The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1896-10-15
~ AIKEN & scHmAHL.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER Is, 1896.

FEBRUARY IL, 1873, which contained the
4l2R grain dollar, | will give $500. In
| because the 4121a grain dollar never
was in the bill or any form of it. 1t
could not, therefore, have been dropped
out surreptitiously or otherwise; and,
therefore, there was no 'crime of '13.''
| .., The question is sometimes asked,
| ny was the dollar omitted from the
original billy The answer is plain.
| 1t had not been coined for the purpose
OF OF clrculatlon for nearly forty years.
| he few dollars which had been coined
after 1854 were coined simply for the
| purpose of sale. Mr.. Hooper, who had
charge, of he bill told, in a speech de-
liyered on the bill Asri 8. 1872. why its
| coinage was stopped. He said
| 1.-The silver dollar of 4121b grains. by
reason of its bullion or intrinsic value
| beng greater than its nominal value
| long since ceased to be a coin of circula-
ton: and is melted by manufacturers
| or sllVerWare 1t does not circulate now
| III commercial transactions with any
| country, and the convenience of these
! manufacturers i'll this respect can better
be met by supplying small stamped bars,
| OF the same Standard avoiding the use
| less expense of coming the dollar for
| that purpose"
The only legitimate purpose of coming
a. metal is to have it circulate as money.
| The silver dollar was not thus circulated.
put the mint was being made use of for
silver to sell. Hence, as Mr. Hooper
sald, it was better to stamp bars for
them, if need be, and thus save the use
less expense of coming the silver dol
| lars.
The Act of 1878
During the five years between 1873
and 1878 the silver dollar of 4121a grains
was not coined at the United States
mnts. But the coinage of silver was
np0hIhjtpl ,,;I,
yerted into the form of money in those
five years than during any preceding
twenty-five years of our cOuntryS his
tory. Nor was this the first time that
the coinage of the 4121@-grain dollar was
prohibited. BY the orders of Presidents
Jefferson, Madison. Monroe. Adams,
Jackson and Van Buren, the 4121b-grain
| dollar was completely barred from coin
age from 1905 to 1910. except that in
the year 1886 one thousand were coined,
and III 1889 three hundred were coined
The coinage of the 412l3-grain dollar
was resumed in 1873. since which time
more than 43O,O00,OOO of them have
| been coined, every one of which has full
| legal tender. If silver was dcmonctized
| IN 1875, 1t was certainly demOnrtiZed in
| 1913. Strictly speaking. however. sill
| yer has never been demOnetiZcd. The
| coinage of it is now done on government
| account, instead of as formerly on pr-
vate account. But -four made at a mcr-
chant mill is just as valuable for food
as flour made i'll Il custom MILL and sill
| yer coined on government account is
just as cffectual for the purposes of
trade as that coined on private account.
Free Coinage will Contract the Currency.
To open our minis now to the coinage
or silver with gold on private account
at the ratio Of IL to l, when the market
ratio IS about 81 to |, would be but to
repeat the experiment of the early part
! OF the century. Its result now. as then,
would be to drive gold out of circulation,
| to bring us 20 Il silver basis. and leave
us with only silver tor paper based on
| SllVcr) for use as money. This would not
! be bimetallism, but the worst kind of
! recommendation. 1t would not be to cX-
| pand our currency, but to contract it.
Its result would be to give to the silver
producers monopoly of furnishing our
metal money. This is probably what
they want. But the American people are
not fond of monopolies and will not yield
| to their desires.
! Our present contention, therefore, is
| not between gold on the one hand and sill
yer on the other: it is between gold and
SILVER on the one hand, and silver alone on
! the other.
Government Fiat Does Not Give Value.
There are those who contend that it
is the stamp of the government that
| makes money and gives it its value NCi-
ther OF these propositions is true.
Metals were used rs money long be-
fore they were coined. One of the old
est business transactions on record is
that described in Genesis xiii, 16,
when Abraham bought from Ephron II
| burial place for Sarah. The transact
| ton is thus recorded: "And Abraham
weighed to Ephron the silver "
400 shckels Of silver, current money
with the merchants This transaction
emphasizes two great truths. They were
truths then and will always continue to
be. 1t is to be noted in the first place
the Abraham "weigned' the silver; that
| is. its value depended upon its quantity.
There was no coinage at that time. But
| in that same connection we are assured
that it was "current money with the
merchant.' It's value was determined
| by the laws of trade then, and it is thus
| determined now.
| This reminds us, too, that trade came
| before trust; that money was used to
buy with long before it was used to
pay debts with. And its buying function
is today by far the most important func-
ton. Simply the clearings of the one
| city of New York alone far exceed in
volume each year the widest estimate
as to the total Indebtedness of all kinds
now in existence in the whole country
| The clearings of New York average
| more than S6OO,OOO.OOO a week. or more
| than S3O,O0O,OO0,0 900 year. And these
| clearlngs do not represent the volume
| of business transacted, even of that
transacted through the banks. They
represent simply the settlement of bal
anccs.
Metal used for money formerly passed
from hand TO hand by weight and the
tineness of the metal had to be tested
in each transaction. Inasmucll as only
a few people had the skill to do this
testing, the many were at the mercy of
the few. In self-defense the people be-
gan to look around to see if there was
not someone whom they all knew and
whom they all could trust whom they
could authorize to cut the metals into
pieces of convenient size and of uniform
tineness, and who should stamp upon
the side of each piece it's weight ana
purity. Looking around they found such
a person in their ruling prince, and to
him they gave this authority. 1t has
remained one of the functions of govern
ment from that day to this to coin
money, that is to certify it's weight and
fneness. The value of the coins, their
eXchangeable power, is determined by
overrule the laws of any Legislative body,
| upon DEGREES of the Great Lawmaker.
| The Silver Dollar Would be Reduced in
| Value.
I ask your attention now to another
| great coinage principle, viz: that with
| "free and unlimited coinage on private
account the value of coin is exactly
| equal to the value of the metal in the
| coin.
Do not let us misunderstood each 9TH
1