The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1896-10-15
Some Fundamental PRINCIPLES.

| Some Fundamental Principles.
, Mighty as is the American Congress,
| thefe Is LaWmaker infinitely more
| p0Weriul; LaWmakcr whose DEGREES,
| IKE himself, are from everlasting to ev-
| etrEaStlhg, the same yesterday, today. and
| forever. His DEGREES no human Legis-
lature can abrogate or change. The
! part of wisdom for us is modeStly to
! SIuoE them and implicitly to obey them.
. Inns IS the wisdom whose ways are
ways of pleasantncss." and whose
| paths are paths OF peace" One of
HIS DEGREES. written in every human
heart, constitute part of human nature.
| is that which prompts 4 man to dispose
| or anything of value where he gets the
best price for it. If he has access to
two markets equally convenient, he will
naturally choose that in which he gets
the best returns. TO show how small
Il difference in price will determine q
cholcc OF markets. let us take. for exam
PIE the case OF Il man who has 10000
pounds of wool to dispose of.
by the way. | never come up to this IL
lustration without thinking OF an Irish
TREND OF mine living near Winona. MINI.
lie recently took his wool to Market and
as he looked at the proceeds of the sale
lWhlch he could easily hold in the hollow
! OF his hand) he remarked. with a sad
sort of smile on his face 'They told me
IN ~ to vote for free wool. and. bcgorra,
L have come mighty close to it,
suppose that Il man having 10000
pounds of wool to dispose of lives mid
way between two markets. six miles
from each, with the roads equally good
and the ether conditions equal. How
small difference in price will determine
hlm to select one market rather than
the other? Would it take a cent a
pound! That would make difference
OF 500. n quarter of Il cent pound
would make difference of SD. One
twentieth of a cent pound would make
a difference OF -, and one-fortieth Of a
cent pound would be a difference of
$50. Now. as there are only five
loads in 10000 pounds, that would be Il
difference of 30 cents a load. enough to
buy his dinner and feed his team at the
barn. SO one forticth of a cent Il pound
would be ample to determine his cnoice
of the two markets.
The men who have gold and silver to
dispose of are human beings. Just like
the rest of us, prompted by the same
motives. animated by the same ambi-
tions They. too, will dispose of their
gold and their silver where it will pay
them best to do so.
Gold and silver are used for other
things beside money. Out of gold we
make rings. watch cases. jewery and
articles of Il thousand kinds. Similarly
articles of gold and silver must buy the
metal out of which they are made SO.
with the mlntS open to the coinage of
both gold and silver on private account.
man having either gold or silver to
dispose of would have the choice of tax
ing it to the mint or selling it in the
market: and which of them he would
do would be determined by the single
consideration, which would pay him
best?
The test of a theory is practice. For
tunately we do not have to wonder what
the result of having gold and silver
coined on private account at fixed ratio
would be. The experiment has been
tried. tiled repeatedly, tried in the Unit
ed States, in Germany, in France, in
England, the Scandinavian countries:
IN fact, IN every civilized country in the
world. And some countries are trying
it now. The result has always been
the same, and we may rest assured
that it always will be, because it rests
on two everlasting principles.
The Act of 1902.
Let us briefly review the coinage his
tory of our own country.
Our country declared its independence
IN lU6. For thirteen years it tried
number of governmental experiments.
with results that were disastrous. At
the end of that time the country changed
its policy to that of the constitution
under which we are now living. Before
1889 each state had the power to coin
money, and to declare legal tender any
thing that it chose. Profting by bitter
experience, our fathers, in framing our
constitution, forbade the states to coin
money, and specifically gave that power
to the United States. The power is
given without limitation. The cOnStitu-
ton expressly says: Congress shall
the constitution imposes no limitation
upon that power. Pursuant to this au-
thority, Congress in 1892 established
the United States mint. The Presi-
dent, Gen. Washington, had selected
Thomas Jefferson as his secretary of
state, Alexander Hamilton as his Sec
rotary of the treasury and he had other
distinguished gentlemen in his cabinet
as his trusted advisers.
One of the first questions to engage
attention was "What shall be the unit
of account? Should it be that of the
mother country, the pound sterling?"
To this the answer was, No, the reason
being that each pound was divided into
twenty shillings, each shilling into twelve
pence, and each penny into four far
things, as the result of which computa-
ton was difficult. 1t was determined
to adopt new unit, of convenient size,
and one reasonably familiar to the peo-
pie. The dollar was selected as the
unit, and its divisions were made on
decimal scale, the dollar being divided
into ten equal parts called dimes, each
dime into ten equal parts called cents.