The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-09-20


grade and quality,
This first demonstration Of silver was
made. perhaps, unconsciously by our
predecessors, but not so by those who
procured it. IL was Transcribed almost
verbatim from an old English statute
demonetizing the silver coins Of the
kingdom, providing that they should not
be a legal tender, except for sums of
small amount and those below IL. And
the reason for the law given in the pre-
amble and recited year after year by
the text writers is that 1t was to pre-
vent the hording of those small pieces
OF silver which deprived the kings sub
jects of the ability to make change in
their daily business.
When 1 first read this reason and for
many years afterward / had implicit
faith in it; believed in its truth as firmly
as in that given by Mr.. Justice Black
stone why a trustee should not deal in
the trust property-because 1t exposed
him 10 the temptation Of betraying his
trust. But an examination of the his
tory Of this early decentralization of sill
yer shows that this reason is false in
fact as it is in principle.
A little closer scrutiny of parliament
airy annals shows that this law was made
at the instance of the most worShipful
guild Of goldsmiths of the city of Lon
don, they being then the bankers of
England; that many Of the nobility and
self. were indebted to the said guild for
divers loans and accommodations, and
these being willing to do the gold
smiths and their correspondents in Lom-
hardy a pleasure, granted them this
boon by enacting that these silver coins
should not be lawful tender save for
such small sums as did not concern the
guild of gOldsmiths. Perhaps there is
nothing quite so reverend, so wholly re-
spectacle, as an ancient falsehOod,
hoary with age, stale with usage and
With what an air of feigned surprise
and injured innocence it stares about,
being questioned and cross-examined as
to its credibllity. And 1 can readily
conceive how the Parliament of mon
archical old England should thus stig-
Matte the money of the people; but
why should this have been done, and
why does it still obtain in this republic?
1 assent with all my heart and mind
and strength 10 the doctrine that the
daily wages paid for daily work to the
toiling masses ought to be paid in sound,
honest money.
The Wage-Earner Cheated.
But the daily wages daily paid to the
unskilled laborer. by far the largest por-
ton of wage-earners, is paid in sums
below the dollar; 1t is paid in subsi-
diary silver coin. Gold is not Invisible
to make such payment Yet for many
wears in the United States no such
laborer has been or is today paid in
sound mOney-in honest money. He is
paid I'm coin debased, in money dishon-
Ored. degraded by law-the law of it's
creation. The money is not sound-it Is
coined below the standard; it is not hon
est-it purpOrts TO be money and it is
not: 1t lacks the most essential attribute
of lawful mOney-it is not a legal tende =
The basis of the circulating medium
truly considered is the subsidiary COIN
age-I am speaking of a country and its
government which is owned by and be-
longs TO the people who live in it. In
determining the basis / count numbers,
not values; 1 appeal to the majority.
You may compare the transactions in
loans or purchases or payments, either
in the remote hamlet of 300 souls or in
the great metropolis with 5000 600 which
is seated about the island Of Manhattan
in either Of those, upon any day, the
transactions below the dollar exceed
those above that sum-exceed all others
by thousandfOld.
Why ought the monetary dealings Of
by far the greater part OF our citizens
be carried on in base coin, In currency
both spurious and dishonest?
As for the old objection, that the max
ing of our silver subsidiary coin a legal
tender would induce hoarding-what if
it have that effect? Can we not mint
the more? Is not the standard silver
dollar boarded? Why then should we
have coined IL so abundantly? Is not
gold coin honored? If we deprive our
coin OF legal-tender quality because IT
may be boarded lawful money of this
kind must soon disappear.
What an unconscious but strange Bias
&c IN IL Il -
side Of those who have much. Silver
found in the stocking is called a hoard,
the keeper a miser. The gold found in
the triple steel-lined safety vault is
called a reserve and the name Of the
owner is capitalist.
Then again IT may be said, If we make
these silver coins so rich they will be
carried away. They will not remain in
circulation here. Well, II 1t be abso-
lutely necessary TO retain them we can
forbid their export either directly or in
directly. But II we do not do this and
export takes place can we not coin a
new supply. You talk of a market or a
demand for silver-here Is one-unfailing.
permanent. quite legitimate and wholly
undeveloped.
should Not Discriminate.
We ought to remonetize the subsidiary
silver coin for the sake of justice, for the
sake Of the wage-earner, for the honor
Of labor. The money Of the many ought
to be the same as the money of the few.
1t ought TO be of the same quaIity-of
the same legal character and power.
One Of the strongest objections to the
Bland act, repeated in the Sherman act.
is that even the standard silver dollar.
the money In which skilled labor is most
largely paid, is subject thereby TO the
same ban Of dishonor. II is made legal
tender by both these enactments. EEK
cept where otherwise expressly stipulated
in the contract" And this exception has
been perhaps aided b. the decision of
the supreme court, that a contract paya-
BILE in gold coin could be satisfied only
in judgment and execution by the same
coin.
This was in accord with the unwritten
law as to the freedom of contract and
the right of the creditor to recover pre-
cisely what he bargained for. But we.
as legislators, have a wider province
This exception when made in the act of
1878 attracted little or no attention, but
when 1t was repeated in the act of 1890.
the attention Of the business commu-
nifty was very specially called thereto.
Capital, always timid. regarded this
clause as portentous.
1t feared that a time was not far dis
tant when disparity should prevail be-
tween the two metals. And many par
ties Immediately took the precaution OF
drafting contracts so as to be embraced
within the exception. Bonds, notes
mortgages. and even. in the case Of ur-
ban leases. rents were made payable in
gold coin. In my own section OF the
union one-half Of the funded domestic