The Indianapolis journal., 1896-01-28

XIV, OF France, yet when he debased the
louis dor he could not prevent the decline
OF its purchasing power o, course our
government has the power TO legislate, but
10 leglslate and 10 enforce laws are two
different things. as wei as creating money
and coming money. If orr goVeraInent
would decree iron 10 be money and would
coin iron. making provision for re-
demption CT for any other money, suppose
tae unanimous opinion 's that IL would be
impossible 10 enforce such n decree.
The fact that the distinction between
money and coin Is not made has given riso
TO the erroneous idea that government can
make values, because money IS certainly
a thing OF value. ut Is a curious anomaly
that the same men who assert that govern
ments can make values, deny the Intrinsic
ment could make values IL could also make
money, but it can do neither OF course,
speak only of money, not OF money tokens.
which are redeemable in money. In scien-
tifc Investigations nicer distinctions must
he made than are made In common par
lance. That judges and lawmakers DO not
make these nice distinctions leads 10 great
Observation-Disclosures
The Constitution OF the United States
says: "The Congress shall have power 10
coin money. regulate the value thereof"
etc. Now, IL is evident that unless the
distinction between money and coin -
clearly made, the Constitution attempts TO
give TO Congress n power which is an
economic impossibility, for how can Con-
gress regulate the value or money? Con-
gress can say 2S.23 grains OF gold shall be
a dollar and IL may order the coinage OF
dollars. But what has that TO do with the
value OF IL? IL you say one is equal 10
one, you have said nothing. III you say
23.2 grains are worth a dollar. or II you
say a dollar Is worth 2S.22 grains or gold.
you have said nothing: You cannot compare
value OF money only in the quantity OF
some other commodity for which you can
exchange IL; 80. for instance, You can say
a dollar is worth two bushels OF wheat.
Now, how can the government regulate
the value or money. how can II regulate the
caSo Which I pusaes dollar M Is WORTH So II
would seem that this clause or the Consts-
tuition is without sense. But if we dis
tinguish between coin and money. IL We
keep them separate in our thoughts. the
matter is entirely different. Because Con-
gress has the power TO decree what the
value of a coin shall be IN money. IL has
the power 10 decree that the dollar com
shall be OF the value or 80 grains or
gold, but II cannot decree the value OF the
money. that is, the gold. What the franz
ers OF the Constitution meant to say was
not that Congress shall have power to reg
ulate the value OF money. but TO regulate
the size and quality OF coins, otherwise we
must presume that they meant to give TO
Congress a power impossible TO exercise.
We have heard of bankrupt governments.
The government OF the Argentine Republic
IS bankrupt; there was time when the
government OF Austria was bankrupt; that
OF Italy is not far from bankruptcy. III gov
ernments could create values, how could
a government ever become bankrupt? IL
pleases the silver men 10 talk or gold
bug conspiracy. Nothing could be more alb
surd. They cannot see that all the legisla-
tion I'm favor of gold has been brought
about by the force OF circumstances which
we may call force OF evolution. The in
stability of the value OF silver In conse-
quence OF increased and facilitated pro-
duction has robbed IL OF those qualities
which make money. IL has been reduced
to a material good only for money tokens.
and the powerlessness of governments to
impart these qualities TO any metal has
been amply shown by the fruitlessness Of
efforts government reEtOr.
them to silver. In spite of the immense
purchases OF silver, It's price fell constant
iy. Our government may coin stlve- in
economic sense, win determine its fate
as money. PHILIP RAPPAPORT.
Indianapolis, Jan. q.