The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1896-08-14
Selrrt MisrrIlauy.
AN HONEST DOLLAR
WHAT IS IT?
BY W. Il. FLEMING.

The fist answer to the question.
What is an honest dollar?' is that it
is the dollar prescribed by law. All
owe obedience to the laws of their
country and are bound not only to
trade on the basis of the legal
standard, but they are conclusivelv
presumed to contract with reference
thereto. All obligations to pay money
are therefore fully met when paid in
lawful money. The Constitution of
the United States makes it the duty
of Congress ''to coin money and regu-
late the value thereof" This means
that Congress may coin and continue
to coin gold and silver and fix the ra-
ito between the two metals. In 1895
Congress passed an act ordaining the
dollar as the unit or value, and pre-
scribing that 24.75 grains of fine gold
should be dollar. and that 81 ! grains
of fine silver should he a dollar, and
provided that the mint should be open
to free coinage of gold and silver, and
that the said coins should he equally
legal tender for all debts. public and
private. This right of free coinage
had come down to our fathers from the
common law of England, and was i'm
bcdded in the Constitution and the
early acts of Congress, and was the
law of the land until 1873. In 1884
the gold in the gold dollar was fixed
at 26.S standard or 23.2 fine gold. thus
changing the ratio from IL to | to l6
to l. 1873, ''by ways that are dark"
silver dollars were dropped from the
right of free coinage. In 1873 Con-
gress declared that 1.-THE bonds of the
United States are payable in silver
dollars containing 4l2aa grains ofstand
arl silver l6 to ~, and that to re-
store to its coinage such silver coins as
legal tender in payment of said bonds
is not in violation of the public faith
nor in derogation of the rights of the
public creditor" Under these laws
our people have traded and paid debts
and by them they are all bound. The
debtor has therefore the moral as well
as the legal right to settle debts in
standard silver dollars. unless. as per-
mitted by the Bland act, he has ex-
pressly parted with the right by con-
tracing to pay in gold. No code of
ethics. no moral law, no sound moralist
nor any tribunal, human or divine,
teaches or has ever taught that settle
ment of debts in accordance with the
law of the contra ct is "diShonest" or
is 'repudation." 1t follows, therefore
that with us our standard silver dollar.
coined on the ratio of l6 to with gold
is as honest as gold dollar
The second answer to the question is
that, considered independently of the
laws and contracts existing at the time
of the creation OF the debts. the ideal
honest dollar is the dollar which CON
forms to that standard Of value which
is the least changing. i. e.. the most
stable in value The relative merits
of the gold or silver orbimetalic stan
dards must depend, then, upon this
test. In making the test. to avoid
confusion of ideals. it is necessary to
have a clear idea of the term value
Value in economics does not mean a
quality or property in the thing itself.
but is a relation, an estimate by com
parison with other things. The value
Of money is its use i'm exchange. It's