The San Francisco call., 1896-07-05
MONEY OF THE CONSTITUTION"

Immediately upon his arrival in Chi
cago Senator Stewart of Nevada began to
initiate the Teller balloon with mixture of
| wind and gas composed of the Nevada
Senator's pet catchword, "Gold and silver
the money of the constitution" But
Senator Stewart is not the only one who
talks much about the 'money of the con-
stitution." 1t has been the war-cry of the
advocates of free-silyer coinage from the
start, ana not few defenders OF the gold
| standard try to prove that gold is the
money of the constitution. 1t is fortu-
nate, perhaps, that the youth of the coun-
try are too busy attending to their school,
books to become acquainted with the
ignorance and stupidity of some OF the
Nations alleged wise men.
In every school where the pupils are re-
quired to read and listen to lectures upon
the constitution of the United States it is
perfectly well known that there is no such
thing as "goli and silver, the money of
the constitution" No doubt good many
school children wonder where Senators
and other supposedly great sta tesmen got
their information when they descant so
learnedly upon the "gold and silver" of
the constitution. for nowhere in the docu-
ment that is in the hands of the public is
anything of the kind to be found. Not
very great while ago member OF Con-
gress offered to bet something worth while
that not 20 per cent of the members in re-
cent years had ever read the constitution
and that not 10 per cent would know if it
were being quoted correctly or not. But
however that may be it is apparent that
Chicago is just now entertaining good
many alleged economists and statesmen
who are ignorant of what the constitution
really provides for concerning money.
The only reference in the constitution
to the power of the Government to issue
money is in section of article I, which
says ''the Congress shall have power to
coin money, regulate the value thereof
and of foreign coin" 1t appears that the
trainers of the instrument were suspicious
that some State might conclude to go
into the money-manufacturing business,
and TO prevent anything of that sort Sec
tion 10 was made to say that mo State
shall make anything but gold and silver
coin = tender in the payment of debts"
Thus it will be seen the constitution does
not name what material money shall be
COMPOSED OF, only that it shall be some
thing that can be coined. The constitu-
ton leaves the question of what metal
shall be used to coin into money entirely
with Congress. If this were not so the
act of 1873, which demonetized silver,
would have been unconstitutional, and
when one talks about remonetizing he ad-
mits the demonetiZation was constitu-
tional, else there would be nothing to re-
monetiZe.
1t is very clear that the States were re-
stricted to gold and silver as legal tender
money to prevent them from issuing fiat
paper money, but it must be remembered
that the constitution does not oblige Con-
gress 20 conform TO the decree concerning
the States. 1t will be observed also that
the Government, in reserving to itself the
sole right to coin money, obliges the States
to accept its coins for tender in payment
OF debts only when they are gold or silver
coins. No doubt the trainers of the con-
stitution had in mind the possibility of
conditions which Congress should be left
free to meet, and hence they left the whole
question of what metal or metals should
be coined with Congress, to be determined
from time to time as occasion might re-
qulre. 1t follows. therefore, that the ques-
ton of what shall ana what shall not be
coined into money is a matter of policy
and not of principle, and that the consti-
tuition has nothing whatever to do with it
except to see that the power is not Iaken
| away from Congress "to coin money, reg
ulare the value thereof and of foreign
coins"