The record-union., 1895-05-17
COINS FINANCIAL FOOL" !"
Some Spicy Comments by a Promi-
nent PubIicist.
Horace Whites scorching Review
OF the Literary Sensation
of the Day.

WrlterS anu newspaper men IN ILLS COuu"
try. has written a series of criticisms on
"Coin's Financial School" Mr.. Whites s
comments will be read with much inter-
est, the more SO as they represent the
sound-money side of the question at issue.
AS will be seen, he gives "Mr. Coin"
some terrific broadsides.
MR.. WHITE INTRODUCTION.
propose to examine with some thor
oughness book of l55 pages, entitled
'Coin's Financial School,"
''Coin," it should be promised, is a
youth about II years of age, who opens a
finance. This is piece OF clap-trap. The
science of finance does not, come by
nature, as reading and writing came to
Dogberry. and it is not particularly
Catching" 1t requires a considerable
amount of study. The suggestion here
thrown out that a boy can drop his mar
bles and spinning tops and deliver val
liable lectures on this science is likely to
prove captivating, however, to persons
who would be glad to acquire it without
any antecedent effort, although they
would not attempt to play on the bones
at minstrel show without previous
practice. They may not perceive the in
herent absurdity OF taking lectures on
this abstruSe subject from boy OF IL, al
.
the subject Of shoeing horse.
THE oNE-LEGGED MAN.
The book is largely made up of pictorial
Illustrations, which of course, cannot be
answered. If anybody is deluded in a
financial discussion by picture of man
with only one leg, his delusion may, per-
haps, be cured by telling him that the
single standard of silver is just As one
legged as the single standard of gold.
Tho nhiact nf 6(injn3a Financial S0hnnlD
is to bring about the free coinage of silver
ae legal ratio of 16 to by the action of
this country alone. AS the market ratio
of the two metals is 81 to l, it is evident
that this country cannot make sixteen
ounces of silver equal in value to one
ounce of gold when the whole world is
Offering thIrty-tWO ounces OF silver for
one ounce of gold. Therefore the pro-
posal for free coinage by this country
single-handed is a proposal to establish
the single standard of silver. which is as
well represented by man with one leg
as is the single standard of gold.
CHAPTER Looms FIRST FALsEHooD.
Coins first picture is that of columbus
Discovering America, 1892" Immedi-
ately beneath it is a pretended quotation
from public document, which begins in
this way:
'Atth Christian era the metallic money
of the Roman Empire amounted to ST.
S00.000,000. By the end of the fifteenth
century it had shrunk to $500, 000, ,O00
Or. Adam Smith informs US that IN If55
the price of wheat in England was 2 pence
per buShel.)"
The statement in parenthsis, which is
introduced by 'Coin," is false in four diff
fereut ways, viz: % 1t is false by con-
yeylng to the readers mind the idea that
penny in 1855 was the same thing as
penny now; t2) it is false by conveying
the idea that the price quoted was the
average price at that period in the worlds
history; 81 il is false in giving Adam
Smith as authority for the statement; a.
it is false in conveying the idea that the
quantity OF money In the world was the
cause OF the low price Of wheat in 1455.
The first thing in the quoted paragraph
is statement that at the Christian era
there was plentiful supply OF money as
compared with the later period. Now, we
can show, on the best possible authority.
that the rate of wages for laboring men
at this happy period was l penny per
day. See Mathew Xxx, Lilo, which tells
us that certain householder went out
early in the morning 10 hire laborers for
his vineyard, and that when he had
agreed with them for penny day he
sent them into his vineyard. They were
all satisfied and nothing happened to dis
turb their serenity until they found that
some others, who had been hired later in
the day, were also receiving penny.
We need not concern ourselves with
the sequel, since the only point important
TO our purpose Is that the rate OF wages
at this afffuent period was l penny per
day.
A penny in 1455 was not the same
thing as penny now. The penny was
originally the 240Ih part of pound
weight OF silver, but monarchs Lad the
habit of cutting pieces OFT the pound of
81
pennies, putting the difference into their
own pockets. In this way the value of
the penny was constantly declining till the
reign of Elizabeth. In l455 the weight of
the silver penny was twice as great as it
was in the time of Adam Smith, fact
carefully suppressed by Coin"
The other three falsities may be dis
posed of in short order The prices of
wheat quoted at the end of book l. of
Smith. wealth of Nations" are not
given on his own authority. They are
quoted as those of Fleetwood. and we are
cautioned by Adam Smith, Tor various
reasons, not to attach too much import
ance to them. Thus, referring TO previous
writers who had taken Fleetwood $
tables basis, he says:
Thirdly, they seem TO have been mis-
led, too, by the very low price at which
wheat was sometimes sold in very ancient
times, and to have imagined that as its
lowest price was then much lower than
in later times, its ordinary price must
likewise have been much lower. They
might have found, however. that in those
ancient times its highest price was fully
as much above as its price was below
anything that had been known III later
times. Thus in l2T0 Fleetwood gives US
two prices of the quarter of wheat. The
one is ga 16 shlllings of the money of
those times, equal to ETA shillings of
that of the present; the other is SO s
shillings, equal to Gl9 shillings of our
present money. No price can be found
in the end of the fifteenth. or beginning
of the sixteenth century, which ap-
proaches to the extravaganza OF these.
1.-The price of corn, though at all times
liable to variation, varies most in those
turbulent and disorderly societies in
which the interruption OF all commerce
and communication hinders the plenty OF
one part of the country from relieving the
society of another. In the disorderly
state of England under the Plantagenets,
who governed it from about the middle
of the twelfth till toward the end of the
fifteenth century, one district might be
in plenty, while another at no great dis
tance. by having its crop destroyed either
by some accident of the seasons or by the
incursion of some neighboring baron,
might be suffering all the horrors of a
famine, and yet If the lands OF some hos
tile lord were interposed between them
one might not be able to give the least
assistance to the other. Under the ylgor-
Gus administration of the Tudors, who
governed England during the latter part
of the fifteenth and through the whole of
the sixteenth century, no baron was pow
erful enough to dare to disturb the public
security
Finally Fleetwood's tables give the
prices Of wheat in 1853 at 5s 4d, and in
1457 at IS Sd per quarter, the intermediate
year 1856 being Is I'd per quarter, all be-