The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1895-06-13

uslists, however, predominated. Corn
stepped on to the platform, looking the
smooth little 6nsnc;er that he is, and
said:
II sm pleased to see such large at.
tendance. 1t ipdicstes q desire to learn
aud master subject that has batfled
your fathers. The reins Of the govern,
ment will soon be placed in your hands,
and its fu,ur. will be nodded by your
honesty aud intelligence.
ask you 10 accept nothing from ne
that does not stand the analysis Of reas.
90; that you will freely ask questions
and pass criticisms, and if there is any
ope present who believes that all who
differ from him are lunatics aud fools,
he is requested to vscste his seat and
leave the room"
The son Of Editor Scott, Of the Chica.
90 Herald, here arose and walked out
Com paused roment, and then con-
tinued: "My object will be to teach
you .is A, B, c OF the questions about
money that are now a matter of every>
day conversation.
THE MONEY UNIT.
"ln money there must be unit. 10
arithmetic, as you ate aware, you are
taught what a unit is. Thus, | make
here On the blackboard the figure /.
That, 10 arithmetic, is unit. All
countiugs are sums or multiples Of that
unit. A unit, therefore, in mathemat
les, was necessity as basis to start
from. Ia making money it was equally
as necessary to establish a unit. The
constitution gave the power to Congress
to coin money and regulate the value
thereof. Congress adopted silver and
gold as money. 1t then proceeded to
fix the unit.
"rhat is. it then fixed what should
| constitute one dollar. the same thing
that the mathematician did when he
fixed one figure from which all other:
should be counted. Congress fixed th,
monetary unit 10 consist Of 3Tli grains
of pure silver, aud provided for Ger
tain amount of alloy (baser metals) t.
be mixed with it to give it greater hard
uess aud durability. This was it. 1892
in the days Of Washington and Jeffer
sou and our revolutionary forefathers
who had hatred of England, aud al
intimate knowledge of her designs ol
this country.
"They had fought eight long year
for their independence from British dom
instiou 10 this country, and when the,
had seen the last red,cost leave ou
shores, they settled down TO establish
permanent government, aud among th,
irst things they did WAS to make 37li
grains Of silver the unit OF values
That much silver was TO constitute
dollar. Aud each dollar was a unit
They then provided for all other money
to be counted from this unit Of silve
dollar. Hence dunes. quarters and half
dollars were exact fractional parts o
the dollar So fixed.
"Goli was made money, but its valu
was countsd from these silver units o
dollars. The ratio between silver anc
gold was fixed at Is to ], ard after
ward at I6 to /. So that in maxim;
gold coins their relative weight wa
rsguls,ed by this ratio.
"This continued to be the law up {,
1873. During that long period, tn,
unit Of values was never changed an,
always contained 37li grains of pur,
silver. While that was the law il wa
impossible for any one TO say that th,
silver in a silver dollar was only woiti
AZ cents, or any other number Of cent
less than 100 cents, or dollar. Fo
it WAS itself the uuit Of values. Will,
that was tho law il would have beeu a
absurd to say that the silver in a silve
dollar was only worth 47 cents, as j
would be to say that this figure
which ! have on the blackboard is onl,
forty-seven oue>hundle edths of one.
"When the ratio was changed from
Is to to l6 to ! the silver dollar o
unit was left the same size and I'll,
gold dollar was made smaller. The lat
ter was changed from 24.7 grains I,
1872 grains pure gold. thus making i
smaller. This occurred in 1884. IT,,
silver dollar still remained the unit auc
continued so until 1873.
Both were legal tender in the pay
ment of all debts. and the mints wer,
open to the coinage of all that came
So that up to 1873, We were on wha
was known as bimetsllic basis, but
what was 10 fact a silver basis, will
gold as eonpshion metal enjoying tn,
same privileges as silver, except tha
silver fixed the unit, ard the value O
gold was regulated by It. This was bi
metsllisu.
sour forefsthers showed much wis
dom 10 selecting silver, OF the two met
ais, out of which to make the unit
Much depended on this decision. For