The Labor enquirer., 1883-12-01
The Safety Of the Government Could
be Assured BY Assuming
Absolute
Control Of Its Monetary System.
Unanswerable Precedent
Cited.
Food for Thought for the Business
Man, Farmer, Mechanic and
Laborer.

FINANCE Is THE SCIENCE OF PUBLIC REVENUE.
g I shall speak of that phase which re-
fers to government supplying its Peo-
pie with medium of exchange. shall
show that currency should be q source OF
revenue 10 a people, instead of tax
upon them. ~
First, assert that all currency should
be money. Plato says, ''Monev is Gre
alton oflaw, to effect exchanges" Aris-
tottle says, Money is a measure OF value,
q medium of exchange, an invention OF
man, not a product of nature. The
English courts define it thus, Money
comes from monendo, to stamp; as wax
is not seal without stamp, SO metal
is not money without the impression of
sovereign authority" For centuries,
when coin was the only money of Eng
land, its monarchs in times of stringency,
increased its volume by use Of alloy.
When appeals were made to the courts,
they invariably decided that the mon
arch having the right to make money,
could use any material, and alloy gold
and silver to any extent demanded by
the treasury. As it was received for all
debts due the king, that which was good
enough for the ruler was good enough
for the ruled.
In 172O, the French made their coins
more than so per cent copper, without
lessening their value.
Having for centuries increased volumes
of money by alloy, the governments of
England and France finally changed the
mode to lessening weight. The Parlia
ment and king of England decreed that
q pound troy should make sixty-two
shillings, instead Of twenty as had been
the law for many years. That was re-
duction of the bullion value of a shilling,
more than three to one. Later, there
were other like reductions.
In our country under the confedera-
ton, congress made 1850 grains of pure
silver, a dollar. Under the constitution,
in 1892, S71.25 of pure silver were made
a dollar, and fixed as the unit of money.
The law of 1892 made one pound Of gold
equal to fifteen pounds of silver. In 1889
the law was changed so as to make one
poundof gold equal to sixteen Of silver.
We will examine moment fractions
of dollars made money by law, wholly
out of baser metals. The law in 1872
authorized the issue of cents and half
cents, made Of copper. The cent con-
tanning 260 grains was made full legal
tender. In March, 1857, the weight OF
the cent was lessened fortv-eight grains,
but the value was the same. In 1854, a
much lighter coin was substituted, COM
posed Of ninety-fve parts copper and
five parts tin and zinc. Its weight was
forty-eight grains. One pound OF this
metal cost twenty cents; its legal, or
money value was $l60. In 1865, fve
cent piece was issued composed. OF
seyenty-fve parts copper and twenty
five nickel. One pound of this mixture
costs about seventy cents. Out OF 1t are
coined one hundred pieces, making its
money value $500. need not illustrate
further.to convince the most prejudiced
or ignorant, that specie is money only
by force of law, or that law imparts value
to bullion by stamping it money. If any,
through deeply seated assurance and
often repeated assertions are, though
convinced, "of the same opinion still,
the trade dollar compared with the legal
silver dollar will settle even such.
The legal tender dollar of 4l2.6O grains
of silver. at command of Shvlock, was
demonetized in 1878, but at q louder
command from the sovereign people,
was remonetized in 1878. In 1878, q
trade dollar of 420 grains of silver was
coined and made legal tender for ii IN
one payment. That made it equal to
the dollar of 4l2.50 grains, but after the
people had taken it at its face value, il
was demonetized, and the holders were
robbed of about IL per cent. Against
tbe restoration of the dollar that was de,
monetized by an Infamous trick, the
pulpit and religious press. with the or
gans of Shylock have Numbered ceaselesE
anathemas and the phrase honest money
has been rung in our ears, "usque &C
nauseam." but have looked in vain fol
a single protest against this iniquity
Now we have, side by side, two silver
nieces of the same fineness, one of 4l2.5t
Grains, worth one dollar, ana one of Az
Grains worth less than ninety cents. One
Is money. the other is bullion. Law
makes the difference. These illustration
make clear the principle we advocate
and which is stoutly and pers!stenti,
denied, that the value of money is hxed
by law and not by the material OF Wnicf
it is made.
Metal currency belongs to the bartel
system of barbarians. 1t is far too cum
bersome and costly for high civilization
1t was originally chosen to replace thu
exchange of one class of common prop
erty for another, because the precious
metals were less cumbrous than common
commodities.
COST OF SPECIE IN THIS AGE OF INTENSE
COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY
No one will question, that. as nation
we need 81, ,O0O, 200, 900 of currency. II
the annual report of the director OF tns
mint for the fiscal year, ending June ~
1880, page So. is table, showing tns