The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-14
MONETARY CONFERENCE
VARIOUS PHASES OF THE FINANCIAL
QUESTION DISCUSSED.
Papers and Speeches by Edward At
kinsOn, HOratiO White, II. p. Rob-
insOn, L. II. Enrich and Others.

explanation and welcome read a paper by
Edward Atkinson on THE Inherent Vice
of Legal Tender" the author being unable
| TO attend the conference. Mr. Atkinson
| dealt with the question of legal tender say
ing good money needs no act of legal ten
der. Only bad money calls for an act of
force or legal tender to make people take
it whether they want it or not He held
that the so-called free-coinage act proposed
in 1898 was nothing but pretext Coinage
consists in the manufacture of round discs
of metal certified in weight and quality by
the stamp of the government That ex-
hausts the word. Free coinage could be adj
mitted of gold, silver, copper or nickel if
that were the end of the matter. The vice
of the free-coinage policy is hidden under
the name of legal tender. Legal-tender acts
were born in fraud and have been nursed
in corruption ever since. That, is the record
from the dawn of financial history to the
present day. All legal-tender acts or de-
crees. with the exception of those relating
to subsidiary coin. have been intended for
one of two purposes They have either been
the acts or DEGREES OF absolute rulers or
despotic governments for the purpose of
cheating their people and defrauding them
of their earnings or else they have been the
acts for the collection of "a forced loan in
the conduct of the war, like our legal-ten-
der acts of 1S61-62 or else for the collection
under the Bland and Sherman acts. which
is now resting in noxious deSuetude in the
vaults of the treasury of the United States.
MONEY IN EARLY AGES.
Money is necessary to the conduct of
commerce. Commerce is the exchange of
products or services for mutual benefit.
Who invented money? No one knows. All
exchanges must first have been in the ma
ture of barter. When men met. each of
xryhn bod hin to Vxyhi ch 10
other did not want at that time, money
came into use. 1t is one of the great in
ventions of the world, corresponding to abe
wheel, the making of fire, the spinning of
cord. The oldest records of commerce are
those of the Assyrians, Babylonians and
Egyptians. They were engaged in a great
commerce. They used different kinds Of
money. Money made of gold and money
made of silver both metals passing by
weight. They also used oxen. sheep and
other cattle. Less advanced nations have
used shells, leather. skins. stock, nsh and
many other articles: always something of
constant demand, either for ornament or
for use Money was invented to meet the
necessities of trade before there was any
law or legislation in the sense in which
these words are used. 1t came into use by
custom and out of customs originated de-
crees ordinances and laws. BY and by
laws were perverted under acts of legal
tender to cheat the masses of the people.
Coinage was invented long after money
had done it's work. nuggets of gold and sill
yer passing by weight The names of all
the early coins are names of weights EV-
cry contract to sell or deliver goods was a
barter of coin passing by weight. Every
contract for the purchase of goods was a
barter of coin passing by weight for a
measured quantity of goods. We shall never
solve the difficulties and confusion of our
coinage and our currency until we come
back to this true conception or a douDie
barter of one thing for another; goods for
coin; coin for goods; credit money con-
vertible into coin by weight serving It's
The whole international commerce of the
globe is conducted in that way by the
weight measure of a pound sterling. There
is no lawful coin known as pound sterl-
ing. We bartered American cotton, wheat
and other products of our farms last year
for eight hundred million dollars ($SO0,UOO-
Oc0) worth of gold coin measured by weight
in pounds sterling. If any farmers are fools
enough to want silver money, cattle
money, or skin money, they can get it; sill
Yer in Asia cattle money in Africa, fur or
skin money in Nova Zembia. The free coin
age of silver Of full legal tender is almost
grotesque in it's folly and audacity asking
farmers in the great Mississippi valley,
eighty 500 per cent. of whom are free of
any mortgage whatever and are thus the
creditors of the world, to give their prin-
cipal customers in Great Britain the power
to force British silver costing twenty-five
(25) cents an ounce or less upon them under
act of legal tender at one dollar and
twenty-nine and half cents ($l.2so) an
ounce, or 16 to J.. The force or folly could
go no further
Mr.. Atkinson next dealt with the history
of coinage and then said THE advocates of
free silver, bimetalsm and greenbacks are
alike misled by the fallacy that all money
is the creation of law and that it is law that
gives it monetary force. They have never
incapable of dealing with the great acts of
commerce. They substitute theories and fall
lacies which have been exposed over and
over again in the history of the world and
which have brought disaster whenever and
wherever adopted.
Mr.. Atkinson closed as follows: 1.-The vice
of lpaal tender is that IT derives n
their right to free contract; that ii en-
forces fraud upon an unwilling or ignorant
community whether its members desire to
cheat each other or not. it is a bar to the
integrity of nation and to the people alike
The sincerity of its promoters can only be
justified at the expense of their repute for
common sense
EDITOR WHITES SPEECH.
There was no debate on Mr.. Atkinson's
speech, and Editor Horace White, of the
New York Evening Post opened the con-
ference proper with a paper on 1.-The His
tory of the Gold Standard" Mr.. White
said that he had treated the history of the
gold standard at the worlds congress of
bankers and financers at Chicago in 1893
bringing it down to that date He should
not repeat what he said then. MIR. White
thought that a more interesting subject for
discussion would be found in the present
phase OF the currency question. That oues-
ton was greenbacks VS.. bank notes What
was a greenback? 1t says 1.-The United
States will pay the bearer one dollar" The
Supreme Court has decided that a dollar is
a piece of metal of a certain weight and
nneness. Accordingly, the value of the
governments promise to pay this thing on
demand. If the government lacks either the
means or the inclination to fulfill this
promise its credit is impaired. all business
which depends upon its credit is disturbed
and the greenback fails of it's first and chief
attribute, that. of an honest and safe
medium of exchange. Mr. White then
Sketched the several commissions of credit
that took place between the years 1893 and
1896 all growing out OF doubts whether the
government could, if it would or would if
II could, continue to redeem it's legal-ten-
der notes on presentation. The various
bond issues made for this purpose amounts
ed to $252OOOOOO. 1t was due to rood luck
rather than to design that the promise of
redemption of the greenback was kept dur
ing those years. 1t was good luck that We
had an administration which was deter
mined to use all its powers to that end. 1t
was good luck that there were laws al
ready on the statute book which could be
used for that purpose, because the Congress
then III session refused to enact al.y. In
snort, IT depends upon politics whether the
greenback shall be rede emed not. One
political party is opposed to redemption in
gold. A third party is opposed to redemp-
ton in anything. The members of both
these parties are honest. Nobody doubts
that, but by threatening to prevent the
demption of the gTeenback in gold, or per-
haps in anything they keep trade and in
dustry in hot water.
Mr. White showed that the amount OF
new bonds issued in the two years 1896
and the interest on them to their maturity
was greater by $3.50. 900 than the saving
of interest on the greenbacks from 1879. the