Southwest-sentinel. [volume] (Silver City, N.M.) 1883-189?, 1896-03-17
A U ARGUMENT.

two inventions of mankind are
necessary-language and money
The inconvenience of barter drove
man to seek and TO find a more
satisfactory way of trading; hence
money. And what is money
Anything that can be used as q
medium of exchange, as a circu.
lating medium, as a measure OF
values, is money. Money is any
thing with which human labor
and its products can be compared;
a common denominator to which
all values can be reduced.
At the earliest dawn of history
we found man in possession Of
and using money, and, wherever
possible, such money was made of
gold and silver. While spoken
language must be one Of mans
oldest inventions yet money was
used before the word was written.
When Alexander the Great over
threw the Persian empire he found
at Babylon and Persepolis what
would make, of our money, nearly
two hundred millions of dollars
in silver and gold. When Christ
was betrayed the traitor was given
thirty pieces of silver, and in the
darkest hour of the American
revolution, believing himself
wronged, Benedict Arnold sold
himself and his country for ten
thousand pounds in British gold.
During the whole historic period
of man, silver and gold have been
money. True, in times of scarcity
of either or both metals, other
substances have been used as sup
plements or substitutes. In the
days of Homer, brass coins were
circulated in ancient Greece,
while the laws of Lycurgus, at
Sparta, made money of iron. At
Carthage, leather was used as
money; at Rome, at different
times, tin, brass and copper circu-
lated as legal tender. Even in
our own country an early law of
Massachusetts Bay Colony made
corn legal tender and musket balls
we're used for small change; in
Virginia and Maryland the circu-
lating medium was tobacco. The
first negro slaves were bought in
Virginia with tobacco. And near
ly every nation on earth today,
has, at some time IN its history,
made paper serve az money. Thus
from the most ancient times silver
and gold have been money, and
never, till the present century,
was ever heard u human voice
raised against the use Of either.
But eighty years ago, in 1916,
while still upon a paper basis aud
with neither silver or gold IN gen.
eral circulation-both in reality
at a premium-Great Britain
passed a law against the future
coinage Of silver and also denying
it's legal tender power. Why?
Why was that law passed? Let
all honest seekers after truth stop
and ask the question why was sill
yer demonetized in England in
1916. Silver had defended Eng
land in the days Of Queen Eliza
beth against the Spanish Armada,
silver had aided in the overthrow
of Napoleon, and now at the close
of the greatest struggle ever
waged by Britain silver is demon
etized. Again / repeat the ques-
ton: why was it. Whether It
was done secretly or not 1 am not
aware; whether it was ably de-
bated in the House of Commons
no goldite tells us; and whether
any of the arguments then used
against silver are being repeated
by American monometalists /
know not And while there are
objections to the reconciliation
of silver now-because Of the diff
ference between the coinage and
commercial ratios of silver and
gold-which did not exist then,
yet the American people who are
asked 10 follow England's policy
in money matters are never told
why she FIRST declared wal upon
silver, But Notwithstanding the
silence Of the gold standard advo-