The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1896-02-18
n False school Book.

School books should be cor
rect, If not, scholars will be mis-
led. OF late we have taken the
trouble examine o certain book
which is being used in the pub
lie schools of Challis, we allude
to "Our Government" by Macy.
Its contents is composed of a
pack of misstatements, and it
should be kicked out of our
schools.
The Weiser Signal contains the
following article in reference to
this book
"A few extracts will show the
nature of one portion of the book:
In early times gold and silver were weighed
out in exchange. The knights of the middle
ages carried scales at their sides for the pur-
pose of weighing the silver. But silver can be
so mixed with other metals, that IT is dificult
10 determine how much there is Persons who
become skilled In assaying and mixing gold and
silver have great advantage over the rest of the
fraud il Is desirable that the government pro.
vide for assaying the metal and dividing 1t into
pieces Of uniform sizes, convenient for use.
Each piece Ia stamped TO make 1t evident that
the work has actually been done by government
officers. The object is TO adopt such q stamp
and employ such methods as will make counter
feiting dimcult.
That is from pages 147 and
148, and while not seriously OBJ
jectionable or as stiff as some, it,
to our mind, is alive with false
deduction and rests under the
shadow of goldfish. According
to it the government don't make
money out of gold or silver, its
stamp is simply certificate that
it contains certain quantity of
metal and that the government
officials have assayed it and know
it is of certain fineness. That
smooths the way for the inculca-
ton of the gold theory that
money must be of that meta,
which is of the most bullion val
ne and no legislation can add to
its value. Silver men claim
money must have certain quail
ties. The government therefore
takes these two metals, of little
worth outside of those money
qualities, makes them into Ger
tain sized coins and stamps upon
them, not a certificate of weight
not certificate of assay, but its
supreme edict this shall be ac-
cepted, for the amount designat
ed on its face, in the exchange
of all values" The language Of
the above goes quite wide of thai
very plain fact.
Page $50, under the title, ''Dif.
ficulties with the Standards -
This distress continued until 1858, when oul
lawmakers adopted device which had been
found TO work well In England. silver coins o
nffy cents and less were Intentionally made
light, so that they we're worth less than gold
and were made legal tender In small sums only
This device protects the people from the specu
lators, and secures the use OF both metals as q
medium of exchange. There is no temptation
10 melt down light silver coin. and the gov
crnment keeps the light coin at full value Ii
ny bv snr s monopoly OF she mannnG
the demands OF commerce. Under such oircum
stances these light token coins will Away
pass Mt the full gold value upon which al
prices are based. so long as gold is the actua
measure of values, there is no temptation 10
melt gold coin, because no one can buy Il
without paying the full price for IL.
This is rather a wide swath fol
a school text book to cut and fal
out of the realms of school in
struction. There is instruction
for young America that fairly
tickles the gold advocate. Schol
airs are to understand that by the
infinite wisdom of gold backing
the government is able to max,
its silver coins pass. 1t is a
present true, as it says, that al
prices are based on gold, but W.
know that is because all the sill
yer money had its constitutions
rights stolen in 1873. by furn
fishing only enough to supply th'
demands of commerce" suggest,
to the pupil that the demands O
commerce are very limited anc
that If the coinage were not wise
ly limited, money would be Xix,
dirt. fail to perform it's CONNER
cial functions, and chaos would
reign. Nature itself has Limited
the money metals considerabl,
under the demands of commerc
SO that the government canno
coin a surplus.