The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1894-11-07
WRAT IS MONEY!
The Leaders at Present are Simply Deform-
ers and not keformers.

The Leaders at Present are Simply Delorm-
ers and not keTorrners.
More than two thousand years have
passed and gone siace Aristotle, the
disciple of Plato and he of Socrates the
sublimest of the philosG hers, in the
Dlenitude of his great powers, after
travelling around the circle of learning,
speaking of money, said ''money is not
by nature, but by law" Let all know
that ali money il fat money. because
all money is creation of law by SOW
ereign authority. What makes 25 $40
grains of standard gold dollar under
cur government? Why not say 20 or
40 grains? 1t IS estimated that 1t taxes
only % cents of labor to dig out OF the
ground the amount of gold that ls puc
into one dollar. That % $40 grains of
standard gold make one dollar with us
is by tbs arbitrary will Of sovereignty.
The same rule applies TO all metal mo-
new; hence all money IS fat money.
The instant the metals are struck
and coined into money they lose their
intrinsic value in the capacity OF mo-
ney. What is money? Whatever SOW
ereign authority declares is full legal
tender for all debts, public and private,
is money regardless of the material out
of which it IS made. This definition of
money cannot be gainsayed. Metal
moneys are relics Of barbarism. They
should be discarded. The metals are
too valuable and their coinage is too
expensive for use as money. AS there
is large and intrinsic value in the ma
terisl out of which gold and silver
coins are made they always hide oat IN
tronblous times aud paper substitutes
are resorted TO. That gold has greatly
appreciated in value, end/we are neaf
rain, are due to the discrimination IN
its favor by unfair legislation begin.
ming with the Act of 18th February,
1873. Up to that time gold and silver
had the same rights Of coinage and the
same debt paying powers. 1889 OF
silver to of gold. and the silver dollar
was the unit of value and the gold
coins the ratio. There was no wran-
Cling about the parity BY the CLAN
destinely rushing of that act through
Congress the money unit was fraudu-
leDtly changed from the standard Sill
yer dollar 4l29 grains $40 fine to the
standard gold dollar 25 $40 grains 10
fine. Sec. l4th of that Act reads:
..That the gold coins of the United
States shall be nedollar piece, which.
at the standard weight Of twenty-five
and eight-tenths grains, shall be the
unit of value" The standard silver
dollar, the unit Of money in this coun-
try for near two centuries, was dropped
from coinage and a new coin styled the
trade dollar, 420 grains, was substituted
for it. -....- -
Section 25 of this Act reproduced in
the revised Statutes, Sec. S,524, fixes
definitely the charges for converting
standard gold bullion into coins at one
fifth of one per cent. while It leaves the
charges foT converting standard silver
into trade dollars to the discretion Of
the director of the mint with the con-
currence of the secretary Of the treas
ury.
Section 2 of the Act of January "A,
1879, which provided for the resump-
ton of specie payments reads, "Fhat 80
much of Section 1924 of the revised
Statutes of the United States as pro-
vides for a charge of of one-ffth Of one
per cent. for converting standard gold
bullion into coin is hereby repealed,
and hereafter no charge shall be made
for that service" The Acts Of Con-
gress snow, while for twenty-five years
there has been relentless war on silver,
the money of the people, during all of
that time gold has been tenderly cared
for. The value Of gold at the nints is
fixed by law, while silver is arbitrarily
denied any rights there. The govern
ment pays one dollar in gold for every
deposit of rs $40 grains of standard
gold, refusing to receive any deposit Of
silver at the mints. A deep laid scheme
lies at the bottom Of it.
After the gold moneyers funded and
destroyed all the government paper
money passible under the Act of the
18th of April, 1856, they began their
war on silver. AS gold and silver
money are about equal in quantity
they know if they can destroy silver as
money, sold alone will be the money
in final redemption without complete
change in our monetary system, which
Justice demands. All obligations Ma
tional, State, corporation and individ-
ual in the hands of creditors will De
doubled to the ruin Of debtors.
We are in the throes OF q great crisis.
AS bad as matters are, we have not
reached the bottom under present laws
and rulers. In this State there are no
reformers among the leaders. ALI of
the prominent ones are deformers.
Reformers correct what is wrong and
make better existing conditions.
Deformers confuse, muddle and
make everything worse. That is the
way public offices in this State have
been conducted during the last four
years. There is no good for the people
in John with his shooting tools and
Ben with his pitchfork. Ben must
not forget to take his wheelbarrow.
John and Ben are deformers right.
Sooner or later the people will find it
out. Under their leadership we are
fast getting to the places. The Nation
and the State are shrouded in q dense
cloud of night and gloom. Not a streak
OF light can be seen anywhere in the
horizon.
May the father of love and mercy
open the eyes and ears of the people
and dispel the cloud and lift the gloom
that overshadows and depresses the
people of the nation and cause the sun
TO burst forth and appear to them
more resplendent than did the sun Of
Austerlitz rise and appear to Napoleon
the morning after his great victory
over the kustrians at the very gate OF
their capitol. May it sooner be thus
than We expect, the nation saved and
the people contented and happy. is the
earnest Invocation of the writer.
Respectfully,
ELLISON S. KErrT.
Positive and Negative.