The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1898-11-05

No substitute has ever been DIS
covered for it. 1t has never yet
been monopOlized by any device.
But it might have been, and we
might have been educated by GUS
tom and law to submit to such
monopoly and have believed it all
night. Man is the abject creature
of habit.
The money token or piece is to
exchanges just what the pillow is to
agriculture-the one almost sole
instrument for facilitating ex-
changes by cancelling the differ
ences or debts. Strange, however,
at On early date this instrument
was monopolized and laws and
customs arose to establish this or
that for the lawful tender. 1t was
always done by making people be-
lieve that some peculiar precious
ness was in the article. The effect of
this was to make the value of all
things bear some close relation to
the sum of the legal tender. lie
the sum of the legal tender stuff
was only one million dollars, and
the sum of all the property in the
state was many billions worth in
reality, yet the one million of legal
tender was master of it al, and
during q business panic all the
property in the state could be
bought up by those who held the
legal tender. Now, exchanging
is merely one branch of distribu-
ton of which. carrying is the other
branch; and there is just as much
sense in declaring by law that all
carrying shall be done by legal
vehicle as to declare that exchang-
ing shall be done by only legal
tenders. But custom has blinded
man to this folly. Another effect
of legal tender law has been to
cause people to hoard up and lay
by their money pieces. 1t would
seem strange if men were to lay up
all the plows or vehicles they could
get hold of, but if the legal tender
legislation had been practiced con-
corning plows or vehicles and it had
been made unlawful to pillow with
any bat legal ploWs or carry with
any but legal carts, men would
hoard up their plows and vehicles
Just as they now do their legal ten
der money pieces. 1t sounds strange
hut just think over how many odd,
queer, senseless, wicked, idiotic
things have been ordained by law
Slavery, polygamy, divine right of
kings, land monopoly, liquor drink
ing by license, child murder, tor
ture of prisoners, torture of wit
nesses, prison for debt, bread monop-
oily, and thousand other hellish
things all duly established by law
This legal tender business is one o.
the worst, and yet we hug it to our
souls today as forty years ago we
did slavery. The suferings man
has endured, the wrongs, oppres-
sions inconvenience, embarrass-
lnents under this silly idea have
been infinite. Not everywhere nor
always, but generally in most lands.
Wherever people have had more
sense on the subject and used COM
mon sense as regards their instru-
ment of exchange they have lived
happily. But so great was the
power of evil given to money BY
law that st. Paul, one of the pro-
foundest writer's who ever used the
pen, was compelled to exclaim of
his own times, ''The love of money
is the root of all evil" Such a
mighty power for evil had the law
made out of money, that men were
tempted TO do any Wickedness to
obtain wealth. Wealth indeedI
For the law of legal tender had
made of a simple instrument which
is not wealth any more than a