The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1898-03-23
MONEY is ONLY
A CREATION OF LAN
This Fact is Universally AcknOwI7
edged by Every Man d IntsIli-
genee-GOId WOrshippers Only
Deny it for a Blind.

Gold and silver are indestructi-
bic, easily divisibIe. and furnish
very good material upon which to
F. print or stamp the VIII of the law
giver, creating money, but many
,Ather things might be substituted
nd the law of legal tender made
manifest without the use of either
msAal. The only important func-
tIoA which the metals perform,
sinceI printing and engraving on
paper have been discovered, says
the Silver Knight Watchman, is to
regulate the quantity. The guam
tity of money is of paramount i'm
portance, because- the quality of
money which has been made a
legal tender by law. depends en-
tirely upon its quantity. The
value of each dollar depends upon
the number of dollars in circula-
zion compared with population and
business. If there are too many
dollars prices are inflated and the
creditor injured, if there too few
prices are depressed, the debtor
robbed and business stopped
Since pre- historic times If has been
the general rule in civilized coun-
tries TO allow the volume of money
to be regulated by the quantity of
the two metals brought into the
mints for coinage. This is called
the automatic rule, 1t works well
when the mines are productive,
and badly when the mines are ex-
hausted, as is shown by the rise
and fall of nations for the last two
thousand years. ct worked fine
from 1850 to 1873 and until the
minis of the United States, Ger
many and France were closed to
silver, since which time the sup
ply of legal tender money formerly
derived from the two metals has
been confined to gold. The legis-
lation which stopped the coinage
of silver, has had precisely the
same effect as it would have pro-
luced if all the silver mines had
ssn closed. The production of,
.tnetals about kespt pace
UNION 'ne sulation< and business
DC our wa wac 1915, but the reject
- Cd ssn OF silver reduced the supply
about one-half, since which time
there has been only about half the
supply of metallic money which
was required to keep pace with the
growing demand. The conse-
quence is that the purchasing
pbwer of gold is doubled and pri-
ces have fallen more than fifty per
cent.
If the usages of ages and the
spirit and intent of the constitu-
ton had been observed, and the
laws of the better days of the re-
public allowed to remain on the
statute book, the progress and
prosperity which the world enjoy
cd from 1856 to 1875 would have
continued. The disastrous fall of
prices, stagnation of business and
ruin which everywhere appears in
the civilized world, proves beyond
VI controversy that there is not
laugh gold to supply the legiti-
demand for money, and if the
;sror class are permitted to con-
y the volume of money to gold
civilization must decay, as it
Railways decayed when the sup
gTly of metallic money failed from
the exhaustion of mines or any
other cause. The restoration of
silver would more than double the
the supply. We would then have
good money because it would sub
stantially maintain stability of
prices and do justice between debt
or and creditor and allow enter
r-=-a to be revived. If we can re-
which is no experiment
A young elieved from the nee
pet dog to scoyering some other
and inyestllate the quantity of
had been lat thevolume of circu-
fair o&ne'bear constant and sta
Die relation to the property for
Aaie; but inasmuch as the automat-
Is rule is safer than experimental
legislation, and inasmuch as the
present and prospective production
of gold and silver from the mines
will probably furnish, under free
coinage, sufficient supply of legal
tender money to restore and main
tainl prices we viii devote all our
-ie1gies to opening to mints to
cold and silver on equal terms