The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-03-31
HONEST MONEY.
CONTINUED from sixth Page.)


wants of men have compelled such re-
hnements in the quality, bulk and con-
venience OF the instrument of exchange
that the rarer metals We're more ac-
ceptable for the purpose, some oonven-
tional unit of quantity and some uni
versally satisfactory mode OF It's certif-
cation had to be found; and out of this
necessity grew the various denomina-
lions of money, which are measures Of
the quantity of the property contained
in such units, and also the coinage
laws by which the quality and quanti-
ty OF the property so used is officially
aseertained and certified for the safety
OF those villa would exchange their
property therefor. This does away
with the inconvenient scales and tests
of the ancient merchant, and allows
actual quantity to be accurately ascer-
tainted by mere count of unworn pieces.
Coinage and Value.
1t ought to be a mere truism to say
that coinage does not and cannot affect
value; that 1t simply certities the quail
ity and quantity of certain piece or
property, for the information and con-
venience OF that world of trade whose
use and mutual agreement alone estab-
fishes the value of the property so GER
titled. Coinage does not make copper
silver nor silver gold, nor does 1t make
two grains of one, nor affect in the
least degree the rate of their exchange
for each other in the open market
To facilitate the settlement of con-
tracts and disputes arising from them,
the adjustment of damages and penal
ties, and the avoidance of litigation,
legal tender laws are passed. by which
a creditor is compelled to receive some
specified kind of property in satisfac-
ton of his claim and to discharge his
debtor therefrom And as all other
property is valued in the terms of that
property used as money, and all con-
tracts referring to value sound in mon
ey therefore the form of property used
as money is by far the most convenient,
certainly attainable, and reasonable
sort to be used for such a tender And
to this theory all enlightened legisla-
ton conforms.
In these days when not only there are
not wanting those who question all the
fundamental verities, but those who
build parties on their denial it is prop
er to remind you that legal tender laws
vide kind of property which, being
rendered by a debtor in a quantity
equal to his ascertained debt, relieves
him of any further liability. II they
declare that an ounce of copper shall
discharge a debt due for an ounce of
gold, they do not make the ounce of
copper worth an ounce of gold; they
simply rob the creditor of an ounce of
gold Each respective ounce will ex-
change for precisely the same quantity
of other goods as before.
Money was not invented to pay debts
with, but to buy other property, and
must, therefore, be property itself Its
legal debt-paying function is a purely
artificial and conventional incident Of
its original and perpetual use, and
comes late in its history And when
any form of it has lost in any degree
it's purchasing power, the law cannot
compel it's use for the payment of debts
except as it robs one man for the bene-
fit of another.
When the coinage ratio of sixteen to
one was adopted, it was as nearly as
possible the actual market ratio of sill
Yer to gold. The two metals We're thus
treated as nearly alike as possible. In
one had to take to the mint 900 worth
of silver. But with free coinage at
sixteen to one, with the present market
price Of silver and unlimited legal ten
der, can take $500 worth Of other prop
erty, go into the market and buy $500
worth of silver bullion, take it to the
mint have It coined into one thousand
silver dollar pieces and compel you to
accept them in discharge of my pre-
viousIy incurred debt to you for 81 900
worth of gold or of any other equally
valuable property which you had let
me have in exchange for an equally
valuable amount of property prom
Used to be delivered to you at future
time. But do not expect to recoup
yourself by taking that same $500 worth
of silver in the one thousand pieces and
going into the market with it and buy
ing 81 900 worth of other property with
it, just because the law enabled me to
compel you to take it, for the 81 900
worth of some sort of property which
you had let me have, on the faith or
promise of getting another $1,000 worth
in return. If it be otherwise, if a. legal
tender act can make fifty cents worth
of silver as valuable in the market as
one hundred cents worth OF gold, it
can work the same change in ten cents
worth of silver or a cents worth Of
pewter The value of the bullion, the
property itself, is then no longer an
element in the question of the alue of a
siler dollar or of any other dollar; and
the question of the relate production
the question of the relative production
any other metal is wiped out, Let us
all get a few numbered weight of iron,
pass a law requiring only a few grains
of it in a dollar of full legal tender
quality. with free coinage, and be rich.
International Agreement
But, say others, while no single ma
ton can by a legal tender law make a
money buy more in the market than it
is worth as property, an agreement
among the nations having commercial
relations to make deprecated silver
full legal tender, at an universally uni
form ratio, would put it on a par with
gold in the markets of the world. Then
would fifty cents worth of silver,
coined in dollar piece, buy hundred
cents worth of gold or of any other
property.
Note the answer: Such an agreement
and it's accompanying legislation would
4, ay,6 m