The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1903-07-30
Money and the Taxing Power
BY w. FL. ASHBY.

congress, and its use made mandatory
"in the public offices and in the courts
Of the United States" was Immediately
employed, not by statutory compul-
sion, but by voluntary adaptation
by the people, as a convenient device
for expressing quantity of value in
their private affairs; so we see that
when governments "coin" that sym
bol," which is money" the use of
the resulting coin is made by statute
mandatory ''in the public offices and
courts" it, likewise. is siezen upon by
the people for private voluntary use as
safe and convenient storage for per-
ishable wealth.
AS the device, which is money
was seized upon and used as cCnven-
lent means of expressing quantity OF
value in private affairs; SO the coin,
issued solely for the purpose Of an
ticipating the revenues (by gathering
taxes for future years., has been
siezed upon by the people and en-
ployed as a means of storing up and
preserving in that imperishable form,
the equivalent of the power to perform
beneficial service for men, liable to
vanish and be lost by the loss or de-
truction of pershable commodities.
But neither of these voluntary uses
was in contemplation either in fixing
the standard of money" or in coin
ing" that money" after it had been
SO fixed" The mandatory use Of that
= I,
pressing quantity of value in render
ing judgments, was statutory adap-
tation of the device, which was
contemplated in fixing the standard
Of money!
Likewise the mandatory use of the
coin in the courts, as conclusive proof
Of previous payment of judgments
therein rendered, was also contem-
plated when government exercised the
power to coin money. These two con-
alterations were properly decisive,
both in fixing the standard of money
and in coming that money after it had
been so fixed.
But the private use of the one as
storage for perlshable wealth, and as
a commodity in exchange, was no more
contemplated in the act of coming
money than was considered the pri-
vate use of the other as a means Of
expressing quantity of valuation in a
market report, in the creation of the
device for use as means of exercis-
ing the taxing power, Gin the public
Offices" by expressing quantity of val
uation in tax levy.
But in our day the civilized govern
ments of the earth have all abdicateu
the power to coin money for their
own benefit or that of the public, and
instead of themselves regulating the
quantity of coin by the needs of gov
ernment to supply deficit in it's rev.
enues, we have the spectacle of gov
crnments, at their own expense, per-
forming the act of coming their money
| FOR the private advantage of the own
| ers of gold alone, and suffering the
| quantity of coin fabricated to be reg
1lated, not by the needs of govern
ment, but by the luck of the gold hunt
| 9rs or the greed of the gold trust, who
| the only object of exercising the pow
er to coin money, is Ito supply the
| people with a circulating medium"
which means to supply to the owners
Of gold free OF cost lying certificates Of
payment Of taxes.
| And this amazing apostacy/ is ac-
cepted by the High Priests of Chaos,
who pose as authorities" in economics
and whose senseless platitudes now
| constitute the deliverances OF the
science Of money"
But actual investigation conclusive
| ly dem onstrates, that as the device of
| expressing quantity of valuation was
instituted for the sole purpose Of en-
abling governments to equitably exer-
else the taxing power, and not as a
means of making market reports; so
| the power to coin that device belongs
TO government as a means to choke a
deficit" in the public revenues, by an
ticipating future taxes, and not as a
means to Supply circulating me-
dunn" to constitute a convenience for
| gratifying the greed of those who were
once scourged from the Temple at
Jerusalem.
1t is not possible to avoid these con-