St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-10-19
VIEWS OF THE REVIEWS.

Coinage Agitation the argument made
by him III recent North American, in
which he suggested that the coinage
difficulty might be solved by the free
coinage of silver, but leaving free the
right to contract for payment in gold or
silver. He meets the objection that
there cannot be two standards of meas
urement by showing that we now have
and constantly use two. the pounds
troy and avoirdupois. but he does not
point out how contracts can be CLASH
fled so that one will customarily be set
tied with gold and the other with silver,
which will be necessary to make his
comparison complete. If, however, the
legal tender feature of the law were
changedto provide that where the kind of
dollars in which the obligation was to
be liQuidated was not specified in the
contract, gold dollars could be de-
manded, just as now where the rate of
interest is not stated the law supplies
the legal rate, and if the coinage act
should provide that all silver dollars
coined prior to its passage should be re-
ceivable i'll payment of taxes and i'm
posts due the government, the free and
unlimited coinage might be permitted
Will safety anu UclSut. anu lli6 duju
mentS could be left to be made by the
people. The dollars previously coined
would remain at parity with gold, and
those subsequently coined would float
at their metal value. He adopts
Cernuschi's definition of good money,
as that 1.-The bullion of which is
worth as much after it is
melted as it is in the form of
CON-" whether money is good or bad
depends on the use the government
makes of its two functions, that of as
certainjng the relative values of the
coinage metals and determining the ra-
tics and quantities each coin shall con-
tain, and that other use which provides
that money shall be legal tender for
debts. The one function is the mere
justification of coin, of its weight, fine
ness and value. If that function is
properly used, what occasion is there
for the use of the other? Why should
there be legal tender acts? He makes
the novel point here that it Is always
an Acknowledgement by the govern
ment that the particular coin or money
is "bad money!" that is, if coin,
it will not keep its value in
the melting pot; if paper, thai it
will not be redeemed in good money"
at its face. 1t is, therefore, fraud
resting only on the supreme power, the
fiat of the government. So the coinage
act that makes the silver dollar LEGAL
tender is proclamation to the people
that it is discredited dollar, which will
pass at its stamp value only because
the government compels its acceptance.
The article is an interesting contrlbu-
ton to the discussion of question
which is before the peple solely because
some politicians i'll each party, and the
demagogueS in all parties, thought they
could see some politics in it, and
which will be dropped with the last bal
lots next month.
W. p. Anderson, whose experience of
twenty years as clerk of the criminal
court of Salem, Mass, gives him some
right to speak and TO have respectful
attention, has very slight value for
the sentimental treatment of prisoners.
and gives in his article reasons for THE
Increase of Crime by 'Reformatory'
PrisOnS.n He regards all efforts to
gloss with the amenities of civilized life
the punitive purpose of confinement as
a distinct announcement TO the criminal
classes that who otfendS against the law
shall be rewarded, not punished. He
believes that punishment means dis
comfort, not comfort; pain, not pleasure;
ucpElNdIIull, Ipb safety. lie
of the fathers, who thought that the way
to make criminal better was to so
punish him that he would not care for
repetition, is better for the criminal and
for society than to put him i'll enforced
idleneSs, relieve his ennui with flowers
and music, with entertainments. and a
better menu than he ever before sat
down to. Mr.. Andrews handles the re-
formers without gloves, and presents an
array of figures, facts and personal eX-
perIenceS which furnish his contention
with strong support. Officers even here
in the West have had occasion to note
the frequency with which, especially at
this season of the year, men commit the
minor crimes openly and with the pur-
pose to obtain shelter from the rigors of
winter and good support from the pub
tic, until the balmy days of spring come
and they can follow the fashion and 90
to the country for the summer. Charmed
with the treatment, the kind cOnSidera-
ton for their bodily and mental com
forts provided, he says that they return
time and again, the records Of MaSsa-
chusetts showing that 15S convictS had
returned to enjoy the delights of the
reformatories over fifty times each,
while 397 of them had come ''home"
more than thirty times. While popu-
tdllOL III IItlJ SIdbC lldo llCOlCN III My
years, the number of prisoners has in
creased tifty-fold. No doubt Mr.. An
drews sees the situation from the view
point of the criminal court, and does
not take into sufficient account as causes
of this increase other forces and tend
encies. Immigrants with criminal
records or impulses and false economic
conditions which depresS men and make
them first hopeless, then indifferent,
then criminal and desperate, have been
also operative, while the sOfteuing of
punishment has undoubtedly added its
inducement.
President Jordan, Of the Stanford uni
versity, finds connection between
agricultural Depression and Waste OF
Time" Men have come to understand
that there are certain forces which we
call those of nature which are impera-
tive, and it is a part of the stock Of wis
dom which the generations have gar
nered that it is better for men in all ways
to shape their lives IN harmony with
those forces. But there are other equally
tnexorable laws, like those of ethics
and economics, which are not so easily
felt, whose violations are not as i'm
mediately followed by punishment as
are those of the law of gravity, for i'll
stance; and because of thiS"the average
man believes that he is shrewd enough
to break them or avoid their penalty"
That suffering exists in tue agri-
cultural classes i'll country like ours
he believes is due to the violations of
economic laws. Unjust laws and un-
equal taxation bear their share as
causes, but the disobedlence by the
farmers of the law which the Greeks
clothed in poetry in expressing. The
gods for labor give us all good things"
is, he thinks, a prolific source of depres-
sion. Too much time is wasted; the
attractions of the town and the corner
grocery absorb time that should be
given to productive labor. He cites in
stances in his own experience which
every traveller can duplicate, of the
crowd of loungers at country railway
stations, idly gaping at the incoming
train on days when the weather and
the farm invited and called for