South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-01-22
BY y. p. BABCOCK.


lucent pieces was recently intro
duced in congress. Whether it has.
or is likely to. become a law, l am
unable at the moment TO say.
There have been so many bills be-
fore congress, the average citizen is
a good deal like the old farmer who.
being asked by a city visitor if all
his potatoes were dug. replied:
Dunno, 1 amt counted EN-" In
any case considerable time must
elapse before lucent pieces are a
reality. Someone has got TO decide
upon details-or. as a New York
newsbOy might say, upon both de
heads an de tails"
Will the new coin be considered
of sufficient worth TO bear a full
length image Of the Goddess of Lib
erty emerging from a star-fringed
doorway, as she does on our latest
quarter dollars, or will only her
graceful head adorn the face of the
piece? Will the reverse display an
eagle in flight. or exhibit to us a
slightly enlarged picture of that
bundle of rods with aXe-blade pro-
truding which decorates the new
dime, and which seems 10 be labeled
In microscopic latin &c Pluribus
Unum." but in really owns the latin
name of "Fasces?" Possibly a pic
| torial blending of the dime and the
nickel-which together form the
new unit-will be accomplished by
] seating the Goddess of Liberty
! astride a bearded buffalo, on one
side of the piece. and an Indian with
/ a fasces under his arm, on the other
IL is given out that demand for
! the new coin first came from moving
/ picture managers. on account of the
war tax, to facilitate the handling
Of crowds. There really is, however,
no reason why it should not be well
/ coined by almost all other classes of
administrants 10 the public's needs.
| There are such multitudes Of things
| which used TO cost 10 cents, and are
! now creeping up a penny at a time,
It makes one dizzy TO keep track of
them What was II cents yesterday.
is Is cents today, with every likeli-
hood of being II tomorrow. why
not" they may say. call it 10 right
off and be done with it."
! 1t might seem, perhaps-if the
/ interest of the public at large is
Il considered-that the new coinage
h most imperatively demanded, is that
of a half-cent piece. Certainly it
would take longer TO raise the price
OF an article from 10 20 10 cents.
upon an ascending scale of half
pennv steps. than without such inter-
mediary pauses for breath. and the
purchasing public would be the
gamer.
But on the other hand. without a
f5-cent piece. ana with prices
browsing around prOmiscuously as
they are today, an addition of half
cent pieces to the pennies we are al
ready compelled TO tote about might
become an intolerable burden.
Whereas in happy boyhood there
was satisfaction in weighing down
ones trouser pockets with stones and
shells and and knives and hunks OF
hard putty and everything that could
be thrust into them. the passion
wears off during manhood. One
comes somehow 10 feel that a pocket
was never intended 10 resemble 4
church poor-box at the close Of Z
powerful sermon on the duty OF
aims giving. because. after all, pen
nies are cumbereome. and If half
cents were added 10 them, a mar
might find himself in the immutable
predicament OF Mark Twain's IA
nous Jumping Frog"
Already one is approaching thai
/ condition after he has proffered
dimes for each one OF several ar
ticles. in the tobacco and other lines
which formerly cost a convenient
nickle. but have now risen cent OF
two. Indeed. under the weight tha'
tugs at his waistband he feels yer!
like crying out with the unhappy
captain OF the Pinafore:
Fair Moon. 70 thee I sing.
Bright regent OF the heav'ns.
Say why is everything
Either at skies or at sevens?"
But things that are lot at sixe:
or at sevens are pretty sure 10 be al
thirteens or fourteens. and perhaps
the 15-cent piece may prevent. or al
least delay their going 10 sixteens
an ss-antAans u might he a good