The advocate and Topeka tribune., 1892-11-02


bars. You melt it into discs, stamped, and
of the standard weight of $40 gold pieces.
You tender these; he rejects them, and sends
you to the penitentiary for counterfeiting.
The fat Of the nation was forgery. You
tender him English sovereigns, gold francs
or marks, with the fiat of foreign nation
ON them. He refuses them. The debt is
not extinguished, for the foreign fat is null
and void in this land for want of Jurisdiction
and they are not money, only bullion. Now
you tender him $50 in greenbacks, $25 in
silver certificates and $25 in gold coin. He
still refuses, and wants all in United States
gold coin. You deposit the money in court
or in the bank to his credit, and the debt is
extinguished at the will of the debtor with
out the consent Of the creditor. This is
caused by the fat of the nation formulated
in the words, "this shall be legal tender
in ratification Of all debts, public and pri-
vate, within the jurisdiction Of the United
States" This fat on the gold, the silver or
the raper makes the money. Nothing else
does or can make money. Some able mon
assert that the true test of money is the fre
test. That is, if You put il in the Crucible
and reduce il, dollar viii be left. Sup
pose the next time you 60 to pay debt,
you put your one hundred gold dollars in
crucible and FIRE up, and tender your cred
itor the fused result. Have you in the pot
money or bullionp Can you force the
creditor to receive it2 No. The money
element is consumed. The fat Of the ma
ton has disappeared. The fire test of
money is the same on gold money or paper
money. II destroys the money power OF
the article. President Diaz may step into
your bank and deposit one thousand Mexi-
can dollars, and ask for certificate Of de-
posit for one thousand United States dollars.
You say no. "Why not9" says President Diaz,
''that is one thousand dollar legal tender
where came from" eyes" you reply, ''thst
may be good money in your country, but
il is not good money in this country" When
q nation becomes powerless to enforce Its
fat the element Of the article ceases, and
there only remains an article Of more or
less commercial value. Money is an arti-
fetal product, and is not a natural product.
No mine has ever been discovered out of
which money was dug ready stamped with a
national fat. ALI nations in all ages have
made different forms of money. Money
has no intrinsic value, il only represents
labor in some form. The gold in the noun
tains has no intrinsic value. It is claimed
that it takes dollars worth Of labor to
produce dollar (25.8) Of gold, and there
fore that the gold dollar has an intrinsic
value. The fact is that it only represents
q dollars worth Of work. How about q
greenback, when printed and deposited in
the United States treasury il represents no
value. 1t is then the game as the gold in
the mountains. But when some one gives
the United states (the people) a dollars
worth of labor or material for paper dol
lar, thereafter that paper dollar represents
a dollars worth of work as much as ever
the gold dollar did or could. They both
have the same representative value. And,
so long as the nation retains its integrity
and power, they will each be good as de-
clared by the fiat. Gold has no purchasing
power. Nothing can be purchased except
by consent Of the vendor. He may consent
to sell for payment in iron, cotton, land or
ships. 1t Is his option as seller to sell for
what he chooses. 1t is only when debt is
created that the debtor can extinguish il at
his choice with legal tender money.
There is a good deal of calamity in
the foregoing, but it seemed to meet
the approval of the American Bank
ers' association for all that. After