The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1898-08-25
UNCLE SANS MILK CHECKS.

UNCLE SANS MILK CHECKS.
A Story Of IA Dairy, a I.cad Mine. Lead
Coins and of Some Queer People Who
Wanted Wages Reduced.
There was once dairyman who did
large and prosperous business. lie
was known and respected by Il large
community, and nearly all the people
who knew him did business with him.
do not know what his real name was,
but they called him Uncle Sam. At the
early day when these things happened
there was very little money, and people
used bar lead, bullets and tobacco for
change. Finally Uncle Sam, who was IL
rather unusual character, read a pas
sage in one Of Aristotlc's works in re-
gard to the invention of money, that "it
was aftcrward determined in value by
men putting a stamp on it in order
that it may save them the trouble of
weighing it,"
So Uncle Sam built a stamping ma
chine which would. stamp out an Eng.
lish pcnny's worth of lead and was
worth a pint of mil;:, as he was then
selling milk. These checks proved to
be quite convenient. People found
them all full weight, and Uncle Sans
workmcn and servants took their pay
in them. People also sold him their
COWS for them, and Uncle Sam sold milk
for them. Sometimes the people used
the lead coins for bullets and for
weights, but Uncle Sam didn't care very
much. Although it did cost him some.
thing to coin them, he had passed them
at their lead value. In fact, Uncle Sam
would exchange coins for bar lead at
any time, weight for weight, as matter
of public convenience. SOME other pco-
pie made coins in mold occasionally,
but people generally weighed them in
order to find whether they were MS
heavy as Uncle Sans coins. Uncle Sam
| said he didn't care how many coins they
made, and he would take them himself
If they we're full weight.
4 lead mine was discovered not very
far from Uncle Sans, and lead went
down in price to about half what it had
lecn. A great many people who had
some Of Uncle Sans lead began to
wonder what he was going to do about
| the matter. The checks were worth
only a ahalfpenny now. They discovered
that Uncle Sam was still receiving
them for a pcnny's worth of milk and
that he was continuing to pcy them out
to his workmcn just as before.
His business was enlarging, and he
was stamping out these checks i'll larger
numbers than ever. People sold him
hay and cows for them at the same rate
for he had said that he intended to main
tain the parity of his checks and the
penny. People didn't use his checks
for bullets now, for bar lead cost only
half as much. And Uncle Sam request
ed his friends not to make any of these
checks out of bar lead, for he didn't
like to accept halfpenny checks for
penny unless he had passed them OFF or
the public for penny's worth of labor
The next thing of note that happened
to Uncle Sam was this: The people who
owned the lead mine heard about his
scheme, and they got up convention
in order to sec il something couldn't h
done for lead. They wanted to get The
good old prices. They proposed that
Uncle Sam should coin the whole out
put of their mine free and let them car,
away the checks, since they owned the
lead. They tried to make Uncle Sam be
lcve that tlis would double the price
of lead and he could go right or doing
business as if nothing had happened
There was also some talk to the effect
that people couldn't pay their debts un
less they could get some cheap money
to pay with
The working people were getting
penny day, ard many OF them thought
these lead pennies they were getting
were too good and would buy too mucl
at the stores. They joined the free
coinage movement in order to get {
cheap penny which would buy only hal
as much as the present penny, with
view of restoring lead to it's old price
so people could pay their debts in chcal
money. They said they would trust tt
luck to get their wages doubled.
Some of the wiser ones shook thch
heads and said Uncle Sam ccrtainl.
couldn't carry the whole lead outputa
twice it's market value. They wer'
confident that if he should attempt It
do so the lead coli would soon pass a
their junk value. This would upse
credits and business and ruin the who'll
community.
When l finish the translation of thi
story and learn how the tangle was set
tied, will write again.-Francis
Nipher. in St. Louis Globe Democrat
| 4 Standard or Value,
Our monetary standard is nothing
but measure Of values. Upon its sta
bility depend growth and prosperity
II must be recognized as the very best
abroad rs well as at hcmc-if our nc
tive commercial Intercourse with TIT
leading nations Of the world is to con
tinuc and hrveIop.
go. There has been no time since The
resumption of specie payments In 1877!
when the depositors in savings bank:
could not get back as good money a:
they earned and put in. DO they wan
) even to "chancc it" on getting 51-cep'
qr even 75-ccpt silver dollars9
Two Coined Lies.
One Of the Chinese coins is called {