The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1913-05-16
vOx POPULI.
BELIEVES THAT MR.. TATE
INTENDS TO BE FAIR

INTENDS TO Be FAiH
Editor Pensacola Journal.
/ have read Mr.. Tate's explanation
| and am satisfied that he intends to be
fair and that he is a good matnema-
tician.
But there is lesson that have been
trying to teach that this assumption
that 20 silver dollars weigh pound
comes in nicely to help me.
Suppose an expert money thlef
could get himself appointed cashier IN
a bank where the real owners hon
estly believed that 20 silver dollars
weighed only one pound.
He could take the money in by count,
put it into the bags as it accumulated
Land when his books showed billion
silver dollars had been taken in he
could remove from the vault. by stealth,
over 40 car loads of the filthy lucre,
resign his office and call for settle
nIent.
His books showed correctly a billion
dollars taken in, and the silver left. in
! the vault would weigh out correctly
billion dollars at 20 dollars per pound.
The fool directors were satisfied. &C
copied his resignation with regret,
gave him a certificate of good char
acter and he dropped out of sight.
The lesson is: Be accurate and not
dreamer when studying the money
question. A real financial writer
should not teach, the way he fishes,
with a baited hook
There is in our present money sys-
| tenn a real de.usion more fatal to the
| treasury of the United States than
| this suggestion Of 20 silver dollars to
| a pound would be to a bank as above
suggested.
There are expert thieves who would
rob a bank or the treasury of the
| United States, who are looking for
/ financial teachers to help them out.
1
| 124 years not only robbed the treasury
of 40 car loads of public money" but
of the whole 982 cars, because the
teachers are, or seem to be, deluded as
| follows:
| First. Congress shall have power
| to coin money" on gold and silver only.
| OF course the constitution does not
say gold and silver only but the
| teachers have added that.
/ Second. The value of money Is In
| the symbol and not in the law.
| Third. That after all the gold and
| silver is used, if more money is needed.
| the only way to use paper for money
lis to promise to pay gold and silver
| on demand.
| Every one of these statements are
as inaccurate as the assumption that
| 20 silver dollars weigh only a pound,
| but they are really believed by the
common people who<have been so in
| structed from their youth up. And the
|
money" in violation of the constitution
| by reason thereof.
| What. then, is real constitutional
scientific money? Is it corporal or
| incorporeal property? Is it's value in
| the symbol or in the law?
Bouvier's Law Dictionary says:
Property is again divided into cor
pcreal and 'incorporeal. The former
comprehends such property as is per-
ceptible to the senses, as lands, houses,
/ nO1S r1ox C;1x
perl land the like; the latter consists
in Iega. rights. chooses In action, ease
ments," wills, deeds, checks. money!
land the like
! The words in pareuthesis I inserted,
because they belong there.
| Money is not gold or silver or paper.
| Gold, silver and paper is corporal
property. What then is money?
Money is a legal document, just like
a will, or deed, good if lawful; but
worse than nothing if unlawful, or half
good and half bad, good to loan and
/ get men into debt, but not good to pay
| the debt borrowed.
/ Money costs very little so far as the
necessary corporeal property in it is
| concerned, because those who want
money do not want gold, silver or pa
per. at all; they take these tokens be-
cause, like paper will or a paper deed,
| they stand for very valuable incor-
poreal proerty, and can by law, If
4
cororeal property wanted, If such is for
sale anywhere within the United
States.
The objection is not to paper money
the objection is to paper promises for
money.
| Paper is the best money symbol ever
| invented by man. Why don't you make
your wills and your deeds on gold and
silver symbols?
/ There would be as much sense, and
less crime, in doing that than congress
has exhibited in making money on gold
and silver, supplemented by private
bank notes.
| If money is lawful money and lega.
| tender in all payments within the
United States, paper will be preferred
/ by every business man.
Who wants to charter 9S2 cars to
transfer a billion dollars of actual,
when he can carry in paper legal docu-
ments ESQ congress will make them
! legal, using integrity both in the law
and the bookkeeping) that amount of
money--in grip sack.
want to thank Mr.. Tate for helping
me. / hope he viii study this money
question and help protect the treasury
| of the United States. In doing so he
can not only help himself but his
| friends.
HENRY p. LASON.
DeFuniak Springs, Fla.