MR. LAWYER: I think we must all agree to that, and further I would say that anything that did not possess all these functions, qualifications or characteristics in combination cannot very well be called money. To illustrate, if anything was used as a medium of exchange but depended upon its relation to gold for its acceptance it could not be called money.
I am fully aware that we speak of "cash" and "money," as anything we get in exchange for property, but this language does not mean anything definite, except as to the transaction.
I want to lay this down as an absolute rule, and something that no one of us should forget or overlook during our conversations.
"_We should be careful to avoid calling any kind of credit instrument money, no matter how much used as a medium of exchange._"
UNCLE SAM: Now, let me see just what you mean by that. If I understand you, I think that is an attack upon me, upon my credit. For if my recollection serves me right, the United States Notes, or Greenbacks, have been called money, and treated as money ever since I issued them during the war, way back in 1862, I think it was.
MR. BANKER: Well, Uncle Sam, do you think calling a thing something which it is not makes it that thing? To say that the moon is made of green cheese does not make it so. Now, here's one of your United States Notes, or Greenbacks. Do you recollect what you printed on that at the time you issued it, and have been printing on it ever since? This is what it says:
"_The United States will pay the bearer $5.00._"
That promise, or agreement, can mean but one thing, and that is that you will pay the bearer five times one dollar, or five times twenty-five and eight-tenths grains of gold, nine-tenths fine.
Now, it must be perfectly clear to you, indeed, the conclusion is incontrovertible, that that $5.00 United States Note, by which you agree to pay me $5.00 cash, can't be the $5.00 itself.
MR. FARMER: No, by jocks, I know that is true. Tom Jones gave me a written agreement to deliver me a horse last Monday morning. I sent my boy over with his written promise for the horse, and he refused to deliver the horse. Certainly, his promise was not the horse; that's perfectly clear to me, for I did not get the horse, and that's the same kind of a deal that this United States Note is.