Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1896-10-01
5ALWIIMING TON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1896.

perity of the country corresponding 10
those caused by the continental currency,
We have stopped In time. The evil will
not eliminate in such final disaster as II
did in the revolutionary period.
Yet in spite OF this lesson, after the
war of the revolution ended the loosely
bound States Of the cpnfederncy, resist
ing taxation, entered MS States again upon
the evil course of legal tender paper money
with few exceptions. Again the curse of
bad money nearly ruined the confederate
States of America, and it was not until
the enactment of the Constitution, OF the
United Suites forbidding such wrongs that
our monetary system was placed upon n
safe basis. E5a't
A national act of legal tender was not
again resortcd to until the assumed neccs-
sity of war brought about the passage of
the legal tender acts of 1851 and 1862.
Again It can be said of these acts that If
they saved the State they cost the coun-
try untold smillions and brought about
conditions Of disrepute which need not
here be recited. On the closest, estimate
that | have been able to make published
in Harper's Weekly, October ~, 1905. II
computation has been submitted. In seven
years attribute to the legal tender nets
| of 1861 and 1862 penalty of one thous-
and million dollars Isl 900, 000,000) in
crease in the actual cost of the war itself
IA sum more than equal to the outstand-
ing debt incurred for war purposes. In
addition to that increase in the prices of
war materials the rise in prices in9excess
of the increase in the rates of wages APP
parently stands, and believe does stand
for an additional cost of living to the
masses of the people of the United States
of at least forty dollars $40 year to
\ every man, woman and child in the eoun-
| try during that period-in seven years n
contribution to profits at the cost of labor
of six billion dollars ($6,000000,0OO.
The third application of an act Of force
or legal tender is found in the Bland act
of 1878. The fourth in the Sherman
act of 1890. Under these two acts the
debt of the United States has been in
creased nearly five hundred million dol
lars $500, 000,000l and forced loan has
been collected from the people for money
expended in the purchase of silver bull
lion now lying almost useless or worse
than useless In the vaults of the
Treasury. Under these acts the force Of
law has again been exerted to compel the
people of this country to accept silver
dollars in the terms of the Bland act, Fat
their normal value" in place of their real
value.
Under the pretext of charging the COY.
ernment with the function of supplying
money for the use of the people the repre-
sentatives of the silver mining States
have thus imposed upon the country O
debt payable on demand of about five hun
dred million dollars (S500,00O, 600 against
I'll, Ill.
worth about one hundred and fifty mil
lion dollars tS150000,000) less than il
cost. The doubt of the ability of the
country to maintain the payment of that
demand debt in good money brought Oh
the panic of 1893 and all the subsequent
disasters from which we have not YET
emerged. Yet the representatives Of this
bad cause again seek to force more baG
money upon the community by force of {
legal tender act The present question
"a Legal Tender Act-What is it?v may
therefore be answered in very few
words. tTf
1t is IN. act of force by which the owner
of the silver mipes of this and other com
tries (mostly British and their retainer
are now making an effort to avail them
selves, to the end that they may compe
/ the masses of the people to take bat
money for their goods, their wages nnt
, their savings. Bad money is that coli
| which is not worth what it purports TO b.
WORTH after it has been hammered smootl
or melted. Good money is and can onl.
I be that coin which is worth as much in al
, the markets of the world as ii is purportet
, to be worth, and has been nude q legal ten
: der for, in the countries by which it 4
/ coined. Coin made of gold is the only typ
, of money that meets the testo good money
, All other coined money may be used TO
subsidiary purposes, but in order to b
true and just all such coin made of silye
or other metal must be redeemed in gol,
| ON demand in order that it may serve til
, purpose of good money.
Edward Atkinson