The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1903-08-06

the landed fish knows enough to be
silent on that. 1t would not do to say
that the silver mine barons, who live
on the sweat of the brow of their min
ers, and then have them shot down,
either produce or help to produce
wealth; it would no. do to say that the
small farmer, who engages farm hands
and not infrequently does not pay
them at all, and who pays them so
trifiing wage for so short season
that they become tramps the moment
they are discharged and then are
chased away with dogs, is the producer
the several American duchesses
abroad, whose silver mine inheritance
the populist Newlands superintends,
are the producers of wealth. No. But
murder will out. And 1t is. out All
this talk. about legal tender" me
dunn of exchange" government fat"
etc, on the part of a populist leader
is but SO much dust raised to give an
appearance of science and of opposing
existing conditions to nothing but
bourgeois reform" Free coinagism
takes its place, together with the
gold bug" the octopus etc, on that
side of the line that believes in and
proposes to continue the system of
fleeing the working class-the sole
producer of all wealth.
If the free coinagists and all other
reform" fishes in the capitalist pool
would but start their arguments with
the denial that labor produces all
wealth, they would be understood so
much more easily. But, of course, they
don't like to be understood Weekly
People, July Is, 1903; p. 4.
/ am neither responsible for nor
ashamed of my name. The whole of
-outlandish patronymic, initials and
all-was forced upon me by my parents
and | have never changed it. If
any distortions of it will aid Mr.. De
Leon in the slightest degree in wor-
Shipping his fetish, gold, l am content.
Perhaps economic determinism" may
explain Mr. De Icons fetishism Per-
haps anthropological reasons may ex-
plain it. Of this | have not sufficient
information upon which to base an
opinion, and, besides, it is not material
any way.
My only reason at all for signing the
article which causes Mr. De Leon to
resort to his mother tongue-the Ian
guage used by the fish-wives of Bill
ingsgate-was that l am not wholly in
accord with the populist platform upon
this question, and preferred to have
the responsibility rest upon me rather
than upon The Independent for any
"heresies" it may have contained.
Mr.. De Leon is evidently much more
at home in castigating the kan
garoos" than he is in stating the law
of legal tender. He fails to discrimin-
ate between mere offer of coin and
tender of the same. A proffer of
coin in court does not constitute
TENDER" it must be put up" and
kept good"
1t is rather amusing to have Mr..
De Leon gravely tell us, and in CAPT
tails, too, that "he cannot sue" and in
the same breath says, "and if he does
he loses and has to pay the costs. :"
Well, if he CANNOT sue, how could
he LOSE and have to pay the costs if
he DOES sue? The fact is, and Mr. De
Leon ought to know it, that even a
legal tender" in court will not stop
the creditor from proceeding to judg-
ment-if he wishes to be foolishly con-
trary. He will have the costs to pay,
doubtless; but he can, if he wishes,
have his judgment entered in his fav
or even while the yellow boys are
the courts possession as a legal ten
der" But judgment is useless with
out process. And when Mr.. Bullhead
Creditor asks for an execution running
| against his judgment debtors proper
| ty, then, and not till then, does he run
up against the wall of legal tender
He is refused an execution, because in
carrying it into effect the property
must needs be converted into COIN
and the court already holds coin equal
in amount of value to the face of the
| judgment. "a
Mr.. De Leon misquotes me- l de-
MED his "undeniable principle" that
labor is the sole product of all wealth
| VALUES" The value" of wealth"
and wealth itself are two different
propositions, as l view it. Naturally
| some human eXertiOn is necessary in