilization. In every country throughout the ages where money was redundant, we are told that such nations were prosperous and the people progressive; and wherever money was stringent, history relates the degradation of the people and the bankruptcy of the nation. When Rome was at the zenith of power, money was more abundant than it ever had been before; while prosperity ceased throughout the civilized world during the Dark Ages, money disappeared entirely from circulation; what little gold remained was hoarded, credit did not exist, and the people were degraded to the lowest depths of poverty and ignorance. Scientific money will make the measure of value as fixed and unchangeable as the measures of quantity, and it will destroy the financier's power to manipulate the measure of value. There will be no commodity in scientific money to fluctuate, because the function of money will be certain and exact-a mere counter of wealth by a fixed and permanent unit of value, existing on the date of change to scientific money and maintained thereafter by the automatic regulation of money supply to equal money supply to equal money demand; and money cannot be again transformed by financiers into the irresistible power, that control of money supply creates, to change the value of all wealth at will, whereby manipulators take the profit earned by labor and rule the world through the domination of greed and ignorance; compelling the people to support and protect in idleness and prodigality the lords of wealth and all their minions, while labor is held by their subtle power in hopeless bondage. The Government of the United States, by the exercise of its sovereign money power, can adopt a complete credit financial system for raising revenue, and make the nation's notes the only legal money and eliminate all other money from circulation. The United States can issue full legal tender time notes for the appropriations of Congress, and (on application) for the budgets of the States, including all subdivisions of the State Governments, stipulating that all assessing assessing and collecting taxes be done by treasury officials. The tax rate will be fixed by the Secretary of the Treasury, for the States, to keep the money issue for each debtor within the legal limit; Congress will provide the revenue to pay matured notes issued for the national budget, and if there should be either a surplus or deficit in the revenue, it will devolve upon the administration to lower or raise the rate of taxes, or levy a new tax when necessary, that there may be no possibility of a default in the payment of any note on the day it falls due. All notes issued by the United States will be constituted a full legal tender, at their face value, for the payment of all debts, public or private, said notes will supersede all existing money and remain. the sole unit of value and legal tender for the payment of debt. The first issue of Scientific money will equal the total obligations of the United States, for the redemption of all the coin issued by United States mints, pay every outstanding obligation and liquidate all national debts by payment in scientific money. Bonds with semi-annual interest coupons attached will be issued to equal each money issue. The legal tender notes will be paid out for all disbursements by the treasury department, and bonds to equal in amount each money issue will be deposited simultaneously in the national depositaries, where bonds can be obtained on demand without cost in exchange for notes or notes for bonds. Depositaries will detach the semi-annual interest coupon for the current half year from the bonds exchanged for notes. Bonds presented to depositaries for notes must have all coupons attached that have not matured. The volume of scientific money will be practically unlimited, and adoption of the system will cause the spontaneous development of an automatic regulator, that will positively operate to keep the quantity of money in circulation at all times to equal money demand (by a law of money certain to govern its flow), through the payment of an interest rate equal to the earnings of wealth in average investments, for money that has been retired from circulation in exchange for bonds; or the Government will pay interest on all excess money and will take the profit from all money in circulation, instead of permitting the banks to appropriate it. On the other hand, the law will provide for an equally important detail by affording every convenience for money to be obtained from depositaries throughout the country, on demand, without cost, in exchange for bonds. Whenever money becomes scarce, a premium will be offered, and if the profit exceeds the interest paid by bonds, there will be an exchange of bonds for money by the bondholders, that will increase money supply to equal money demand. Interest will be paid on excess money for two reasons. First, (and by far the most important reason) to regulate money supply to equal money demand and maintain a fixed standard of value. Second, to furnish secure investment for savings that will pay a profit somewhere near the net profit earned by the general average of all investments. Government bonds may flow out of the country until equilibrium in money supply would be disturbed, if the bond rate of interest should exceed the interest paid by foreign countries. It is conceivable that our money may become popular in foreign countries where money is still defective. China, with her hundreds of million people could possibly deplete our money supply to the danger point at some future date. Combinations of wealth vast beyond conception might skillfully man ipulate money supply in the future, without perfect safeguards are provided. Equilibrium could be maintained under scientific money, because there is no doubt that it will be practicable to place money within reach to supply every demand, beyond any possibility of manipulation or gravitation to disturb it. Among many possible safeguards Congress could provide for the regulation of public service corporations, authorizing them to issue first mortgage bonds, the same in character as Government bonds. The property pledged for security will be appraised by Government experts, funds for the payment of principal and interest stipulated, and the bond issue limited to an amount that would be fully secured. All commercial bonds issued under Government authority and regulation will be received by all national depositaries in exchange for money the same as Government bonds. Emergency money and bonds to equal same, not to exceed the amount paid out in exchange for commercial bonds, will be issued by the treasury department when ever necessary. But it is probable that the supply of excess money, retired from circulation in exchange for bonds and ly ing in the treasury unused, will supply an ample surplus at all times to meet every demand. new The payment of notes at maturity would. soon extinguish money supply, but that the law will provide for issuing money, and before the old notes mature new money will be issued, which will maintain a constant supply of money. Every note cancelled will be paid from the revenue receipts taken in taxes from the people. It will be, therefore, only technically that notes will be paid in paper, but in fact every note will be paid at maturity from the wealth produced by the people, after it has been taken from them in taxes for that purpose, which wealth will be represented by the money in which the taxes are paid. Money supply will not be affected by any other country under scientific money. Balance of trade will be paid in the money of the credit country, which we will have to buy with any wealth we have to offer that will cost us the least. The price of gold will rise and fall with the changes in supply and demand as all commodities do, but money in this country will remain a fixed standard of value if the system maintains equilibrium. THE TRAIL BY ZOE HARTMAN Lead on! I follow thee, Magician of the woodland and the steep, By tawny streams that toss and rage and weep Lead on! I follow thee, Through elfin haunts, where fluttering wild things dwell; Perchance, some Druid's celi ; Where'er thy mystic windings weave a spell I, too, am free! I love thy spiral way: Up, up, where forests mourn their fallen dead, And eagles scream o'erhead, Where storm contends with storm in combat dread At Titans' play. 'Mid peaks sublimely fair, Above the vale of earth-born lust and scheme, Romance, thine age-old Mother, reigns supreme- (Continued) I ·N ORDER to make you feel as though you really were a genius, if you are a dweller in California, you should buy yourself a bungalow at Carmel and go down there and become a leading light in the colony of geniuses. It's a wonderful place. There are artists and artists, and there are writers and writers, and they have formed a most interesting community by the sounding sea. They remind me of Peary and Cook, and, when they are not berating and knocking one another, they are holding praise meetings in admiration of their own work. These communities and aggregations of genius are a pet product of our State. Occasionally we produce a real genius, but it takes more than the mere testimony of the suns to give them standing. They have to have the testimony of everyday men women. "Tis a great State, this! It is greatest in these little mutual admiration societies and knockers' clubs. The State of California flourishes, despite its people. They lack the spirit of getting together and doing team work, and yet they are the greatest of all the earth's population. * * navy. * ** and Speaking of Peary and Cook reminds me of Ambrose Bierce. Why? I don't know, except that I had just read an article of his in a contemporary magazine What Bierce on the American doesn't know about the navy is only equaled by what one Hughes of the 69th New York regiment knows about the game of war. This Hughes, Rupert is the romantic name his father gave him, decries the National Guard and its methods. He is a National Guard officer, and he writes at length in an Eastern weekly periodical of the evils of drills and exercises and forced marches, and he speaks learnedly of the fact that we cannot shoot straight, that we know nothing of the use of rifle sights, and that the whole battle of the "blues and the reds," in the taking of Boston, was simply an attempt at finding out how many men could withstand the inroads of pneumonia and typhoid fever, if exposed under the most propitious conditions. * * * that I know nothing of the National Guard of the Empire State, its war or shooting capacity. I know that Bierce's contention that our navy cannot shoot because all their records are made on smooth seas, is arrant nonsense, and that Mr. Bierce imagining that unless the practice were obtained in a tempestuous ocean voyage all practice were useless, is piffle. I well remember, just off the island of Guam, when the Charleston, with a green crew, "hove to" to have target practice; that I was astonished when the target was hit seven times out of ten, and that later the Baltimore crew made some scores were wonderful, in a rolling sea, ten out of every eleven shots hitting the canvass. The men at the game were just haphazard marksmen, too. In the Philippines I have seen shooting by the Oregon regiment, at living human targets, that was positively The Colorado astounding for accuracy. regiment did equally well, and the shooting of the National Guard of California, under all conditions, is exceptionally fine. At practice, the vessels of the Pacific and the Atlantic squadrons have carried away world's records that are still to be beaten, and that are only approached by the American crews of vessels enjoying practice later. * * Then why the Bierceian anvil chorus? Simply because this professional spiller of bile has exploited every known field in literary notoriety, and he must perforce try to bring himself before the public in his declining years by some mental spurt that will draw attention to his petty self. It is the spirit of knocking, strong in death. Mr. Bierce is a very clever man, and no one may successfully deny that he is as expert in the handling of English words. as Mr. Johnson, of ebon hue, is in the handling of his fists. It must be remembered that, publicly, these two worthies belong to the undesirable class. They are both knockers, after their kind, and of it. In his "Shadow on the Dial," Bierce's latest published aggregation of literary junk, he shows his ability to the best possible extent. He is clever, some of the sketches approach the dignity of "works," but he is not a great writer. Bile is the constitutional injunction that will forever debar Bierce from occupying a niche in the chamber of the Immortals in literature. Bierce came into my mind as I thought of Peary and Cook. For Bierce there is an excuse in the fact that he does his knocking for money just as the "candied friend" of another journal does his clever satirical work for filthy lucre, too. The days of Junius died with Junius! His like is no more. We do not find the literary free-lance, but we do find the literary free-booter and grafter, such as Fraud Elbertus, and the literary Hessian, such as Bierce and the small fry, swarming about his boot-tops. Jealousy has been said to be the inspiration of all human effort, and, of course, envy is a close relation. Peary, it seems to me, is the condensed essence of the fifty-seven different varieties of jealousy and envy. The wife of him is a good second. Peary is a bungler, and, from all outward and visible signs, Cook is a gentleman. Peary has said, not in so many words, but by inference and cablegram, that Cook is a liar. If he be a liar, I believe him to be an exceedingly clever one, and Peary has, by his bungling, played right into his hands. I cannot blame Peary for being angry, but I do blame him for his actions. He has placed the burden of proof producing upon his own shoulders. From all data heretofore published, fair-minded men must admit that the accounts given by the men tend to After all, there is some question in the minds of the lay public as to what benefit has been conferred upon mankind by the achievement. It is doubtful if this benefit extends any farther than having stopped the usual foray on the pockets of rich men for hundreds of thousands of dollars to outfit polar expeditions. The polar graft will from now on suffer and languish. There will be no more extensive trading in fine furs, and the native will wait in vain for expeditions bringing in foo from the far-away. The Eskimo diet will now have a sameness that will be almost nauseating. Seal oil and whale's blubber, unless relieved by an occasional can of embalmed corn beef or entre mets of gumdrops, will pall on the Polar palate. And thus will Peary be avenged, for Cook's name will be execrated by the Polarians. Pate-de-fois-gras will be as scarce in Labrador and New Foundland as hen's teeth. In relation to the Bierce man and his strictures on the American navy and the American gunner, it must be borne in mind that the vulgarian is a Britisher of the frock-coat-adoring middle-class in toadyism if not in fact. He has always seemed to me the embodiment in human form of a nest-befouling bird. In other days, he used to spume asthmatically at his betters in a weekly record of transient emanations a certain publisher, well known for monumental moral unworth, refused to father. The owner of the polecat refused to take the responsibility for the cat's odor. Coming down to facts, we find that the cry of "no colliers for the navy" has very little foundation, and that, xt England, the United States ha the largest and most conveniently located coaling stations of any nation. As to colliers, we find that, in case of a war on the seas, thousands of vessels are available at a mo |