Delaware gazette and state journal., 1899-11-23
a Question Of ls1pedieucy.


The question of the expediency of
legislation by the coming Congress to
establish the gold standard, says the
New York Evening Post editorially in
a recent issue, may take pretty wide
range.
Let us first glance, it says, at the
phraseology of the act of 1878. 1t de-
clares that s'the gold coins of the
United States shall be one-dollar
piece, which, at the standard weight
of 20 $40 grains, shall be the unit of
value,o &c. The same act said that
silver coins Of the United States should
not be a legal tender for any amount
exceeding five dollars (since raised to
ten dolarsl also that silver bullion
should not be received frcm private in
dividuals for coinage, except into the
form of trade dollars, which are not
now authorized to be coined. These
provisions of law taken together did es-
tablish the gold standard, in our iudg-
ment, but not in the judgment of all the
people of the United States, or in that
vi bub OuDEtulb SouIl Va bub ohlitd
States. The latter tribunal, in the
famous legal tender cases, held, on con-
stitutional grounds, that there was no
such thing as standard Of value; that
neither % $40 grains of gold, nor any
other substance whatever, was or could
be unit of value, because value was
an ideal thing. This was not mere
obiter dctum. 1t was the basic prin-
ciple upon which the decision rested
the decision that the government could
constitutionally make its own paper
promises legal tender between individ-
uals as to antecedent debts and con
tracts. Now we have always regarded
that decision as totally wrong. Es-
pecially have we regarded as wrong the
assertion upon which it chiefly rests,
that value is figment Of the mind. If
it is an ideal thing, it cannot be meas
ured or weighed, and it is quite pre-
posterous to speak Of a unit of value
as established by law.
Holding the decision not to be sound
either in law or in economies we agree
with those who hold that the gold
standard was established in the act of
1873 py the words which declare that
90 $40 grains of that metal Of a certain
tineness shall be the ..unit of value. -
The words can have no other meaning.
Standard of value and unit Of value
here mean the same thing. But de-
mand for new legislation on the subject
is sound and relevant, if large rumbers
of people have doubts on the subject,
and If they can appeal to decision OF
the Supreme Court to sustain them.
We do not imagine that the supporters
Of Bryan in the last election bad any
clear ideas on this subject one way OF
the other. While most of them, or al
all events, those who had received or
dinary education, knew that the Su.
preme Court had decided that the
legaltender act as valid, they perhaps
did not know the grounds upon which
the decision rested. They did moi
know, or did not remember, perhaps
that the court had said that there is NJ
such thing as standard of value. Ye
budb doCisluH romdluS III Iull IOrce u
be appealed to by any one of the 81.
and half millions of people who yotes
for Bryan, or by any number of peorl
who think that the act of 1873 was
crime.
The demand for additional legisla
lion rests in part on the belief that
law establishing the gold standard ii
terms not doubtful to the ordinary min,
would quiet agitation on the subject
1t would do so by making it apparen
to the agitators and their followers tha
long and uphill road was ahead q
them. 1t would thus turn folly int
new channels and give people time an
opportunity to talk about other things
1t would more than all else conyinc
people that the Republican party is sin
cere in its support of the gold standard
1t is matter of much consequence
politically. whether the unattache
voters and the Gold Democrats VIII
made Mr. McKinley's election possibl
in 1896 shall believe that the Republ
cans are sincerely in favor of the COL
standard. or believe that they prefer /
juegle with it for the sake of the vote
it may attract or repel.