Daily public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1892-191?, 1896-10-10


counterfeiting. Every student of English his
tory knows that it was once so common and
serious an evil as to demand the severest
measures for its repression, so that 1t was
treated as a capital offense, being such an en-.
croachment upon the prerogative of the
crown as TO smack of veritable treason. Any
alteration in the legal standard of value which
has the effect to depreciate the Mint valuation
of the coin of the realm is. on the part OF the
crown. the equivalent of clipping by private
persons. Against this folly Locke inveighs
with a restrained power of logic almost
amounting to intellectual passion. Nearly all
that he says about 1t Is susceptible of direct
application to existing conditions in the United
States and to the financial controversy which
will decide the Presidential election next
month.
| Locke was not bimetallist nor a believer in
| the so-called double standard" as appears
| from his remark that "silver, and silver alone,
Is the measure of commerce." There was
then little gold in the world. and silver was far
less plentiful than nowO 1.-TWO metals, as
gold and silver, cannot be the measure of
commerce both together in any country; be-
cause the measure Of commerce must be per-
petually the same, invariable. and keeping
the same proportion in all its.parts. But so only
one metal does, or can do to itself; so silver is
TO silver aud gold to gold. An ounce of silver
is always of equal value TO an ounce of silver
and an ounce of gold to an ounce of gold, and
two ounces of the one or the other of double
the value to an ounce of the same. But gold
and silver change their value one TO another;
and one may as well make measure V. z. a
yard, whose parts lengthen and shrink, as a
measure of trade of materials that have not
always a settled, invariable value TO one an.
other" He, therefore, desired that silver
might alone be recognized as the legal stand
ard of valuation and gold be treated as a COM
modify. But he cautioned his readers that
1.-THE value of silver, considered as money and
the measure of commerce, is nothing but its
quantity"
Nobody" he thinks, "can be so senseless as
to imagine that 10 grains or ounces of silver
shall at the same time exchange for, or buy,
| as much corn, oil or wine as 20, which is TO
raise IL to the value of 20" The Just effect,
he tells us, of ''raising" silver by one-twentieth
mot one-half, as is proposed in the Chicago
platform-will be to rob all creditors of one
twentieth OF their debts, and all landlords of
one-twentieth of their quitrents forever"
The second will be that "men will presently
raise their commodities per cent, so that If
yesterday 20 crowns would exchange for 20
bushels of wheat, or 20 yards of a certain sort
of cloth, If you will today coin current crowns
one.twentieth lighter, and make them the
standard, you will find 20 crowns will ex-
change for but 10 bushels of wheat. or 10
yards of that cloth, wnich will be just as
much silver for a bushel as yesterday" Sill.
yer will be "of no more real value by your
giving the same denomination to less guam
iity of it," 1t is impossible TO state this prin-
ciple more clearly than Locke states it in the
words: $50 much as you lessen your coin, so
much more you must pay in tale, as will make
the quantity of silver the merchant expects
for his commodity under what denomination
soever be receives III" and again. "If you
make your money less in weight, it must be
made up in tae;" that is, in the number of
pieces paid out. The raising" of money 'is
in effect nothing but giving denomination of
more pence to the same quantity OF silver,
whether you call the piece coined twelve
pence, or ffteen.pence, or sixty.pence, or
seventy-1ve, "A crown or Il sceptre, II will
buy no more silk salt or bread than it would
before. 1t is silver by its quantity and not
denomination. that is the price of things"
Locke meets the familiar objection 10 this
self-evident truth. that clipped coin is ac'
cepted, in many transactions, at its face
valuation, by observing that "clipped and
unolpped money will always buy an equal
quantity OF anything else, as long as they
will without scruple change one for another"
1t Is "all one to the seller, whether he receives
his money in clipped money or no, so it be but
current" But "if the quantity of your
clipped coin be once grown so great that the
foreign merchant cannot-if he has a mind to
it-easily get weight money for 1t, he will, in
selling his goods, either contract to be paid in
weight money, or else raise the price Of his
commodity, according to the diminish, guam
tity of silver In your current COIN" The APP
plcation OF this remark TO a silver dollar not
worth it's face in gold is obvious. The Gov
eminent can float Il lin ted, but not an UNI
limited. number OF such dollars.
Locke moreover distinctly perceives and en- |
phasizes the difference between past and fu- |
ture contracts. "In contracts already made. II |
your species"-con or specie-"be by law coin |
ed fifth part lighter, under the same denomi- |
nation, the creditor must take hundred such |
light shillings, or twenty such light crown |
pieces for rs. IL the law calls them so, but he |
loses one-tifth in the intrinsic value OF his |
debt But, In bargains to be made and things |
to be purchased, money has, and always will |
have, it's value from the quantity of silver in |
IT, and not from the stamp and denomination"
Finally. upon the great question OF the |
morality OF raising the nominal value OF coin, |
this honest aud Independent thinker remarks;
at will rob all creditors of one-twenteth-or |
per cent.-of their debts, and all landlords |
one.twentleth of their quitrents forever;
and in all other rents, as far as their former |
contracts read of per cent. OF their yearly |
income, aud this without any advantage to |
the debtor or farmer. For he, receiving no |
more pounds sterling for his land or commo.
dities In this new lighter coin than he should |
have done OF your old and weghtier money,
gets nothing by L.. II you say yes, no will 70.
oeve more crowns, half'orowns and shilling
pieces for what he now sells for new money
than he should have done II the money
OF the old standard had continued; you con.
foss your money IL not raised Ia value, but In
denomination, since your now pieces want In
weight must now boo made up IN number,
"nhis IA M fiFst sight visible that In all nay.