The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1898-02-15

Can do and How Affected by the Statu-
tory Law.--An Easily Understood Dis
cussion to be Read to Your Neighbour
The Best Campaign Material of the
Year to Cfrculate--Concise, Clear
Statements That Cannot be Met by the
Oppressors of the People.
Il. a. HOGAN.
This article / dedicate to posterity, well
knowing that the people of the pres
emit age are too bigoted to either un-
Aderstand or appreciate its teachings.
I lay down and will prove the follow
ing proposition:
PROPOSITION.
When q debt has been honestly in
Cured for value or worth received that
debt is never cancelled or paid till an
equal value or worth has been returned
for it in full.
Money pure and simple is in no sense
a value, consequently cannot. and does
not, pay individual indebtedness.
WHAT IS MONEY
Is money the sum of all values7-
Jones, Weaver and others.
Does it represent values without be-
ing possessed of them, or hasi a money
value distinct from intrinsic value9-
(Many old time Greenbackers)
Is money in any sense a value7
The last Of these questions only is
mine, and I will prove that the answer
to each and all OF these is no.
Aristotle, who lived in the fourth
century before Christ, declared that
money existed nowhere in nature, but
was a creation Of law. But money is
more than a creation of law, and while
Aristotle's declaration is true, he does
not define and tell what money really
is. The only definition I have aver
seen that &cannot criticise is one put
forward by myself q number of years
since, now zee no reason for changing
it:
MONEY DEFINED.
Money is the law, will, edict or de-.
cree of the sovereign stamped, printed
or impressed upon some substance sus
ceptiOle6t receiving and capable of re
tanning the impress of such stamp, seal
or impression, and the substance so
stamped carries with it not the value
of the substance, but the law, will,
edict, decree or fat of the sovereign to
every subject of his realm"
LAW AN EXERCISE OF ARBITRARY POWER
The existence of a law presupposes q
creator endowed with arbitrary pow.
ers to promulgate his decree, and the
validity of that law rests entirely in
his power to enforce his decree. The
laws of the Almighty presuppose an
omniscient Creator whose laws are of
universal application, which, however
arbitrarily put forward, are equally
binding upon all, and beyond all pos
sibility Of repeal. The laws of a coun-
try presuppose a sovereign or power
endowed with plenary and unquee
toned rights to put forward and en-
force those laws, but those laws are of
no force outside of his own domain.
The laws of the parent to the child pre-
suppose the right in the parent to put
forward and execute those laws, but
here his powers do not extend beyond
mis- own child.
HOW THE MONEY LAW DIFFERS FROM
STATUTORY Law.
l have defined money to be the law
OF the sovereign expressed upon some
substance. Here it differs in no sense
from statutory law, which ia the will
Or decree of the sovereign expressed on
some substance, generally paper. But
1t differs from statutory law in this: If
the game statutory law is printed or
stamped On ten thousand different
leaves, on all it is same statute, where
as, if the same money law is stamped
or printed On ten thousand different
leaves each separate leaf is an entirely
separate, distinct decree of itself, hav-
ing no reference to any other.
THE LAW CREATING MONEY STATUTORY.
The law creating money, the sub,
stance to be used, the size, shape,
amount of debt-payiDg power inscribed
thereon and every step in its creation
till it is turned out a finished produc
ton at the mint or place where it is
manufactured is statutory; but each
piece of money, when coined, is q
of itself.
EACH PIECE A STATUTE IN ITSELF