The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-08-30
AMERICA FOR AMERICANS.

AMERICA FOR AMERICANS.
Our Monetary System Should BE Divorced
| from the Metals Gold and Silver.
The Denver, COL, Evening Post re-
Gently published this editorial para
graph:
'The truth is that some of our es-
teemed eastern friends are intoxicated
with passion and blinded with preju-
dice. Silver money is not dishonest.
1t buys as much as gold in the stores
and passes current in every mart of
trade. But it stands in the way of the
usurer, who would like to contract the
currency so rs to squeeze the debtors
already sweating blood until they yield
their last penny and give up all hope"
The New York Times commenting on
this utterance of the Post says:
'None assert that silver money is dis
honest, but all who are not stone blind
must know the silver dollar of to-day
is not the silver dollar of our fathers
that was made worth one hundred
cents on the dollar. True, the fifty-fve
cent dollar OF to-day is made legal
tender by the fat Of the government
and it buys - much in the stores and
passes current in every mart of trade"
but it is only within the limits of our
own country. Across the line that d.
vides this country from another the sill
yer certificate is worth just what the
silver is worth as bullion and that dis
credits our currency, disturbs our bust
ness and dishonors our government
But is it not undertaking more than
is necessary to furnish currency for
domestic purposes that will circulate
as money in foreign countries? Ameri-
can gold coin does not pass at it's face
value anywhere unless it weighs up to
face value. An English sovereign is
not received even in the Bank of En-
gland unless it is full weight and it is
always weighed. This is the strongest
argument against the use of gold as
money of account because it cannot be
in circulation long without losing a
portion OF it's weight and the trades
man, the wage Garner, the manufact-
urer-in short the great masses of soci-
ETY. are liable at all times to be
weighed" out of part of honest earn
ings For the banks, in this country
at least, that are careful not to accept
light weight coin have no scruples
about paying it out at it's face value.
The plain people have not forgotten
how the trade dollar, although it had
more silver in it than the standard dol
lar, was paid out by the banks at par
but refused except at discount when
tn lron hA hi ~
a question of weight, but one of legal
tender. The trade dollars were not
made receivable for debt by the law
creating them and the banks took ad-
vantage of the fact to turn an honest
penny in handling them.
The currency of the United States
should all be legal tender for all debts
public and private. Any other kind of
money is dishonest because it makes
cheating by the banks not only posi-
BILE but certain. Paper currency issued
by the treasury department ''re-
ceivable" for all debts, public and
private, is the most reliable cur
rency ever devised by man. Nor
will it's purchasing value at home
or abroad be measured by the value
of gold but by the supply and de-
mand for all the things needed for the
comfort and maintenance of the human
family. This seems so self-evident as
to require no demonstra ton, because
the United States produces more of
these things than the people at home
can possibly consume and the purchas-
ing power Of domestic money will be
fixed by the amount of home con-
sumption and the ratio that the money
supply bears to the supply of home
produced necessaries of life.
Legislation that will increase this
ratio to a point where domestic ex-
changes could be effected without the
use of credit at all would afford an
ideal currency. It would do away with
the necessity for banks of discount as
we have already done away with the
need for banks of issue. Of course it is
entirely impracticable to dispense with
credits in the immediate future, because
probably more than 05 per cent. of the
worlds business is based upon credit.
But it il easily conceivable that the
day will come when not a civilized
country in the world will have on it's
statute books law for the collection
of debts Legislation that will greatly
extend the cash system of doing bust
ness will hasten the time, and laws pro-
viding domestic currency, depending
for its purchasing power not on in
trinsic value but on it's debt-paying
quality. will steadily increase cash
transactions.
It is reproach to the intelligence of
the world that it has made no material
progress in the science of finance since
banking was first instituted. 1t is a
reproach to the integrity of American
craftsmanship that when the legal
tender system of currency was demon
strating that the true principle and
function Of money had been discovered,
our public men permitted usurers to
partially re-establish the system of pill
lage and plumber that is inseparable
from tho use of any particular COM
modify ~ tho standard Of values The
country by this step backward, has lost
many times more than the cost of the
late civil war. Evansville lind