The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1899-07-28
their pontifical DEGREES this repeated
opinion of the learned.

their pontifcal DEGREES this repeated
opinion Of the learned.
Money is a measure of value (held
the fathers), and like other measures,
1t belongs to the public, because it IS
a public measure-mensura publica-
and no Individual has a right to alter
It,, either by boarding, exporting, or
melting down coins, so as to deprive
the debtor of his option of Species
or to increase his debt by shrinking
the national volume of money. To
sell by a shrinking bushel measure, or
a shrinking yard stick, are offenses of
a character that have never failed to
be stamped with ecclesiastical condem-
nation; but what are these petty Of
lenses compared with the colossal
crime of secretly altering the measure
OF value employed in the various states
of Christendom; and what injury can
they inf1ict compared with the financial
ruin that is now being visited upon the
Christian world through the insiduous
agency of altered species?
l appeal from the false verdicts
which have been wrung from nations
too recently autonomous to draw upon
their W store of experience in this
matter, tothat church in whose ample
archives is to be found the garnered
wisdom of ages. l appeal to her, as
the universal tribune Of the people, to
interpose her potent veto to the further
preparation of this enormity, She has
but to give the command; it will not
fail to be obeyed.
II it be alleged in extenuation of this
gold standard" scheme that it's object
IS not to Cypress debtors by depEiving
them of their option of Species" or
by rendering money scarce, bu. to es-
tablish a universal money, the answer
IS that universal money, without uni
%ersal government, is a chimera; that
money owes its efficacy to coinage, de-
nomination and numbers; that these
are subject to the regalian prerogative
and to domestic law; that the state
NA>H ~ ASody tS lCllllQulSu us COulEOl
or money must be prepared to resign
It's Independence in other matters; that
there Is no precedent, no experience,
to Justify the experiment.; that it was
not begun openly, but clandestinely,
and that thus far it's operation has
been to create q few nulti-millionaires
and consign the generality to poverty
n misery.
whether the motive was good or bad,
whether the theory is sound or I'M
sound, the practical result of the move
ment IS That through it's agency prop
erty is being transferred so rapidly
from debtors to creditors and from the
Industrial to the idle classes, that
should it not be arrested, the .entire
wealth or the civilized world must
eventually become vested in g. com
paratively few hands and the masses
will be reduced 10 a condition Little
better than that OF serfs. ~
What then, will be the fate of!C,hris-
tianityf What will be the position of
the chuach, when the majority of its
~ ll10lHC4CC, Al
1t is obliged to receive the OF
charity as a dole from the reluctant
hands o. usury?
But this is MOI: all; another danger
awaits the church. The silver which
Christian Europe has rejected H being
rapidly absorbed by pagan Asia, who
under the stimulus of rising prices is
awakening to & new prosperity and
raising its idolatrous head to assume a
part in the councils of the West.
Aslatlc~ aaborers, and with them thei1
degrading ~mummeries, are already to
be seen in all our large cities; and it
cannot he doubted that their mum bers
will increase with the means OF escap-
ing from their native lands. Shall the
church take no part in arresting this
movement until in the place of Chris
tan missions in India we are asked to
accord a standing to Hindoo missions
in Europe? What has hitherto re-
strained these votaries of darkness has
not been any lack Of faith in idolatry,
OF any want OF confidence in sorcery,
slavery and the degradation of wom-
an, but simply absence of means.
Every agency that tends to enrich Asia
will bring these abominable institutes
nearer to our doors, within which il
there is not already enough of filth,
there will soon be enough of indulgence
to supply them with nourishment. That
the RECOMMENDATION Of silver in Europe
has tended and ii still tending to en-
rich idolatrous Asia is the burden of
every current consular report and mis-
slonary dispatch.
The wisdom and influence of the
church can be exerted in no greater
cause than that to which I have thus
briefly invited your attention. The
questions it involves are not new ones.
Usury and the mutations of species are
old tricks of the devil. The church, has
repeatedly stamped upon them: but it
never yet, in all it's glory, was in a
position where it's condemnation of a
crime promised SO much relief to socie-
ty, or SO much advantage to religion.
as it does now.
ALEX. DEL MAR.