The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1898-01-13
CURRENCY REFORM.
A CORRESPONDENT WRITES IN
FLOWING VEIN
Aud Describes Some Functions That
Attach 10 the Dollar of oar Dad
dtes-A weIl.Done Article From
a Talented Source.

Talented Source.
Can we, from their pretensions, divine
their Intentions
Yes; by the aid of the MAXIM; Saus-
ages made out of the same dog are pretty
much all a like
Currency reform is splendid field of
labor in which men--true men, well
read, capable of comprehending the age
and its responsibilities men Of the true
stuff and stamina-are much needed, to
evolve and formulate financial system
for the benefit and welfare of the people
of the United States, and for nobody
else; for the good of all the people of the
United States, as well as for u few of the
inhabitants of Manhattan island.
We want men who will recognize and
garner the jewels of past experience and
honor and utilize them in the diadem of
pure national system of finance. We
want men who know, and are honest
enough to admit it, that money Is nation
al and never cosmopolitan; that money
is created by law, and that its home and
realm Of existence is the territorial limit
Of the state or nation whose law gave it
birth.
Within that limit it is omnipotent and
reigns supreme; by its imprint it carries
upon its face the credentials of the nation
from whose mint it came; within that
jurisdiction it reigns supreme, whether
il has gone forth as u copper penny,
nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar,
silver dollar or u golden eagle; its efficacy
and mission must not be gainsaid, save
and except at the peril of the gainsayer,
in the performance of its mission either
as tender or a payment; the courts will
sustain them and the military will sus-
tain the courts.
Money, like other terrestrial things, Is
subject to the laws Of it's domiCile. Their
is an element where birds sing and an
other where fishes swim, but the bound.
ary separating these no birds or fish can
safely pass. The same unerring law con-
trolls the existence of money. Our golden
eagle may anywhere safely fit within
Uncle Sans domain, but a departure
therefrom, on a visit to the British Isles
or other foreign lands, is as fatal to its
existence as would be an extended visit
Of our emblematic national bird to the
home Of Jonah's whale
Money is the currency of the realm of
the country making it the standard of
payment, whether of coins, circulating
notes or any other commodity. Any
thing that freely circulates from hand to
hand as common accepted medium of
exchange, in any country, is money in
that country, though it ceases to be such
or to possess any value whatever upon
passing into another country. An article
Is determined to he money by reason of
its performing certain functions with
ouF any reference or regard whatever to
its form, substance or material out of
which It Is made. Aristotle in his day
declared that money exists not by nature
but by law, and it has ever since been
true that the law, and the law only,
makes money, whether the material out
of which it is made be copper, tin, zinc,
nickel, gold, silver or paper. These
materials are created and exist as com
modities and articles of commerce. The
law does not create these materials but
the law does select and adopt these and
other materials and make money of them,
and not one of them is money until the
law makes it such. The material selected
by the law has commercial value as a
commodity before it is coined, as an
article Of commerce; after its coinage
il has whatever value the law declares,
within the jurisdiction of the law of its
the nation that makes the law. Beyond
the national boundary the law ceases;
also does the money of its creation cease
to exist as money loses the money life and
value that the law gave it; and when
from home in n foreign country it Is not
money, it is piece of metal only, and
stripped of all value, save and only its
commercial value as an article of com
merce
The first step toward the creation of
money by nation is the selection of the
material out of which the money is to be
made, and on which the sovereign edict
and decree of the law is to be impressed. |
This the Unitd States did by the pro-
visions of sections eight and ten of the
Of 1887, and selected gold and
silver as the metals to be used, and law
of the United States, passed April 2,
1893, made 27 grains of gold, eleven
twelfths fine, equal to 374h grains of
pure silver, which, with the alloy, was
made by the same law the unit of vaule
and unit of the money Of account
throughout the United States. At that
time the British sovereign contained and
now contains about 1873 y grains of gold,
eleven -twelfths fine. At ~ grains to the
dollar, this law made the British sover-
eign worth in our silver money of ac-
count $4,000, and it so remained until
1884.
On the 2sth of June, 1884, an act Of
the o. 5. congress made 25 $40 grains of
gold, nine-tenths fine, cne dollar, or
equal in legal value TO the ,iilver dollar of
371H pure or 4121G grains alloyed silver.
The difference in the commercial value
of these two dollars was 2-l0 grains