The Leavenworth weekly times. [volume] (Leavenworth, Kan.) 1870-1880, 1874-07-02

represent II. Some cay coin. which they
lllege has fixed value. Nothing could
be more absurd. A penny used to be
he price of days labor. 1t 10 low one
hundred and ffty pennies, partly BY the
increase of wealth and partly by the de-
probation Of what We are pleased to call |
the precious metals. What made them |
precious: Scarcity
A successful minor Who had procured !
. trunkful of emeralds, took one Of them |
to . lspidary. for which he obtained one
thousand scudi. Overjoyed he took the
lapidary to his room, and showing him
the remainder Of the glittering stones.
asked what they were worth, and was
amazed when the dealer in jewels ans
Wered. "These, senior, are worth one
scudi" And 20 when We print on Q
Treasury note the words lone dollar"
it represents the credit of the patton for
one dollar. 1t represents it, proper pro.
portion of oil the property in the couD.
Try, for all the property in the country
may be taxed to pay it. In other words
it represents the aggregated wealth Of
the nation. Some men have said her.
"These notes have lie on their fac-"
Very we'll. Do you see this nickles o.
one side Of ii is circle ofibir zen .tsrs,
and outside of them "UDi,ed States ut
America" ) Cents NV this is hard
money. 1t is rery hard money and the
announcement from the United States Of
America tina, it is five cents 10 another
lie. Who would give five cents for it to
work into icepitchers and drinking
mugs? We are used to that kind of lys
ing, however, and might overlook it.
but in turning to the diverse Of this re-
markahle coin find the legend I'm God
We trust" To stick such profession Of
faith on such . fraud a. this Is piece of
political executive blasphemy, and fear
fully significant of the modern spirit to
steal the livery Of Heaven to serve the
devil in. Now, mention this merely
to introduce branch of the subject not
vet discussed. but which Wo must con-
slider. You have seen tine stamp on our
silver dollar and half dollar. 1t says
under our name it 10 worth that much.
Now as mere piece of silver 1t is not
now, and never WAS worth that much
in the market of the world. You could
not sell them outside OF the country for
what they purpors to be. They are
worth that much simply by the credit
and power Of the Government. 1t 10 80
with the gold eagle and hal!-eagle. Not
the amount of gold in them, but the credit
Of the Government stamps them as worth
that much.
There is another fact away behind this
Of far greater moment Since the dis
covery of America in l4922, (by reference
| to the first authorities, such ~ n. Che
Waller, We find that silver 10 now worth
.ess than one-sixth of the value it poe
sessed at that time. This is Q very rigid
estimate. My own impression 10 from q
careful study OF the changes in the prices
of wheat, beef, and labor. that it has
scarcely one-tenth of its former value,
and the greater part of this depreciation
has taken place in the last two hundred
years. Hallam, on an estimate of values
puts it one to twenty. The change in
the value of gold is not much less, fol
since the discovery ofthe gold mines il
California, Australia, and elsewhere, j
has been proposed to make silver th.
sole standard, IS less liable to flactua
tons.
Now. sir, the depreciation OF our ma
tional-bank notes and greenbscks as I
marketable commodity in the commerce
OF the world has never Witnessed any
thing 40 bad a. thai; and yet, sir, III
these Represent the price of labor ant
property. Since the discovery of goll
in California in 1s49 there has been /,
change in nominal value OF 30 per cent.
but the real change, owing to the in
crease of expenditure, is far greater
Now, this has affected all contracts q.
we'll as all values. 1t divided the price
of mans labor with some other mar
who had not done so much. 1t disturb
ed values instead of regulating them. Il
was no standard; i; was simply III,
means under the defective systems o
law, of making the rich richer, the poo
poorer.
| rise before you in no agradrian spirit
The honest sacredness of contracts ant
the honest value of . days labor sbs,
ever have the support of my voice an'
vote. But, SIR they must be tnsepdratts
We are constantly speskirg o. hxe'
values; no term 's used more vaguei.
and less unders,abdingly. When we ga
that pound of mea, is " Or,b twopound
of hrea !, We can understand thai, wbeI
We say days labor 10 worth Ten p"und
of bread, We can understand tina whel
we say days labor is worth q certain
number of yards of cotton clo'h, We cnI
understand that; for 1t has taken y Ger
tain amount of labor and of Expenditure
or labor in educating labor, to prOduc
them. But when we measure the va.u
of gold by the relative value of silver. o
rice rersa, we are the victims of fallacy
because both have been for many hun
dreds of years continually depreciating
often in few years changing almost TN
per cent, and temporarily vibrating
backward and forward. Thus when I
poor shepherd in POtosi discovered silve
where his herds were grazing, and " her
under the impetus ofan improved system
of mining an immense amount of iht
precious metal was shipped to Europe
it deprecated in value 80 much that il
was feared it would soon be worth M
more than lead, and ceased to be esteem.
ed as q representative of wealth, aDC
some nations discarded it as coin. Sc
when the mines in California and Aus
tralia we're discovered few years ago
ted so much that several great powers,
including Austria, made silver the only
basis of value.
And thus We see that the modern civil.
lied nations, with . few exceptions,
have three standards of value, gold, ELL
yer, and paper credits, all varying in
value and not maintainining the same
relations to each other. Some nations
Austria, a. have mentioned, have but
two-silver and psper credits-and it is
noticeable fact in the case o: Austria,
the paper currency or credit system, Il
the real medium Of balances and
exchange. believe it 10 one of the re-
coenized evidences of civilization to use
what il called money to effect exchan-
ges. The man who has . few bushels
of wheat to sell and coat to buy may
not be able to find man who has q coat
to sell and wants his few bushels of
wheat, and so in all transactions. Now
to overcome this difficulty money. so
called, was invented.
Aristotle says in regard to this:
which u-eiui in itself vas easily transferred from
hand 10 nd in the ordinary trans actions of life;
IL vas iron, tor instance, silver. some other
substance Of hich the sire and weight in ire
hr.t place determiosd, and which to cape the
Inconvenience Of continual rings particular
stamp was am xed AZ . sign Of It's value-Ar,stose
Poldics, book ], chapters.
Now this, although the first crude
essay ct making money, was not money.
That is, the cement Of money it had
was the ''s,amp affixed" that regulated
ito value. / need not stop to further
prove that the equivalent value of these