The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-09-16

Yours inquiringly, w. G. M.
| st. Paul, Mimi, Sept. IA, 1896.
The question proposed by our CORE
| spondent is entirely pertinent and yet
it is one whose Importance will, we
| think, be less regarded the Elore that
! it is studied. What shall be a legal
tender?" is a very big query in the
| minds of men today, when legal tender
has been exalted unduly, and the cred
| itor wants to take the limit of his
right and the debtor to escape all that
he may. This anxious disposition to
| take advantage of the letter of the
law is q part of the evil heritage of
| legal tender acts. 1t is our opinion
| that there would be scarcely any ne
cessity for defining legal tender I'M
| der the proposed system of absolute
freedom of contract. AS to all en-
gagements that have been entered into
already, we assume, of course, that
the conditions prevailing at the time
when they were made. Debts now
owed should be paid in the money that
was legal tender when they were con-
| tracted; that is to say, on the gold
| standard. 1t would, theoretically, be
necessary to define "a dollar" for the
| future, and that definition should fit
I the conception of the dollar enter
| tanned by the entire commercial world,
which is 25.S grains Of gold nine-tenths
| fine This, we suppose, would be the
definition of what man must pay who
agrees in the future to pay so many
| dollars" without further specification
But, if the plan proposed by Mr..
Wells were adopted, if we had actual
free coinage of both metals at the
present or any other ratio, allowing
them to pass from hand to hand at
the values fixed upon them by the peo-
pie who used them, and If all the pres
ent legal tender acts were abolished,
there would be few contracts made
except in the shape of agreements to
pay specific thing at an appointed
time. Men do not today obligate them
selves to pay 1000 cattle" on a given
day without some further definition of
the term. No business man would
think of signing such a contract In
the same way, under freedom of con-
tract now interfered with by legal ten
der regulations, men would contract
to pay so many gold dollars or so
many silver dollars, or such a weight
of one metal or the other as was con-
venient 1t would lead to a careful
scrutiny on the part of borrower and
lender as to the terms of their agree
ment, and such a perfect understand
ing of it beforehand that neither could
complain later, nor could hope to use
the law to grab more or to pay less
than was originally intended.
The most important thing of all
under such system, and the one
which would knock the legal tender
idea out of sight, would be the fixing
of unit or standard for deferred pay
ments. This we regard as infinitely
more desirable than any definition of
coins or fixing of legal tender status.
All contracts to be made under such
system for period of years would
call for the payment of certain num-
Der of units, each unit of which rep
resents the purchase price at the time
of a fixed quantity of a very large
number of the staple products of in
dustry. These being calculated by
some of the systems of index numbers
now in use, we would have an end
forever to the contention that debtor
or creditor must profit by changes in
the nature of the term dollar" Such
unit being established by law would
soon take the place of the dollar alto
gether. 1t would be used for monetary
engagements on short time and for
small amounts, would probably be a
unit for the ordinary promissory note,
and would reduce the dollar from it's
proud position as master of the COM
mercial world to a mere shopkeeper's
assistant, no more important than
his yardstick. 1t is our idea,
then, that the first work should
be to define this unit for deferred pay
ments. Second, to declare that all
contracts now existing should be dis
charged according to the meaning of
their terms at the time when they were
made. Third, that the dollar hence
forth to be mere metal unit of little
Importance, except to express prices Of
contracts in small transactions. should
be defined as 25.S grains of standard
gold. Fourth, that all existing legal
tender acts should be repealed, and the
passage of any others be forever pro-
hibited. Fifth, that contracts in the
future should be payable according to
their terms, whether they called for
the multiple tender unit, or for gold or
silver, or any other commodity. Sixth.
that, where nothing was mentioned in
an agreement except the word dollar"
{ the term should be construed as al
ready defined to mean 25.8 grains of
standard gold; since, If this should
seem to involve any hardship, it would
be only proper penalty inflicted on
the man who signed an agreement to
pay dollars" knowing perfectly well
that the law said that this should
mean a given quantity of gold. If he
wanted to pay. silver or something