The record-union., 1895-05-17

that is, prior to 1873. Now the price OF
coal in those particular years, when corn
was burned for fuel, did not exceed 81 to
81 % per ton. II was a common estimate
In those times that there was as much
fuel In u ton of corn as in ton of coal.
Ii this was true the value of corn must
have been between and 8 cents per
bushel, being less than the price of wheat
in l455 as quoted by Fleetwood. What
could be said of any future historian who
should take that for the true price of corn
III Illinois in the middle of the nineteenth
century?
We have not got through with this
pretended quotation yet. Beginning
where we left off above, it continues thus:
population dwindled and commerce,
arts, wealth and freedom all disappeared.
The people were reduced by poverty and
misery to the most degraded conditions Of
serfdom and slavery. The disintegra-
ton OF society was almost complete. His
tory records no such disastrous transition
as that from the Roman Empire to the
Dark Ages. The discovery of the New
World by Colum bus restored the volume e
of precious metals. brought with it rising
prices. enabled society TO shake off the
shackles of feudalism. and to uplift the
almost extinguished torch of civiilZa-
tion." (Report United States Monetary
Commission OF 1879.
There was Monetary Commission in
1878 composed OF Reuben f. Fenton, w.
s. Groesbeck, Francis A. Walker and S.
Dana Horton. The editor of the Indian
apolis journal looked through the report
OF that year, and finding nothing of the
kind here quoted, pronounced it forg-
cry. Then reply was made by "Coln."
or somebody 1or him, that 1878 was q
typographical error; that it should have
been 1876. That meant the report OF Sem
ator Jones of Nevada and his commits
sion. So the Journal took up that re-
port, and discovered that the last sem
tence in the paragraph, the one referring
to Columbus and the discovery of Amer
lea, the only thing which gives any point
to the pretended quotation. is itself a
misQuotation. We present below the
sentence as it stands on page 90 of the re-
port, and as it stands in Coins Finan-
cial SCHOOL,:
Report, page 80: "Various explana-
tions have been given of this entire break
ing down Of the framework OF society.
but it was certainly coincident with a
shrinkage in the volume of money, which
was also without historical parallel"
Coins Financial School: THE discov-
cry of the New World by Columbus re-
stored the volume Of precious metals,
brought with it rising prices, enabled So
ciety to reunite its shattered links, shak @
OFT the shackles of teudalism, and to re-
light and uplift the almost extinguished
torch OF civilization"
CHAPTER II-OUR FIRST SILVER DOLLAR.
The next untruth taught in "Coin's
Financial SchooP is that the silver dollar
was the monetary unit in this country
from 1892 to 1873. In order to make this
more emphatic he gives US black board
with the figure l on it, this being calcu-
lated to carry conviction to the school.
The fact is, that the silver dollar was the
monetary unit in this country before
1892, but never afterward. 1t was made
such by the Congress of the confedera-
ton in 17S5. This was the silver peso or
pesata OF Spain, which had been in cir
culation in the colonies more than hum
dred years, aud was called here dollar.
Now, in order to keep ones head clear
it must be borne in mind that the word
unit means one thing, not two or more
things; also, that there are several diff
ferent kinds of units, as a unit OF num-
Der, unit of length, unit of weight. q
unit of value. We will now quote the
law of 1892 verbatim:
"That there shall be, from time to time,
struck and coined at the said mint coins
of gold, silver and copper of the follow
ing denominations, value and descr1p-
tlons, viz: Eagle-each to be OF the value
of ten dollars or units, and to contain 24I
grains and four-eighths OF a grain OF
pure, or 210 grains of standard gold.
(Half eagles or quarter eagles OF corre-
spending weights and tlneness.) Dollars
or units-each to be of the value OF the
Spanish milled dollar az the same is now
current, and to contain 81 grains and
four-sixteenths of a grain Of pure, or 4l6
grains of standard silver"
The word unit" as used in the law
meant unit of number. Coin wants US
to understand that it meant unit of
value. Ii it had meant unit of value BIZ
melallism could not have been estab-
lished. Suppose the law had said: "Ap-
pies and oranges shall be legal tender,
but only the apples shall be the unit OF
value" That would have been contra
diction of terms. Calling the apple the
unit OF value could make no possible diff
ference to either debtor or creditor.
Congress made the dollar to consist of
two different things, viz: twenty-iour and
three fourth grains OF pure gold and Z7l4
grains of pure silver. 1t called both of
them units" meaning numerical units.
Thus, it said that the eagle should contain
ten of those units or dollars. This did not
mean that the eagle should contain 2.7l2l
grains OF silver, which must have been
the case if the silver dollar were the unit
of value. On the contrary. the law ex-
pressly said that it should contain 241l
grains of gold. What Congress decreed
in 1892 was that the dollar should consist
of either one or the other OF two described
substances of fixed weight. The Ian
guage was su fficient for all the purposes
of establishing mint and system of
coinage, which was the thing they had i'll
mind.
In order to throw little dust in the
readers eyes, the statement is made that
the eagle was not to consist OF ten units,
but "to be of the value OF ten dollars Or
units" as though that could make any
difference. The silver dollar, by the
same law, was to be ''of the value of a
Spanish milled dollar as the same is now
current" 1t did not turn out to be so,
however, and here comes i'll fact that it
would be well TO remember. The same
law declared that the proportional weight
of silver coins to gold coins should be as
15 to |. Now, Hamilton, the Secretary OF
the Treasury, had previously determined
by experiment that the average weight OF
the Spanish milled dollar as then cur
rent. was 81, not 37l4 grains. Why was
3714 grains chosen? Because Hamilt ton
had also ascertained that the spanish dol
lar, as then current, was selling in the
market for 24a grains of pure gold. SO
Congress multiplied 244 by 10 and took
the result. 31l4. Us the number of grains
for the silver dollar. La other words,
they determined the weight of the silver
dollar from the gold one, although there
was then no gold dollar coined.
But this American silver dollar never
got into circulation at home. The Span
lsh dollar, which was in actual circula-
rion here, was abraded by use about y
grains. New Spanish dollars were
worth that much more. 1t was soon dis
covered that our new dollar would pass
in the West Indies as the equivalent of
new new spanish dollars. i4 Consequently