The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-12-13
LEGAL TENDER AND CRErIT.

A correspondent asks how it would
be possible to abolish the legal
tender quality of money as we have
suggested. The practical problem does
not seem to present any great diff
culties. 1t is necessary, of course, for
the United States to define by law what
constitutes a dollar Bills being reck-
oned in dollars and cents, a court could
easily decide whether, in a particular
instance, legal tender has been made.
1t is rather in theory than in practice
that the question of legal tender is Of
great Importance, save as the legal
tender quality has been used in the
past, which is to confer a fictitious and
unreal value upon some commodity to
favor one party at the cost of another.
1t has to be remembered that the adop-
ton of such a monetary policy would
be followed Immediately by the adapta-
ton to it Of business transactions. Men
who wanted to be paid in gold would
make gold contracts. Men who wanted
to be paid in silver would make silver
contracts Men who wanted to receive
wheat would make wheat contracts.
Freedom of contract, which is the great
desideratum, would thus be established.
Silver money could be coined just as
freely as gold money; all that is nee
essary being for the government to
stamp upon the metal certificate of
its weight and fineness Such silver
coins would circulate side by side with
gold coin, their value in passing from
hand to hand being covered by the
commercial relation of the bullion con
tanned in them.
If bill had to be collected, it would
undoubtedly be expressed in dollars and
cents. If the government should declare
that dollar means 25S grains of
standard gold, then a legal tender
would be the tender of the amount OF
the bill in gold. A legal tender would
also be tender of an equiv
alent amount in silver, or what
ever other currency might be
in circulation. There would be no
difficulty in getting the gold to make
the tender, because the other money in
use would be exchangeable freely for
it at any bank. Where a currency is all
of full nominal value, nobody wants to
hoard gold more than any other form
of money. You cannot eat gold or
wear it or build a house of it, 1t has
no other earthly use than to be paid
out for something. It is sought for
| and boarded only when foolish men.
by statute, have conferred upon it an
undue value through an ATTEMPTED
generalization of something else as
compared with it. Define a dollar and
declare that all contracts must be dis
charged in what they call for, then coin
money freely and let it find its level
with all legal tender statutes repealed.
and the currency question would set
faction to all parties that follow the
ordinary adjustments of commerce.
We do not shrink in the least from
the suggestion of our correspondent
! that all laws for the collection of debts
might also be repealed This, of
course, could apply only to obligations
contracted after such action was taken.
and not to existing debts. 1t has long
been the opinion of the writer that
such laws are an obstruction, rather
than help to commercial growth, and
an encouragement. rather than a bar
rier to financial and commercial dishon-
esty. There are no debts in the world
| that are so uniformly and punctiliously
paid as losses in gambling transactions.
This is so true that they have come
| to be named in all communities "debts
| of honor" Why should something
which you owe because you have been
engaged in an occupation forbidden
| and unrecognized by law be called a
debt Of honor? Why should It be paid
| almost invariably? Because the refusal
of man to pay such an obligation
bars him instantly from associating
with his fellows and from ever again