Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1900-03-08
TELEGRAPH CONTINUED FROM PAGE SIX--BEFKlLEY NEWS "

SA'S NeuIQ lHSS, COulQ CnCy, circulate
us money?
They would still be sovereigns; but
they would be worth more than dia-
mondS las relics, perhaps, Of past
old-worshipping age).
Our Supreme Court in decision COW
ering this question. said in terms, that
Congress could not fix the value of
money-that value is ideal" The
words of the Constitution under which
Congress has power to coin money and
regulate the value thereof. and of
foreign coins" could have meant only
as to weights and iineness; for in regu-
lating the value of foreign coins IT was
actually applied by taking their weight
and tineness at our standard.
The underlying errors OF all the urgu-
mcnts of our gold standard advocates
is. that they fail to comprehend that it
is law and law alone. which makes
money what it is-the debt payer-the
denomination of values.
Never existed there n piece of money
which did not owe its existence to the
fiat of law.
1t is the law of legal tender, not the
| material. which makes money 20 every
where within the realm of the law Gre
ating It,
American Eagles so In Europe not as
debt payers any more than a cargo of
wheat or cotton. except as the laws OF
Europe fix it's value by it's coinage laws
a. coin value.
Now take the second clause of the
title of this bill: ITO maintain the
parity of all forms OF money issued or
coined by the United States" Ii this
word parity is not used as meaning
equality 1t is jugglery in the use of
words.
That word sounds we'll. and it may
furnish the key to the origin of that
other phrase which SO plcases the aver
age goldite that it is conspicuous in all
their arguments and observations on
| this great question-sound money, not
| good money. for all money is good. when
| issued by the sovereign power, and hon
ored by that power III reception for
| taxes.
That great American statesman. CAL
| hcun, during the debates in the Senate
| in the third decade of this century,
stated that there was not n case on rec
ord when any State had ever issued
even paper money in n volume not eN-
Gee ding the requirements OF the people
| for currency, and which duly honored
its issues by receiving II for taxes,
which ever failed in its highest attri
butte as to goodness.
| DO those blind leaders of the blind
propose to maintain parity by creating
| disparity?
TO make equality by forcing Unequal
ity?
| Was there ever such Juggling of
! words and such outlawry of reason as
is found in this attempt to embody in
! the statutes of our country the decep-
tive Il not meaningless declaration of
! the preamble of the act repeating the
Sherman act that lit is the policy of
the United States to maintain the par
ity In value of the two metals coined. '"
and then declare that all debts and OBJ
| legations of the United States shall be
payable in gold coin?
Never, but, in the resolutions of con-
ventions controlled by gold advocates,
and in the arguments of writer's and
| speakers on that side.
They were bimetallists in profession
In the great contest of 1896. one and all
| excepting the squad who supported Pal
mer and Buckner.
They now set aside all pretenses
then relied on to carry the election; and
| come out boldly in advocacy of a meas
ure fraught with more evil to the re-
| public than any act ever presented to
| n Legislative body. The time is most
inopportune and the impetus given to
| the worlds commerce and lis indus
tries by the recent addition to the
worlds stock of gold appears to have
| turned their heads. and blinded their
| eyes The suspension of gold mining
| in the richest gold field by the South
African war. and the enormous in
crease of bonded Indebtedness for war
| DuTpOScS ana armamentS, railway
! buildings, and the exploitation of COM
mercial and manufacturing companies.
demands an enlargement of, rather
| than contraction or the volume OF pri-
mary or legal tender money.
Cannot our Legislators stop In their
mad work long enough to think of the
| possible effect Of this bill, or OF any
bill establishing n gold standard of paw
ment at this time?
Our Secretary of tho rrro, e,,,,,
| states that we possess $945,O00. 600 of
gold. Where is it? All but what is in
the treasury and in reporting banks is
an unknown QuuHtity.
so is our foreign Indebtedness an un-
| known quantity. Over trading and
over-production was held to be the ca
son FOR the very low prices which re-
| Gently prevailed. II that was true thcn
| what is 10 be the result of the res.
ent tremendous increase In production
ana trading now seen on every hand
! throughout the world. on credit large
ly too it is? With gold the sole legal
| tender, will the bonded tax-gathornr
| take anything else?
Even now the greatest American On
dustry' stock and board of trade gam
bling is in bad fix. In no part of tho
world can 1t be truly said that agri-
| culture is flourishirg. and that is mon's
F! basic primal industry.
Upon the alleged increase of some
s2O0,000,000 annually of the world q
gold production, there has been
billions of industrial credits extended
I'm our own country. and 5000, 900, 900 in
crease of our national debt, while some
| thing like $4,000, 600 has been added ia
| our national taxation. The spending
of this SS5o000.000 has produced the
change called prosperity. but which will
prove as baseless as the spendthrifts
prosperity.
! Is II prosperity when farms are run
ming down and declining in value, and
when urban property in so many of
| the cities and towns and villages of our
| country cannot be sold Wit hnut ritinn,,a