The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-10-10

this principle more clearly than Locke
states It. in the words: $50 much as YOU
lessen your coin. so much more you mus
pay in tale. as viii make the quantity Of
silver the merchant expects for his COM
modify. under what denomination soever
he receives it, and again. IF you make
your money less in weight. il must Be
made up an tale" that is. in the number
Of pieces paid out The raising of
money lis in effect nothing but giving
denomination OF more pence TO the same
quantity of silver. Whether you call the
piece coined twelve-pence. or fifteen-psnce.
or sixty-pence. or ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. a
crown or sceptre. il VIII buy no more
silk. salt or bread than It would before"
1T is silver by its quantity. and not de-
nomination, that is the price OF things
Locke meets the familiar objection 10
this self-evident truth. that clipped coin
is accepted, in many transactions. a. its
face valuation, by observing that clipped
and uncfipped money will always buy an
equal quantity of anything else. as long
as they will without scruple change one
for another" II is ''aIi one 10 the seller.
whether he receives his money in clipped
money or no. so Il be but current" But
-'if the quantity OF your clipped coin be
once grown SO great that the foreign uer-
chant cannot Of he has a mind 10 do III
easily get weight-moaey for it. he viii. IN
selling his goods, either contract to be
paid in weight-money. or else raise the
price of his commodity. according to the
diminished quantity of silver in your cur
rent coin" The application OF this re-
mark TO a silver dollar not worth its face
IN gold is obvious. The government can
float q limited, but not an unlimited, num-
Der of such dollars.
Locke moreover distinctly perceives and
emphasizes the difference between past
and future contracts. IN contracts al
ready made. If your species (coins or
specie) be by law coined a fifth part light
er, under the same denomination, the
creditor must take a hundred such light
shi1lings, or twenty such light crown
pieces for g if the law calls them So but
he loses one-fifth in the intrinsic value Of
his debt. But, in bargains 10 be made
and things 10 be purchased, money has.
and always will have. its value from the
quantity of silver in it. and not from the
stamp and denomination"
Finally, upon the great question of the
morality of. raising the nominal value o.
coin, this honest and independent thinker
remarks: 1T will rob all creditors of one
twentieth Cor 5 per cent? of their debts.
and all landlords one-twentieth CT their
quit-rents forever; and in all other rents,
as far as their former contracts read. OF
0 per cent of their yearly income; and
this without any alvan tage to the debtor,
iha racafxyfno~ n m
pounds sterling for his land or commodi-
ties, in this new lighter coin. than he
should have done of your old and weight
Ter money, gets nothing by it. II YOU
say, Yes, he will receive more crowns.
half-crowns and shilling pieces for what
he now sells for new money, than he
should have done, If the money of the
old standard had continued, you confess
your money is not raised in value but in
denomination; since what your new pieces
want in weight must now be made up IN
number. . This is at first sight Wis
ible: That IN all payments to be received
upon precedent contracts, if your money
be in effect raised, the receiver Will lose
per cent Elsewhere he observes: Mr..
Lowndes-who was the English Bryan of
two hundred years ago, and who made
the same complaint of the rising silver
shilling that Mr.. Bryan now makes of
the rising gold donar-says that silver in
England is grown scarce, and consequent
ly, and so is of higher price. This, if it
were so, ought not TO annul any mans
bargain, nor make him receive less in
quantity than he lent He was to re-
ceive again the same sum. and the public
sum should have the same quantity OF
silver, under the same denomina ton. And
the reason is plain, why in justice he
ought 10 have the same quantity of sill
yer again, notwithstanding any pretended
rise of its value. For If silver had
grown more plentiful. and by consequence
(by our authors rule) cheaper. his debtor
would not have been compelled, by the
public authority, to have paid him, in
consideration of its cheapness, a greater
quantity OF silver than they contracted
for. Cocoanuts were the money of a part
of America when we first came here
Suppose then you had lent us last year
800. or fifteen score cocOanuts, to be re-
paid this year, would you be satisfied.
and think yourself paid your due, If
should tell you, cocoanuts were scarce this
year. and that four score were OF as much
value this year as a hundred last; and
that therefore you were well and fully
paid. II restored to you only 80 for the
800 I borrowed? Would you not think
yourself defrauded Of two-thirds tone-
NTH of your right by such a payment?
Nor would il make any amends for this
TO justice, or reparation 10 you. that Tia
public had (sfter your contract, which
was made for fifteen SCORED altered the
denomination of a score. and declared IL
to be sixteen instead of twenty"
Locke's reputation as a philosopher Is
too great and has beer-.o0 enduring TO be
questioned. He lived and wrote two
centuries ago. At that time corporations.
syndicates and trusts We're unknown.
There IS no reference IN his writings TO
paper money. Silver was the standard
of valuation. He cannot, therefore be
accused Of being in the pay of corpora
tons, or upon the side OF monopoly IN
opposition 10 the people. or OF being ac-
tuated by prejudice for Or against bank
notes or treasury notes. or OF being a
blind wo-shipper Of the yellow metal A.
that time the modern system of machinery
as a substitute for hand labor had not
begun to develop. so that the labor qDes-
ton OF today al not affect his views
Neither was there then the great expan-
sion OF commercial credits. which ihe In
ventive talent of the nineteenth century
and the demands of business under the
altered conditions Of Efe have created
It must therefore appear TO every unpreju-
diced reader Of his works. that a man
today. in tne United States. may hoiJ
the phrlosophic and economic opinions