The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1900-03-17
MONEY.
What 1t Is and It's Uses.

Money answereth all things says the
inspired writer. 1t is the very blood of So
ciety, of trade, of civilization. Deprive man
of money and he sinks back into barbarism.
Anything Of such vital importance should be
understood by everybody, while it is under
stood by hardly anybody.
Let us look at this thing, money. Here is
| piece ofgold. 1t is called standard" gold,
because it has been mixed with one-tenth of
alloy to give it the proper consistency to be
converted into money. Nine ounces of pure
| gold have been mixed with one ounce of
| alloy, half of which is pure silver and half of
pure copper. Gold is very pliable or soft in
its pure state, silver in its pure form is very
hard or at least much harder than gold Cop
per is noted for its toughness. These three
metals being blended in the above proper
tions, have been found to make the best con ;
sstency for use as money. The government
puts 25S grains in II coin aud it is called an
eagle. Any person could have dies and
stamping machinery made and coin gold of
the above hneness but it would not be money.
| Ii the coiner placed the government stamp,
or imitation of it, on the coin he would be
condemned and punished MS n counterfeiter.
Government alone has the sovereign power
TO make money. The Constitution Of the
United States delegates that prerogatiye to
the government and there is no power exists
TO transfer it to another.
The Constitution invests the same power
| with the government to coin silver that it has
to coin gold, and there are those, and not a
few, who believe that Congress has no consti-
tutional right to close the mints to the coinage
of silver But the right to "regulate" the
value can be construed by willing minds to
defeat the intent of the law. But we will
pass this point for discussion, and pursue the
object determing what money actually is and
its primary object.
The Supreme Court has decided that the
constitutional power lodged in the govern
ment to coin or make money out of silver and
gold also extends to any other material, and
paper has been extensively used for that pur-
pose, and full legal tender money has been
made of paper as potent for every purpose
for which money is used as either gold or
silver, is by virtue of its own mints, money.
The government alone having the power to
constitute them money, and the same power
converts paper or other material into money
at will.
In order to have a clear conception of this
thing money, it must be borne in mind that
all governments make their own money, and
the money of one country will not pass as
money 10 any other country unless the parties
concerned mutually agree, and but few agree.
The gold and silver coins of the United States
are only money within the borders of the
United States. As soon as they cross the
border they sink to the level of commodities.
They mass into other countries as merchan-
disc. where they are melted and recoined into
the money of the country into which they are
sent.
The reason gold in bars or uncoined bullion
is worth almost as much as its weight IN coin Is
because the mints of all the nations of Europe
are open to It's free coinage, which keeps the
q Al - tlso..t tIaar uV.WNlxr
The reason silver bullion or bars are not
worth as much as the silver coins of this or
any of the European nations is that the mints
are closed to its free coinage and its price is
regulated principally by the demand for it in
the arts. The silver money of every nation
in Europe and the United States is of the
same power for all money purposes as gold,
which goes to prove that money is wholly a
creation of law, and that law makes money
exactly of the same value whether of paper,
gold or silver.
The assumption of the bankers, their news
papers and their silly dupes, that the govern
ment is compelled to redeem its silver and
. greenbacks in gold to keep them at par witt
gold is an entire fabrication without grain
{ Of truth. The greenback and silver dolla
are a legal tender for all debts and taxes in
, the United States. The law has made one
money of three materials, all with equa
power within its Jurisdiction. Beyond ITS
own borders the law of no nation extends.
/ The true function of money is to facilitate
the exchange aud division of commodities
their distribution Any other use of money
is an abuse of it. 1t would be impossible TO
divide the products of industry into infinitesi
f NAL parts required by the necessities of the
people without the medium of money. To
illustrate A farmer has a thousand bushels
of wheat He wants multitude OF things
other than wheat These things are all at the
merchants but he cannot exchange wheat for
a spool of cotton, a paper of pins, card OF
buttons, and on to the end of the catalogue OF
wants. The farmer hauls his wheat to the
miller who exchanges money for it. The
farmer then can go to the merchant and pur-
chase every article he wants. He is paying
for them with his wheat through the medium
ofmoney.
These are the simple, fundamental princi,-
ples of money which if borne in mind and
thoroughly understood, no one need be de-
ceived or mised by the sophistry aud false
hood promulgated in the name of money by
class Of designing people on one hand and an
Ignorant class on the other.