J 4jt
, j
r
8 'Che Conservative.
kind of these bad kinds of money forced
upon him.
In each country whatever is imported
or exported is brought to the standard
or measure of a fixed weight of pure
gold under the name of pound sterling.
Why ? For the simple reason that , in
the progress of commerce by natural
selection gold has proved to be the safest ,
surest and least variable of all the sub
stances or things that have from age to
age served the purposes of money or of
the medium of an exchange. The gold
standard exists dc fndo , not by means
of statute law or by treaty but in spite
of every effort of legislators to maintain
a dual or bimetallic standard.
This marks the parting of the ways
and also indicates the error in the methods
of the advocates of fiat money whether
they proposed to make stamped silver or
stamped paper serve the purposes of
money by the fiat of law. They are at
fault in what they call their principles
and consequently their policy is bad.
What is a principle ? A principle is a
rule of action governing human beings.
That is the right definition to apply in
this use of the word. It is a principle ,
an admitted fact , an admitted rule of
action governing commerce among na
tions that in its conduct gold passing by
weight has become the standard or unit
of value. The so-called gold standard
men of this country merely recognize
this existing truth , principle or rule of
action. Their purpose is simply to ad
just the monetary legislation of this
country to this admitted truth. The
gold standard exists. It requires no act
or treaty of legal-tender. Gold is not
and cannot be forced into use because
no force of law is required to secure
the acceptance of gold by weight in
liquidation of any contract for the sale
of any kind of merchandise anywhere.
All merchants in all the great commer
cial states are glad to got the gold and
will sell all and any kind of goods for it.
It is today the only kind of world's mon
ey. It meets Cernuschi's definition of
good money which will hereafter bo
given and it meets President Walker's
definition of money which will also be
stated. It is the only kind of money that
meets the conditions laid down by Cer-
nuschi and Walker , the two most distin
guished bimetallists of modern times.
On the other hand , the advocates of
fiat money or of money which may , as
they allege , bo created by law without ,
regard to what is called intrinsic value ,
try to resist this natural law of selection
of the best and safest unit of value by
bringing into force acts of legal-tender.
Every advocate of the unlimited coinage
of silver either at fifteen and a half or
sixteen to one every so-called bimetallist -
list and every greenbacker or promoter
of paper money holds that money is
the creation of law and that no coin of
any kind even if made of gold can do
the work of money except by force of
acts of legal-tender. It is useless to
attempt to analyse the confused and
contradictory statements to which these
advocates of fiat money are obliged to
resort in the effort to sustain this unten
able position. They have evidently
never given any attention to the history
of coinage or currency. They pay no
regard to the fact that the vast volume
of international commerce is now con
ducted in terms of money without any
act or treaty of legal-tender.
I therefore submit as fundamental
propositions , good money needs no act
of legal-tender. Bad money only re
quires the force of a legal-tender act.
Good money which is not of legal-tender
drives bad money out of use except
where such bad money is forced into
use by legal-tender. Bad money which
is of legal-tender drives good money
out of use in the country to which such
legal-tender acts apply.
In order to make these propositions
plain we must define :
1. What is money ?
2. What is good money ?
President Francis A. Walker's defin
ition of money is given in the following
terms :
"That which passes freely from hand
to hand throughout the community in
final discharge of debts and full pay
ment for commodities , being accepted
equally without reference to the char
acter or credit of the person who offers
it and without the intention of the per
son who receives it to consume it or to
enjoy it or apply it to any other use
than in turn to tender it to others in
discharge of debts or payment for com
modities. "
Henri Cerimsohi defines good money
in the following terms :
"That coin of which the bullion is
worth as much after it is melted as it
purported to bo worth in the coin is
good money. The coin of winch the
value of the bullion after it is molted is
not the same is not good money. "
It will be remarked that President
Walker's definition of money leads
conclusively to the single gold standard
although he himself tried to evade the
logic of his own definition. He says
anything'is money which is freely ac
cepted. The only kind of money which
is freely accepted in all countries and at
all times is coin or money made of gold.
The force of a legal-tender act is not re
quired to assure the free acceptance of
gold coin. It is required to force the
acceptance of every other type of money
whether made of silver or of paper.
. Cornuschi's definition of good money
leads directly to the single standard.
Coin made of gold is the only coin in
existence which is worth as much after
it is melted as it purports to be worth in
the coin. Neither of these writers ac
cepted the absurd idea that value can
bo created or imparted by law to any
thing. Yet they wore the two most
able and conspicuous of the recent advo
cates of bimetallism ; in fact , about
the only ones who are entitled to any
intellectual standing in this discussion.
Wherein were they misled ? While
they did not hold the false conception
that men can bo compelled to value or
esteem a thing by ct of law , they held
that by making a silver coin a full legal-
tender at a fixed ratio by weight with
gold such a demand or use would be
created for silver bullion to be converted
into silver money as would cause silver
bullion itself to be valued or esteemed
at the ratio fixed by law without any
regard to its relative cost of production.
Both these writers and all other advo
cates of the substitution of silver for
gold or for the joint use of silver with
gold at a fixed ratio wholly ignore the
relative cost , of production , the relative
use in the arts and all the other com
mon factors by which the prices of all
other things are governed.
In order to expose the fallacy and to
develop the falsity of the proposal to
open the mints of this country to the
free coinage of silver at sixteen to one ,
it only needs an assent to that proposal.
Coinage is the name of a process of man
ufacturing. It consists in converting
bullion of a given quality into discs of
metal of a given weight. Upon these
discs the stamp of the government is
put as a certificate of the weight and of
the quality whether the coin be made of
gold , silver , copper or nickel. That
definition exhausts the word "coinage. "
I have offered to meet the proposal for
free coinage maii3T times to that extent ,
limiting the proposed act to coinage.
This proposal is invariably refused.
"No , " is the reply , "these coins both
of gold and silver must be named dollars
lars and we demand an act of legal-
tender or a force bill by which creditors
shall be forced by law to take which
ever coin the debtor may tender. "
Messrs. Bryan , BartinoWarnerWeaver ,
and all their associates in fact , take the
position that creditors possess no rights
which debtors are bound to respect.
They in fact propose to deprive both
parties who desire to make a free con
tract of that right and without their
force bill or act of legal-tender they ad
mit that they cannot attain their true
purpose. What has been the result ?
When there appeared to bo a remote
danger of such acts of force passing con
gress men who wore in possession of
capital rightly refused to become credi
tors. They rightly took the ground
that the business men and the states by
whom and in which such views wore
held were not fit to bo trusted. Hence
came an almost total collapse of credit ,
a disastrous and unnecessary fall in
prices coupled with a complete paralysis
of industry. That such would bo the
result had long been forseen , predicted
in print and in correspondence , while
prudent men in every state and in every
