Omaha daily bee., 1896-07-19

THE MONEY or THE CONSTITUTION,
The advocates of free and unlimited
coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to |
constantly pratc about restoring the
money of the constitution. In his
speeches at st. Joseph and Kansas city
William j. Bryan asserted and rciter-
atcd that the object of the agitation for
free silver and the paramount public
question is the restoration of the gold
and silver coinage of the constitution.
What Is the money of the constitution :
The only references to the coinage OF
money in the constitution OF the United
States are contained in article i, sec
tons $ and 10. cnumerating the powers
of congress. Section : empowers con
grcss "to coin money. regulate the value
thereof and of foreign coin and to fix
The standards of weights and measures,
and also Ito provide for the punishment
of cuuntcrfciting the securities and cur
rent coin of the United States Sec
ton 10 prohibits any state from coming
money. emitting bills of credit or max
ing anything but gold and silver coin Il
tender in payment of debts. There is
one word i'm the constitution of the
United States that requires the free
coinage of gold and silver. There Is not
one word in the constitution that can be
construed into Il mandate for the I'M
limited coinage of either gold or silver.
The money of the constitution is clearly
,,..,,,. .,,....;,-,n1 ,1tg.,.ntinn rho
money metal might have been gold or
silver or both. 1t might have been de-
nominated dollars, or pounds sterling,
or ducatS. 1t might have been Il coin
differing in composition. in name II
in valuation from any coin known at
the time the constitution was framed.
Under the broad provision of the con
Stirution congress can at any time
change our entire money system, just
as it has the power TO change the SyS-
TEN of weights ana measures. Nor Is
there one word in the constitution about
any ratio between gold and silver. No
body ever charged congress with violat-
Ing the constitution when il did change
the ratio from IL to /, aS originally liked
in 1882 by Alexander Hamilton, to 10
to I in order to meet the changed con
ditionS of 1924.
All The talk. therefore. about reStOr-
ing the money of the constitution is the
y%cricst bosh intended to mislcad and
confuse the popular mind. The clamor
about restoring the money of the con
t,t,,r;,,, =. 80 t1,,. II. nathan .S tho
clamor about the conspiracy and
crime of 1873. The constitution
conferred upon congress the power
to coin money. but in the eN-
ercisc Of that power congress
must ut all times govern itself by the
unwritten but universal coinage law.
That law presumes each coin to have as
much market value before impressed
with the mint stamp as is expressed on
its face. Whenever any government
emits coins of less bullion value than
their face. except as token money, it Is
guilty of debaSing the currency. SO
long as the amount of such currency is
limited and is kept at par with full
weight coin nobody is cheated. Make
the coinage of silver free and unlimited
mt the ratio of 10 to ! when it brings
only half that on the bullion market
and it is bound to deprcciate to its COM
modify price. In other words, ii IS
bound TO give lis Il single silver stand
ard.
The proposition to coin all the silver
of the world free of charge into Ameri-
can dollars ut the ratio of Ii to / under
pretense that we are restoring the
money of the constitution is Il piece of
monumental 'imposture. IT is nothing
more nor less than Il scheme to eX-
change all the gold in the treasury and
all the gold that we can borrow for
silver ut double its present market price.
The money of the constitution first and
foremost is honest money and not Il
debt-scaling money. The men who
prate about restoring the money of the
constitution either do not know what
they are talking about or they are bank
ing upon popular ignorance and ere,
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