Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1895-08-15

tons intended by the constitution. Since
this debate the press dispatches report the
supreme court OF Ohio as deciding that q
municipality cannot issue bonds payable In
gold alone; that such bonds should be paya-
bic In either gold or silver. IL that court
has done so IL has clearly decided rightly.
There is no doubt in my mind that the
United states supreme court would declare
unconstitutional the act Of 1873. The cir
cuiation Of silver as token money Is where.
In 1t has worked a deception. What the
United States supreme court would do
now Is more doubtful. as l am inclined to
believe that they are as a whole rs much
under the influence Of the bondholders as
the supreme court Of 1860 was under the
influence Of the Shareholders. A test ease
would now probably result n 9 pred Scott
decision. i do not nean - express preju-
dice, but In view Of the events Of the last
two years l canont help but believe that
Official despotism has already set In. and
that most Of our public officials are now
unconsciously the willing servants OF the
money-lending power. IL a majority OF the
supreme court are thus infected, as l fear,
1t could not take the broad statesmanlike
view of this question that is required.
~SecoDd-Th8t the silver dollar was the
unit OF value In our coinage system fixed
by the act of 1892. Mr.. Horr admits this.
See pages 50 and 81 of official report.
Third-That silver and gold both were
tNe measures Oh Ndiut VI an ~ pAoptilS
until 1873, and the debtor had a right to
pay in either metal. See Mr.. Horr's an
swer to Mr.. Motsinger on page 100.
Coinage OF Dollars.
Mr.. Horr stated that Jefferson did not
stop the coinage of silver dollars In 1906
and direct that all silver seeking the minis
be coined into 50-cent pieces and less be-
cause Of the scarcity of small money, as
stated IN the School" but virtually re-
coded from this claim, on page IA. The
expectation of silver dollars was not on ac-
count Of a premium on silver over gold,
but because our silver dollars circulated
as money In ether nations where their
familiarity with the dollar would cause II
to do so, whereas they were not familiar
with our fractional coins, and thus the
latter more readily stayed with us.
Mr.. Horr said that when gold or silver
was the unit the quantity In a dollar could
not be worth either more or less than a
dollar, more or less than itself, and criti-
ciZed my statement in the school" that
IL could be worth more. I passed 1t at
the time as l did many other things that
had no substantial bearing on the subject
under discussion. | refer him now to re-
cent market quotations in New York, when
gold bullion was selling at a small
premium, which was accounted for at the
time by purchases made by a gold syn
dicate to prevent gold from seeking the
mints. l also refer him TO the silver unit
I gave him, the old coin dealers quotation
on which is 81.
Mr.. Horr's frequent references TO a
change in the ratio prior 10 the formation
of this government Is answered by this:
That this change was not to make less
money. but to make more money. In no
instance Is it known that silver was dis
turbed by increasing the size of the Coins.
ThnGn han1n vgYnrn ynnIn In thn cold nnsnp
and were made to make more money.
When these changes were made in the legal
ratio the commercial ratio soon cOnfOrmed
to the legal ratio.
If MT. Horn had followed me In the
logical arrangement of the debate as in
Dictated by the book we were discussing |
would have been enabled to furnish data
more fully and justifylng points in the
School attacked by him. And had so
intended, but after the discussion OF the
crime Of 1873 he seemed to wholly abandon
the regular order OF debate and went TO all
| parts of the School" and at one time
went to another book ! had written, up
to Date" and hurled propositions at me
that were clearly out Of the regular order
of the debate. This required me to use few
words in the many brief answers that I
made to him. / did so because / did not
want his TO go wholly un-
nswered at that time and risk losing an
opportunity to answer him fully. / would,
however, have answered all of them fully.
as l did some of them afterwards, IL be
had let them come in their proper order.
Regarding Debts.
One Of these topics was debts. The pub
lie knows how l abbreviated my answers.
] can only say now that il is admitted by
the other side that our long-timed debate.
including national, state, municipal, cor
| porate. and including farm and home mort
| cages, amount In round figures to 500 0O,-
100000. 1t Is also admitted that this does
not include current business accounts and
notes, nor the enormous sum that hangs
over the army of debtors who have gone
out of business since the repeal OF the last
bankrupt law, and that may still be within
the statute of limitations. Neither does 1t
include debts due from individual to indi-
viduals that are not on record and cannot
be classed as debts coming under the head
Of business or traders debts. Nor does it
include debts coming under the following
heads: Pawnbrokers, chattel mortgages.
partial payment sales, maritime debts, over
drafts, judgments and taxes.
II / had had time In the debate I would
have justified by detail and with authorities
the $4,000 600, 900 at which l had estimated
the aggregate Indebtedness Of the people of
the United States.
Labor Saving Inventions
would lessen the necessary toll Of men, and
was a promise Of a day to come when,
with little labor, all would be provided for
and humanity as a whole would be bene-
fitted. Has it had that result? All win an
swer that 1t has not. The lines Of demarka-
ton between the rich and the poor are
more marked than ever, and the percentage
OF people who devote ill their time to a
struggle for existence is greater now than
at any time known to modern history.
This will not be denied by any but the
selfish few whose wants, being supplied,
knew nothing of the wants of others.
We are sufficiently advanced now In this
respect 70 provide all the people of the
world with the comforts of life by one
hours work each day by each individual.
while the remaining hours not devoted to
sleep would be used in the promotion Of
human happiness and the advancement Of
the human race. That the passageway to a
new era is blocked by a defect In our civili-
zation should be admitted by all.
A Commercial Age,
where inventions. education and all forms
of human skill and ingenuity are made TO
promote the personal ends of pien or CON-
binatlons OF men. Such an age promotes
self shurss In all things. 1t follows that IL
is not only lawful but desirable to monop-
Ollie to ones self property Of any and all
kind. no matter how unnecessary IL may