The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1870-12-31
MnEEY-. sPECIF RAsIs :,


David Hume 70 be the instrument
which men have agreed upon to facili-
tate the exchange Of one commodity
for another"
As at present instituted, a more &C
curate definition would be-a medium
Of exchange, tally, or counter Of prop
srty exchanged or service rendered, so
instituted by the sovereign power as TO
be legal equivalent Of property and
service, and by interest aud discounts
TO gather for the financial class the
larger share Of the annual productions
Of labor.
This stealing process Of exchange.
the money medium, has been carried
on for ages, by laws and customs so
srtfully contrived, as not only 10 hide
from common observation the robbery,
but also to make the class robbed feel,
that these are for their special protec
ton. Hence wholesale robbery Of the
labor class is par erceAenee-the most
honorable calling.
To this fruitful source We are indebt-
ed for that compound iniquty coinage
and "a gold base" When money
was first coined at Rome, the Roman
as or pOHdo signifed a pound weight of
good copper, consisting Of twelve oun-
ces,as in our troy pound. So the Eng
fish pound sterling originally expressed
not a coin exchangeable into twenty
shillings, but simply pound weight
Of silver Of sterling 6neness-but in
process Of time it was found out, that
by giving coin Of certain weight and
fneness, fixed legal tender value at a
high point, great gains could be made
by circulating the coin as money where
it fell in value below that point, and
selling it az a commodity when above
It. Finally, it was ascertained that a
piece Of paper with the same legal at
tributes could in exchanges, at a mere
nominal expense, perform the functions
Of the coin, and yield a much larger
profit. To cap the climax of this in
vention and cover this paper-money
teal, gold base" was invented
meIe apology for charging from 8 to
100 per cent for furnishing a paper
dollar tally when the cost Of issuing
under correct system does not exceed
one per cent. per annum. The &c
stitution Of the United States vested
in Congress the sole and exclusive
power $50 coiH money" to this is added
and regulate its v0lsle." A mint has been
established, and following in this wake
If European barbarism, gold, silver
and copper coined, are made a legal
tender or an arbitrary standard Of
payment at the face amount of the
coin, and not at it's actual or market
value.
No attempt to regulate the value has
been made, other than designating the
quantity and quality of metal in each
coin under denominational cognomen
or name. This simply indicates what
the metal was worth in the market at
the date Of the enactment designated
in the money Of account then current
among the people.
How such an enactment regulates
the value of coin, we leave for those
to explain who teach that thus institu-
ted it furnished a standard measure
ment of value-instead of being an
arbitrary standard Of payment, as it is,
which destroys all just standards of
value, that founded upon the just law
Of compensation, demand and supply.
If Congress should, in its wisdom, en-.
act that the moon ia green cheese or
that the tides of the sea shall retire rs
Canute, at the instance Of his cour-
tiers, did, we have no doubt their con-
stitutional enactment in these latter
cases would have as much effect as it
does in regulating the value of the
honey.
oppose Congress, without any bar
custom to support it, enact that
Y of wheat of a certain quality
nifty. worth on that day one
Nd thereafter be and remain
Ons doHdr-would not the
Of the people righteous