The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1903-08-13
Money and the Taxing Power
turn to his Golfers.
81 w. "A. 1asSaS&

gold and silver, being made by law
al absolute necessity to every tax
layer and judgment debtor, were sub
jected to a great quantity of the force
CT demand The taxpayers and judg-
ment debtors eagerly offered in ex-
change for them. services and commod-
tiles of great utility. The power to
command services and commodities,
which the possession of those receipts
gave, would be coveted by all the
greedy.
The goldsmiths and silversmiths
would bride the fayorites of govern
ment to secure the stamping OF such
receipts upon their gold. (a) Grad
ually that prerogative passed from
the king to the owners of gold and sill
yer. Instead of receiving the services
and commodities for the benefit of the
government, and which their issuance
presupposed, the power to command
them, through the statutory necessi-
| ties of the people, was, like sinecure
Offices and monopolies of trade, made
gift to those metal owners. by the
act of coming the symbol of money"
upon their private gold and silver.
In our day the excessive rapacity of
the gold trust, gorged with the spOils
of the human race, has turned against
the owners of silver, and they have
been excluded from the privilege OF
| further piiiaging mankind by receiv-
ing as free gift those receipts, which
carry to their possessor the power to
compel the payment Of taxes to them
selves instead of to the government.
Reformation is sadly needed here.
But restoring to the owners of sill
YER the power to plumber mankind.
through the taxing power thus given
free" to them-by the free coinage"
G, their metals not reformation.
Instead of thus adding another rob-
Der to the list, licensed by'that system
to eat up mankind, the task is to take
the iniquitous privilege away from
the owners Of gold.
Let government resume the exclu-
sive power to coin money for it's own
benefit, and once more scourge the
money changers from the temple.
Coin thus issued, inscribed exclu-
sively upon silk-fibre paper, would
I ecessarily perform perfectly the func-
tons which it is intended to perform,
lin the public offices and in the courts
of the United States" and it has no
function anywhere else. Declare null
and void all those receipts fraudulent
~ stamped as gift to favorites upon
gold and silver and leave the field
| clear for honest coin.
For one moment let us halt here and
|! r.r,fo 1nta ;y1;r Nf
this system of free and unlimited
coinage of gold and silver" Every
| dollar" of United States money"
| that was stamped upon gold and sill
yer in this country from the establish
ment of the mint until 1853 (and every
dollar ever stamped upon gold) was
simply the gift of dollar to the metal
owner for no reason except that he
brought a metal platter of the legal
| kind upon which to receive the gift.
More than three thousands CT mil
lions of dollars in revenue belonging
to the United States have thus been
bestowed as free gift upon those
metal-oWning favorites, while thu gov
ernment has by other methods of tax
stion compelled the great mass of the
i people, not thus favored, to bear the
burden Of the expense of it's operation
Human history can furnish the rec
ord of no other crime, which for de-
|, l:berate iniquity, in qualification of
greed and utter disregard of righteous
ness, can parallel the monstrous
wickedness of the system of free and
, unlimited coinage" of money upon any
private persons metal or other COM
modify Not only have the "authori-
ties" and statesmen upheld this col
lossal iniquity, but in utter uncon-
: seriousness of it, monstrous wicked
ress they sing paeans of praise to this
system Of legalized counterfeiting and
: public robbery as one of the orna-
: ments of modern civilization
t Continued Next Weekly
RI (a) The reader should consult Alex
| ander Del Mars Science of Money
E and his History of Monetary Sys.
TENS" upon this subject Captain
e Ashby reasoned the matter out ano
{ arrived at his conclusions; Mr.. De
: Mar has spent years digging among The
: musty records and coin collections o.
s Europe, and arrived at the same con
: clusion, namely: when Madam Ro
: land adyerted to the crimes that ha(
Al ! 4oJ in,