The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1896-08-28
No money they do not want than IL can Induce

place of silver Is as change money. It is indis-
pensable for that purpose and unsuited to any
| other and all the silver tongued orators in the
land cannot change this fact. The 81, $3.50 and
50 goldpieces were too small and were unpop-
ular as change money, and the government
stopped the coinage Of them.
On the other hand, silver Is not a debt pay
ing money in any considerable amount, nor
| the money of commerce, for the reason that it
is too bulky and too heavy. When man gets
over So or $40 of it, he unloads on the first
bank he comes to, and the bank unloads on
the treasury. Thus the circulation of it is linn
tied to just what the people will use. When
the people get enough of thing, they know
1t, and you cannot argue with them about it.
They are gullible on theories, but intensely
| practical in business.
''The Great Crime of 1873"
We have heard great deal about demoneti-
| cation of silver. Let us see the extent Of ''the
great crime of 1879" In 1858. in order to pre-
vent the subsidiary coin from going abroad,
the silver half dollar was reduced in weight
from 2O6A to 1872 grains and the quarters, dimes
| and B cent pieces were reduced in the same
proportion. These coins were then made a
legal tender for only S. in amount, and the
coinage of them for private account was stop
! ped, but the government purchased the silver
bullion and coined them as they were needed.
SO, no crime was committed in 1878 against
! the halves, quarters, dimes and half dimes.
| That crime was committed under Willard Fill
more. In 1879 these coins were made legal ten
der for sums not exceeding $40.
In 1873 the standard silver dollar of 41215
grains was left out of the coinage act and the
trade dollar of APO grains was substituted for
1t. This was done at the request of the Pacific
slope, to enable our dollar to compete with
the Mexican dollar of about that weight, in
China and Japan. The standard dollar was
not legal tender from Feb. r. 1878, to Feb
2S, lS7S at which time its recoinage was provid-
ed for, and it was reinstated legal tender
for all debts, in whatever amount. But IS, OOO-
600 of this 'daddy dollar" was coined prior to
1873. out of a total coinage of $1,000, 600, 900.
Jefferson stopped the coinage of it in 1905 and
for 30 years not one of them was coined, and
the daddies never complained. They did not
have sense enough to see that jefferson had
sold out to Lombard street, These dollars
were not in fact legal tenders prior to 1878,
because the people did not tender them in pay
ment of debts nor in purchase Of goods. They
had not been in circulation since Andrew
jackson was president, and hardly any middle
aged man1ha ever seen .one of them. Tha.Dea-
pie had demonettZed them by melting them
down or by sending them abroad for that
purpose, and to this good day they have never
been demonetized in any other way.
The act of 1873 simply recognized what the
people had done and for five years continued
the policy that the people had been pursuing
for nearly half a century. The legal tender
faculty of this dollar was restored to it II
years ago. The government has $3.50, COO, eco
OF it on hand now, and has stood ready at all
times to furnish it to anybody who wanted it,
This is the biography Of the decentralization
mouse that has been evolved from a mountain
OF denunciation. The poor little thing never
lived but five brief years and has been as dead
as door nail for II years. While it lived it
was SO harmless the people paid no attention
to it, Shakespeare says, ''The evil that men
do lives after them" But it is even worse in
the case Of this mouse. The evil that it did
not do lives after it in the shape of grasping
mine owners, two ply editors and unscrupu-
lous politicians.
Thriving on Assassination.
We are told that the standard dollar is not
primary money. 1t is not promise to pay,
it is a legal tender for all debts, and it does
not have to be redeemed in anything on the
face of the earth. If any man can give bet
ter definition of primary money than this,
would like to see it.
This government is the fast friend of silver
money and OF the people who use it, rather
than of the American and English corpora
tions who mine silver and would coin it at a
fictitious valuation. Prior to 1878 this govern
ment coined S144, 100000 Of silver; since then,
S537, 600, 600. In Il years, under a gold stand
ard nearly four times as much silver was
coined as in 81 years under the so called dou-
BILE standard. A certain kind lady always
chloroformed her child when she whipped it.
Miss Silver was assassinated in 1873, at time
when there was almost none of her in circula
tion, and since that fateful day she has thrived
on assassination and has grown from a living
skeleton /, be the fat woman in the circus
In conteh plating her brilliant post mortem
career I am constrained, with the apostle, to
exclaim: sob, death, where is thy stingp Oh
grave, where is thy victoryP''
After 1873 this country prospered as no 9TH
er ever did for 10 years, and we are asked to
believe that it took this wide awake nation 10
years to find out that it was ruined by the
legislation of 1878. The negroes in some Sec
lions believe in a hoodoo charm, which is
harmless for year and then suddenly devel-
ops insanity, fits, etc. The crime Of 1873
seems to have worked in a hoodoo way.
The Egg Argument.
The 16 to people tell us that the coinage Of sill
yer will create unlimited demand for it, They
decline to give us the howness or the wherefore
ness of this new born demand. but with child
like faith they expect it to rise in all its beau
ty as the tabled Venus rose from the froth of
the sea. They say the demand will come !:
SO the Seventh Day Adventists tell us the end
will come, and if their picnic comes off first
they will not need silver: the demand will be
for free and unlimited water They contend
if this government takes all the silver that
comes at 16 to l, silver will be worth par all
over the world, and they use an egg argu-
ment to prove 1t. They say, if merchant
advertises that he will pay 25 cents per dozen
for eggs, so long as he has the ability to take
all that come, eggs will be worth 25 cents in
all that country. But suppose the merchant
did not take theml Suppose when a farmer
drove up to his store the merchant said unto
him: "My friend, you have misunderstood
me. am not buying eggs. I am simply count
ing them, certifying that they are good and
handing them back to you What would eggs
then be WORTH The same old 10 or Is cents
per dozen.
Under unlimited coinage the government
would not buy silver or guarantee the value
Of the coins. 1t would stamp it 'without re-
course" Silver would come from every coun-
try in the world and the government would
be fool to undertake to guarantee the value
of the coins by trying to preserve the parity
between the metals. If herder drove lot
of COW ponies through the mint and they were
branded $500 horse" and delivered to the
owner at the other end of the building, it
would not improve the breed of the ponies
nor create q wild demand for them at the
brand price.
Our government has lost $500, 600, 600 trying
to create demand for silver, for the sole and
separate use, behoof and benefit of the silver
mine owner. by buying it when it did not
want it and had no need Of it, and the silver
mining "villain still pursues" It'll Uncle Sam
has this silver on hand now. 1t would load
two horse wagon train 173 miles long, putting