The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-09-14

various Phases of the Money Cues
tfOn Considered From All St..1
pol"ts-Free Silver, BimetaIIism
ana Greenback Advocates CIassad
IN the Same CategOry-GOId Dav
at Omaha Brings Out Able Paners
OMAHA, Sept. 13.-One Of the MOST
uiStlhgulshed gatherings of financial
| stouehts that ever assembled opened q
three Gays session of the monetary
conference at the Nebraska building
| eAposlllon grounds, this morning. Hon
o. 0CerHhg Morton is presiding TODAY.
horace White of New York: Edward
Alklnson, Congressman Fowler, Of New
Jersey; Editor p. H. Robinson. of the
r|alIWay age; Louis r. Enrich. of Colo
faoo springs, former Senator Carev.
OF wyoming, and Gov. Leslie H. Shaw
OF iowa, are to take part in the pro-
pramme. Mr.. Atkinson is not here
owing to illness, his paper being read
by Mr.. Morton.
Messrs. Warner, Towne. Rartine
Weaver, Reynolds and other leaders
of the silver and paper money sides
took part in the joint debate today.
Shortly after 10 O'Clock. Mr.. Nor
ton called the convention to order. and
without any unusual formality, beyond
| few words Of explanation and well
| come, said:
| "As president of the National Sound Money
| league call this assemblage TO order
gentlemen, you have been convoked for
patriotic purpose That purpose is to can
| dldly discuss the money question, with the
intention of ascertaining the best currency
for conserving the prosperity, strength and
honor Of the American republic.
| Three questions demanding your solution
| are:
! L. Is 1t the fixed legal ratios enacted be-
tween the coins which govern the relative
value of the metals in bullion? Or
q Is 1t the relative value of the metals
| in bullion which governs the relative value
| of the coins?
| "S. If no single and separate state can
maintain fixed legal ratio between the
| metals when coined in unlimited quantities,
| can an international agreement among the
principal mercantile countries of the world
| do so?
You enter upon this investigation with a
Jealous intention of finding the truth. Your
love of country prompts you to make this in
curry and to overthrow error and establish
truth.
'Mr. Edward Atkinson, the distinguished
economist and publicist of Boston, was pre-
! vented from attending because of iIl-health.
! Therefore he sent to ME for presentation
on this occasion his paper entitled, Force
Bills, or Legal Tender And without further
| prelude 1 proceed to read it.
VICE OF LEGAL TENDER.
Mr.. Atkinson's paper dealt with the ques-
ton of legal tender, saying good money needs
no act of legal tender. Only bad money
calls for an act Of force or legal tender to
make people take 1t whether they want it
or not. He held that the so-called free COIN
| age, as proposed in 1898, was nothing but a
pretext. Coinage consists in the manufacture
Of round discs Of metal certified In weight
and quality by the stamp of the government
mat exhausts the word. Free coinage could
be admitted of gold silver copper or nickel
II 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 I'm cor
ruptlon ever since That is the record from
the dawn Of financial history to the present
day. All legal tender acts or DEGREES with
the exception of these relating to subsidiary
coin, have been intended for one of two pur-
| poses They have either been the acts or
DEGREES OF absolute rulers or despotic govern
| ments for the purpose of cheating their peo-
| pie and defrauding them of their earnings.
| or else they have been acts for the collection
OF forced loan IN the conduct of war
| like our legal tender acts of 1S6I-62: or else
| Tor the collection Of a forced loan for the
| purchase Of silver under the Bland and Sher
man acts, which is now resting in noxious
desuetude in the vaults of the treasury Of
I the United States
Money Is necessary to the conduct of COM
merce' Commerce is the exchange of pro
ducts or services for mutual benefit.
Who invented money! No one knows
All exchange must first have been in the ma
ture of barter. Money is one of the great in
Vent1ons of the world, corresponding to the
wheel, the making of fire, the spinning of a
cord.
Mr.. Atkinson then dealt with the history
of coinage. He pointed out that the great
b-metallst President Francis A. Walker.
defined money as that which passes freely
! from hand to hand" Therefore his theory
! of bimetallism wholly opposed to his
! own principle; the only kind of money that
passes freely throughout the world being
money made of gold.
Cernuschi defined money as 'the coin of
which the bullion is worth as much after
! 1t is melted it purported to be worth
| in the coin; all else bad money" The only
| kind of coin in the worlds market which is
worth as much after it is melted is gold
! coin.
| The adS$cates of free silver, bimetallism
and greenbacks are alike misled by the
| fallacy that all money is the creation of
law and that it is law that gives 1t monetary
! force. They have never studied economic
history. They appear to be incapable Of
| dealing with the great facts OF commerce.
| They substitute theories and falIacies which
have been exploded over and over again in
the history os the world and which have
brought disaster whenever and wherever
! adopted.
There was no debate on Mr.. Atkin-
| sons paper, and Editor Horace White,
Of the New York Evening Post, opened
the conference proper with a paper on
| "The History of the Gold Standard"
Mr.. White said that the pursuit OF
! bimetallism was like the pursuit of an
| ignis fatuus. The nations, one after
another, had abandoned it, so that in
| 1893 all countries of any commercial
| Importance except four had adopted
| the single gold standard The four
were India. Chill, Japan and Russia.
| All four were then silver standard
| countries. All have since adopted the
| gold standard, or have taken steps to
| that end. The only nation that has
gone back from gold to silver is Spain,
| and this has been in consequence of
| her recent misfortunes. Mexico and
| China are the only countries of any
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