The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1873-09-13

bate with the gentleman, hscsuss lneHlN&
his candor, knowing - he knows, &zt ~
are all educating each other every Day. and
educating ourselves to larger end bo1tuf
fields Of usefulness. I hope The tins viii
come when he and can stand rpdn the
same platform contending fox fnfiNi1nal
liberty for free trmd4 md lard
money-the doctrines in which wan bred.
Mr.. Chairman, l said little while eco that
the duty Of loaning, at cheap on dear rates,
the duty of not extorting, but 70 be kind,
and affectionate, and generous towards the
suffering, in the matter Of AomkiinR money,
or horses, or anything Of the kind, was .
duty of imperfect obligation, depending
for its sanction on the conscience alone.
The coinage-I will pass again to that q
single moment, for in my desire to return
to the thread of my arNument, had for
gotten TO allude to one thing ! desired, that
is, to the question provoked by the quss-
tions Of the gentleman from Fairfield (Mr.
Ewing). and by the interruption Of the
gentleman from Trumbnll (Mr Tuttle),
and my colleague from Hamilton (Mr.
Freiberg) The question il, whether mon
ey is not something other than that, anoth-
er property. Mr.. Chairman, in the largo
sense in which use the term, the British
sovereign is az much money as the coin
dollar of America.
II my friend from Fairfield (NGr. Ewing)
should ever attain the summit Of whal not
unnaturally might suppose to be his am
bition, to WELD the power over the desti-
MES of this great State-it is an honorable
ambition--or inAhp grsater State of which
this il but par he should direct the
great interests Of this nation, in the mat
ter of money, and undertake to stamp on
o gold dollar two dollars, to make by q law
that which u to-day the representative of
one dollar double value, he will find that
the plans that he devises, and the means
he adopts, viii simply have utterly failed
God Almighty, the author of gravitation-
Mr.. Ewing. Will the gentleman allow
me remark
Mr.. Hoadly. Certainly
Mr.. Ewing. That has been done in the
history Of our government, and the propo-
unanimously by the Committee on Finance
in the United States Senate.
Mr.. Hoadley. Two for one
Mr.. Ewing. No; but the principle is
the same. 1t is reducing the gold dollar
to ninety-fve cents. Mr.. Sherman has a
bill now pending to do that. Our govern
ment has heretofore done it, and no gov
eminent ever existed that did not exercise
the power TO regulate the amount of prop
erty in gold, or property in silver, that
should 90 into any denomination of coin.
IL II . prerogative of government
Mr.. Hoadly. Yes, sir. Mr. Sherman
has such bill; and Mr. Sherman will fin
when he gets his bill through, his dollar
viii buy but ninety-five cents worth, pre-.
cisely that, and no more. And as soon a.
people catch him at it, and it only wants a
little time to do it, if he would put it down
TO fifty cents, or raise it to two dollars, ev-
erybody would see it, and it would 60 uI
or down in a morning-al experience
proves it. II has been tried by other ma
tions with one uniform result That is the
whole of it, and the answer to the gentle
mana suggestion. | was going TO make
iftia gpggestion at period convenient il
nment, and | will make it now
all, if the gentleman will indulg,
owing us to loan credit st tn,
M 6hooll see fit to charge or pay
49, ~ one, that has to borrow aud pay
1 will allow n ~ borrow credits at what
can, he may 30 on all the usury laws h,
pleases, app1iS&kle to what he calls ''mon
ey." VIM this thing of q usury Law
touches th1 be tenderly, not in tn,
borrowing y hey. For money is no
borrowed in tqs case in a thousand; thu
usual course fsthe exchange Of credits.
20 TO my banker; / want a thousand dol
lara. Very likely he has not thousanl
dollars in money. 1t depends upon how
near he sails to the wind whether he has
thousand dollars or not But if he can
by transferring to my bank account, Civ,
me a credit of thousand dollars, l only
need to draw a check on that bank account
that 1 can pass To some one else in pay
ment of debt of thousand dollars, anC
this | can do, provided the banker believes
that | will repay it and keep my promise
Now, what is that Why. in the ordinary
terms of the law, it is borrowing money
but, in fact, it is borrowing credit. AnC
as our business is done, the actual transfer
of money does not occur in the case. | d.
not believe it does occur in one case out o.
a million. have Borrowed money often
in one sense, and yet never yet borrowed
money in the other sense | borrowed
credit. That is to say, my banker. in eX-
change for my promissory note, has giver
me credit on my bank book There was
no money transferable him, and no money
received by me. My friend from Trumbul
mir TRttls4 aid. little while ago, the
k0seziEhsft dsternines tlIe amount Of
money. Il. tine first place it does not do il,
because you can purchase, with q British
sovereign just as much as you can purchase
with an equal amount, weight for weight,
of American coined money. You can. I'M
less there may be little premium on the
difference between the American coinage.
Mr.. Forsn. | am very sorry TO inter
rupt the gentleman 50 often. | wish to
ask the gentleman from Hamilton (Mr.
Hoady) if he knows the amount Of gold
and silver-and if in his opinion there is
sufficient quantity of that material for cir
culating medium, a sufficient amount to do
the business III the world OF III this coun-
try!
Mr. Hoadly To the first question an
swer negatively. To the second, attirma-
lively. do not know the amount of gold
and silver coin in the world In my opin-
ion there is enough to make circulation,
and great deal more than enough in pro
portion than there was in the days when
Thomas H. Benton gave expression to the
sentiment | tried to quote a little while
ago. | was at this point when my friend
from Morrow (Mr. Gurley) interrupted
me. ] was saying that the producing
power of dollar, its value, depended on
demand and supply. That is what was
stating, but that certain modifying circum-
stances have to be taken into considera-
ton. The duty to lend at q reasonable
rate is individual in its character There
never was a law passed. horizontal law
so utterly at war with human nature as
this. Why, if my friend from Cuyahoga
(Mr. Foran) who says he is the poorest
man in the Convention, was to come to me
and ask for loan of money, 30 certain am
l that, although poor in purse, he has the
richest abundance Of integrity, that on the
faith of his confidence had I the money