OCR Text |
Show H. A. BELL HAS A PLAN the earth, it would require 51,858.1 el them to pay the amount. PERPETUAL MONEY WOULD CREATE A KLONDIKE. debt would have a diameter of 29.957 miles. Just think of it Over fifty TAKEN TO TASK BY A STUDENT OP FINANCE. thousand worlds all pure gold to pay for that dollar. UR. GAGE'S MISTAKE. A single sphere of gold to pay ths Prosperity Sura to Follow It Adoption No lSoud to Kot tha FroUt on tho Fcopla'a Labor Tba Uurdou of In- taraat Espluluad. Editor State Register (Springfield, We see the claim made that the Klondike country can, or will turn out In the next two years, one thousand tons of gold, at which rate in three years it could turn out one thousand 111.). million dollars' worth about as much gold money as is now supposed to be in the world. That sounds pretty large, but if we had the perpetual money and industrial system in force as proposed In The New Idea, we could beat that nearer home in both wealth and money by putting one million idle men at work at $2 per day for three years, or 900 days, which would give us eighteen hundred million dollars of actual wealth. Now, while you may not agree with me, or Indorse the plan, I feel sure that many of your readers, after reading the work, will sgree with me in the claim that the perpetual money proposed in The New Idea would be the best money the world ever saw, and that the system would give the best results to mankind of any system ever known to the world, from the fact as coined and issued wealth would be added to the country, and everybody would be employed in making a living. As eighteen hundred million dollars would be Issued, we would have that amount of additional government wealth in property serving us, and the additional eighteen hundred million dollars of absolute legal tender money in circulation without bond or mortgage; besides, we would have millions of private wealth added to our country, to the extent' of homes and other Improvements, from the earnings of the ones who worked and built the .proposed government wealth. Money so issued or coined would be many fold better for our country than like amount of dollars' worth of gold being found by a few persons, as only comparatively few would be employed in getting out the gold, and, except for the needs of the few owners, the gold would not get into circulation without government or corporation bonds or individual mortgages. If the owners of it should build railroads, they would issue stock and bonds to themselves, so as to draw dividends and interest, and hence we would still have bonds on transportation bonds on all the people during all our lives and to be extended on to unborn generations a Crime which ought not to be tolerated. Under the perpetual money and industrial system proposed in the New Idea, we would have the wealth added to our country free from debts, mortgages and bonds forever. If the people whom this most affects, regardless of party politics, would look into the proposed plan and study it for sixty days, they would likely have it in operation before five years. If said system had been in effect the nineteen years prior to 1896. there would have been saved to the people in railroad transportation alone on the same amount of business ver live and a half billion dollars (more gold money than in the world); besides railway employes, except high salaried officials, would have received better pay, and every other class of labor would have been employed at good wages, all the while, adding millions more wealth to our country. Each perpetual dollar coined or Issued in payment for government property wealth would be a title in the hands of the persons receiving it for a dollar's worth of any commodity at market prlre or at the price offered for sale anywhere in the United States, and legal tender for services (taxes) deots or claims of any kind in our country. This perpetual money would come from prosperity from labor adding wealth to our country wealth free from bonds. Prosperity earning from confidence money Is only spasmodic to result in a panic each few years, or as soon as that confidence money eats up all its worth in Interest and dividends, or when it wants an extension bonds. If people of Interest-bearin- g could but comprehend the enormity of Interest on perpetual bonds to be piled upon posterity, to say nothing of dividends, they would not suffer another bond to be issued under any one-four- th . Shall we now ask which Is accounted the most important in our civilisation, the man or the dollar! Here is the record of only one dollar, but it draws interest for a very long time. Now think of our national bonded indebtedness, which, it seems, a certain class of people want to make perpetual. Further, our states, counties and municipalities have fallen into the bond habit. And still further our railroad bonds amount to more than all these combined, issued mostly on fictitious values, but the people have to pay interest on it all in the form of exorbitant and ruinous transportation rates. (Added to all the farmer buys and taken from the price of all he ships from his farm.) The attempt has been made, and will be made again, to make all these payable in gold. In the light of the above calculation, the goose that lays golden eggs must retire to an insignificant place and God must come forward and change the planets into gold to pay these bonds. Let us place high upon our banner this motto: No More Bonds Forever. Let us hope that Dr. Taylor and other able men as he will join in and get the people to make a start by adopting a perpetual money and industrial system as proposed in The New dea. If once started, the people can soon release themselves from transportation bonds without wronging anyone of his rights and without the loss of one dollar's worth of property. In place of loss to any one they would add millions of real wealth to our country dally and everybody would have plenty to do at good pay. Yes, in perpetual money so good that less than five dollars would pay for a ride to New York or San Francisco, and so plentiful that a section hand could pay for it with a couple of days' wages or less. Respectfully, HENRY ALLEN BELL. Ioharltnnro Tax Duel lam. The supreme court of California has decided that the inheritance tax law of that state, enacted in 1893, Is constitutional and valid. This is a valuable contribution to the Judicial decisions on the subject The California law does not provide for a graded tax.. But it has other features of discrimination which have caused similar legislation in several states to be assailed in the courts. The tax is levied only on collateral heirs and estates of small value are exempt According to the statute of California inheritances descending to children and brothers and sisters are exempt from taxation. All inheritances of $500 or less, whether going to direct or collateral heirs, pay no tax. The tax is uniform on all estates of over $500 going to collateral heirs that Is, to relatives not of full blood, like children or brothers and sisters of the deceased. There has been no judicial decision in any state declaring that discrimination against heirs on account of their degrees of consanguinity invalidates the tax on inheritances. Adverse decisions rested on the ground that estates were taxed according to graded values large estates at a higher rate per cent than small estates. On this ground the act of Ohio was held to be void as destroying the uniformity Governor Black of New of taxation. York vetoed a bill of the last legislature of that state providing for a graded tax. The courts in other states, Including Illinois, have decided that a graded tax is constitutional that It does not violate the rule of uniformity in taxation, because it is In the nature of a license to bequeath and inherit property not a tax on the property. This is the more enlightened view of the question and probably will prevail In the final adjudication of the question. Rtandard of Impracticability. The secretary of the navy, in a communication to congress lately, states that in the opinion of the ordinance bureau the establishment of an armor plate factory by the government would Of course it is. Anybe Impracticable. thing is impracticable that interferes with combines and trusts. The armor plate manufacturers were liberal contributors to the party slush funds of the campaign. They combined to hold up Uncle Sam, refusing to accept the $300 per ton limit placed by congress on armor plate, despite the alleged fact that some of these factories are supplying Russia with armor plate at $250 per ton. Everything is Impracticable nowadays that Interferes with the rule of combines, trusts and monopolies in general. Erie People. tho Secretary of tha Traaanry la a Skillful bat It Ignorant of the Science of Money-Chang- er Blooey. It stands to reason that a bimetallic standard would give a nearer approach to stability, and hence i;nesty, In the future than a standard based on gold alone, for the average fluctuations of two commodities is likely to be less extreme than the fluctuations of one. But, as we have said, a measure of value of strict invarlableness in purchasing power, and hence of honesty, is not to be thus Obtained. Such invarlableness cannot be secured until the volume of money Is regulated by its purchasing power, until it is increased just as an Increase is shown to be needed by a tendency of prices to fall and provision is made for decreasing the volume of currency if a spirit of inflation is evinced by a tendency of prices to rise abnormally. And no assurance can be given of this while we base the supply of money upon the fluctuations in the supply of two commodities. Still, the making of the supply of money dependent on the supply of two metals, gold and silver, instead of one, would be an assurance of greater stability, of a nearer approach to honesty, and this Is what is contended by bimetallists. It is further contended by bimetallists that the opening of the mints to free silver coinage would fix mint price for silver as the price Is now fixed for gold,and that this would be followed by such equalization of the demand for gold and silver that the commercial parity of gold and silver would be restored to the mint parity. In short, it is contended that under bimetallism the demand for money would adjust Itself so as to restore and maintain this parity; that the demand for silver would be so increased and the demand for gold for coinage so diminished that the commercial parity between gold and silver would at once be restored at the mint ratio, the purchasing power of silver bullion increasing with the increased demand and the purchasing power of gold diminishing until parity was reached. And after parity waa once reached it would be maintained, must for it Is evident that the use of debtors make to money Impel of full power that they can most readily get, and so the moment one metal became relatively abundant tor coinage, the demand for tt become would greater, relatively while the demand for the other metal would become proportionately less. The Inevitable result would be to cheek any tendency of the most abundant metal to fall below par and to keep the relatively scarcer metal from rising above par. These are the results claimed by bimetallists. But now Mr. Gage, who has been drawn into a newspaper Interview, comes forward and tells us that there Is no basis for the contentions of bimetallists; that bimetallism, meaning the free coinage of both gold and silver into full legal tender money, is really a very different thing from what In the first bimetallists contend. place," he asserts, "there is, properly speaking, no mint price for gold or liver." But when we turn to Dr. Llnderman's work on Money and Legal Tender In the United States," published in 1877, when he was director of the mint, and which Is first authority on such matters, we find in the first chapter of his work devoted to a brief explanation of terms commonly used In treating of bullion, mints, coinage and money." this definition of the Mint price of gold or silver the rate per standard ounce at which the mint converts bullion Into unlimited legal tender coins." So it Is quite clear that under free coinage at which a coinage rate is fixed for the conversion of bullion Into coin, there is a mint price as defined by the first of gold authorities on such matters. And that Mr. Gage is unaware of the accepted meaning of the term mint price" is not the fault of bimet. self-intere- debt-payi- st ng allists. It is very true, as Mr. Gage asserts, that all the mint does with the man who brings to the mint a certain num- ber of grains of uncoined gold, is to give him in return the same number of grains of coined gold, less enough to pay for the metal alloy used by the But this is equivmint in coining.alent to fixing a minimum price for gold for no man, when he can take standard gold to ' the mint, that is. gold Dr. C. F. Taylor, editor of The Mednine parts pure gold and one part alical World, Philadelphia, got Professor loy, and have it coined and returned II. E Whitaker of that city to calculate to him as gold coin at the rate of the interest on one dollar for 1896 $18.60 for every ounce deposited, will years. Having no time to verify the sell an ounce of standard gold for less figures before closing this article we than this, the mint price, nor will any will quote Dr. Taylor in The Medical man sell pure gold at a less rate than Learn to Labor and to Walt. World of February, 1897. Had one The greatest enemy of modern re- $20.67 an ounce, this being the amount ounce of gold dollar been loaned on the first day of a form is politics, is the agitator who of gold coin that pure is true of gold what and January, A. I). 1, interest being allowwill make, as did Jacob. labor cannot When h ed at the rate of 4 per cent per annum free coinage, true of failed to get his wife at the end of would be, under 1896 then of pure silver at our The compounded quarterly, years silver. price even years he labored another seven. later that Is, on January 1. 1896, the mint ratio would be fixed at present Southern Mercury. amount due would be $1.2929 per ounce and the mint price (593 nonilllon Tha L'ohearcnly Twin. per standard ounce at $1.16 dollars). If it were desired to pay this Republicanism aud Cleveland demo But Mr. Gage asserts that this coinIn gold 23.22 grains to the dollar then racy still go hand In band. Nebraska age of silver would not make a demand toklng spheres of pure gold the sly of Independent. for silver, ttat the government would circum-ltance- s. - : $593,333,360,819,-160,830,000,000,000,000,0- 00 1. i not buy Uver, but would merely give silver dollars in isiurn for silver bullion. The latter part of this Is true; the government. would not purchane the silver, and would not in itself make a demand for silver, but with the mints open to free silver coinage, every man with debts to pay would make a demand for silver and every debtor would be a buyer of silver bullion or dollars as long as any could be had cheaper than gold, just as every debtor would be a purchaser of silver dollars today and no debtors, save those with gold contracts to meet, purchasers of gold dollars, if silver dollars could be had cheaper than gold. Mr. Gage asserts that debtors would not in general, under free polnage, use silver in payment of their debts, that most debtors would prefer to keep their honor and integrity, that many will do it at any sacrifice, and that only a few will forfeit both for the most paltry consideration." But debtors do not consider today that they are forfeiting honor and integrity when they offer silver dollars or silver certificates in payment of their debts, and creditors do not hold them In any the less respect because they do so. And it would be the same under free silver coinage. It Is said that the case would be different, that silver dollars are now worth Just as much as gold dollar, that they would not be under free coinage. But what makes silver dollars and their representatives silver certificates worth just as much as gold dollars todayf Nothing at all, save the fact that debtors use them in payment of their debts when they are more plentiful, whenever the banks pay them out in preference to gold or greenbacks. If debtors did not so use them silver dollars could not now be kept at par with gold. And as they are kept at par today namely, by the commercial demand for them, so the new dollars coined under free silver coinage would be ktpt at par. It is Indeed asserted that so many would be coined under free coinage ELEPHANT AND BABY. Tho Faithful Contain Would Mot Loovf It Chario. We had three elephants for out tents and baggage; and one dear creature used to feed from my bands every day and seemed as gentle as any pet log or cat, says a writer in Sl Nicholas. One of our government chaprasis was particularly devoted to her and Invariably shared his meal of fruit or flour cakes with his dumb friend. On a particularly hot day, the chaprasi, to my surprise, placed his tiny child of 6 months at the elephants feet, warn- ing her expressively that the Infant was in her charge, and waa to be cared for till his return. I myself was an of her wonderful sagacity. Large banana trps and fig trees grew around, and, to my surprise, the elephant broke off one of the former's spreading leaves, held it like a fan in her trunk and from time to time gracefully waved it over the slumbering child, whether to temper the heat of the atmosphere or to keep off the flies I am unable to say. The gentle way in which she moved her feet over the child and across to each side astounded me. I sent for a white loaf and some oranges, and, calling her by name (she was never chained), tried In vain to tempt her to my side on the low veranda. Nothing would induce her to leave her charge. The warm air and monotonous wave of the swinging fan overpowered me with drowsiness, to which I yielded, and, after a sleep of some duration, I was awakened by quiet, subdued snorts beside me. To my surprise, I found that the chapraBl had Just returned to his offspring and the elephant stood near the veranda beside me, patiently waiting and gently asking for the tempting dainties so bravely withstood for over two hours eye-witne- ss TWO ODD THINGS. 1 o Kabbl t, and Fnlqno Long Tiotb Widow' Wood. In accompanying picture is shown the head of a rabbit which wa found would more than fill the demands for money, that there would be that they no demand for gold. If so, gold would go to a premium, go out of use as money, be exported to where it could be used as money. But if it did, the volume of money in gold standard countries would be appreciably expanded and gold cheapened, while the demand of the American people for money falling solely on siTver would cause that metal to rise; And as our domestic exchanges equal the exchanges, domestic and foreign, of all continental Europe, excepting Russia, there is no measure of doubt iaat silver would rise until it reached a parity with gold that would fan. Indeed, there is no reason to suppose that ths free coinage of silver would disturb the present parity between gold and our silver dollars. It would bring the commercial parity of gold and silver together, leaving the parity between the gold and silver we now have In use as This would be money undisturbed. effected by a rise in the purchasing power of silver bullion, and a coincident decline in the purchasing power of gold and silver dollars, which decline would be measured by a general rise of prices. WHARTON BARKER. WIDOWS WEEDS, AND RABBITS HEAD. dead near Stonehaven, in Scotland. Owing to the enormous overgrowth of the two lower iacisor teeth, the unfortunate animal had evidently perished from sheer insbility to nourish Itself. A curious object is tha 'widow's weeds" of an Australian aboriginal, it is the custom fa one part of Australia, near the northeast bend of the Murray river, for widows to attend upon the tombs of their dead husbands. Then, after ehaving their heads, they cover them with ptpeclap, kneaded into a paste. The head is first covered with a net, to prevent the clay from sticking too tightly to the skin a misfortune which is partly averted by the amount of grease with which every Australian native ia anointed. A layer of this clay, several Inches in thickness, is plastered over the head, and, when FRANCE AND SILVER. dry, forms a sort of skull cap exactly fitting the head on which it was moldFranch Framlrr. M. Mono, Sa((iti ed. As it weighs several pounds, the Kotlo of 1ft S to 1. The London Times, in a special ar- widows cap cannot be comfortable. ticle dealing with the causes which led These badges of mourning may be France to propose the free coinage of found lying about near the tombB, and use was discovered, they silver, says that the French ambas- until their real were very mysterious objects to travsador proposed 15 to 1 as the ratio at which France would open her mints, elers. and then proceeds to review the bimeConvict May Till tho HnIL tallic movement in France. It points The convicts in the state prison at out that in spite of protection the price of wheat continued to fall in France Michigan City, Ind., may be put ta until M. Meline, in 1895, in view of the raising potatoes and cabbages. Warden Immense agricultural vote, changed Harley proposes that the state leas front and decided that as protection from Chicago men 1,000 acres of swamp had failed and a high price for wheat land near the prison, on which shall b was necessary bimetallism must b cultivated potatoes, celery, and othei vegetables in quantity sufficient to suptried. The Times continues: At the conference in May, in the ply all the state benevolent and penal presence of M. Loubet and of M. Mag-nl- institutions. Under the new labor law the 900 convicts will he (M. Meline) said to Senator soon be Idle, and the warden believes Our support will not be Wolcott: would afford profitable emthe land wanting.' It must be said then that what the ployment He has ascertained that ths Times hinted Is absolutely correct. Pol- land can be leased for the Improveitics is at the bottom of all this. It ments the state would have to maks is stated in the city that France is not on 1L serious and that the governor of the Dog Rolil by tho Found. bank Is aware of this. Do not let us There are in Dawson dogs of every be too sure in questioning the statements and avowals of leading French kind and breed to the number of al statesmen, for we shell be neither cour- least 1,000, and are considered valuable teous nor prudent in doing so and may property. Singularly enough, they arc even be mistaken in the facts in ths old by weight the ruling price being $1 a pound for all under seventy-fiv- e case. pounds In weight, and $1.50 per pound for all weighing over seventy-fiv- e X Word to tho Overpaid. pounds. These dogs are all used for over-feSay, you over-paidragging loaded sleds In winter. One free and inde- of the miners ventures and the pendent American citizen, who can't that when spring opens thereprediction will not get a job to save your neck, I suppose be a single dog left In Dawson, and you think the collective ownership of that they will bring higher prices dead the railroads, telephones, coal mines, than they do now alive. oil wells, etc., etc., would destroy your Tims by tho Forelock. Individuality and reduce you to a conMurphy Domn it! I never can fotnft dition of slavery, dont you? Did you ever observe to what a condition of a thing whin I'm lookin for It Mullislavery Uncle Samuel has reduced his gan Shure; that's always the rase, an letter carriers? They work eight I suppose the way to do would bn fcr hours a day, and get from $75 to $100 a mon to hunt up the things he dont want when he aint lookin for em, an' a month for it. Rights of Man. have em ready. n, d, well-cloth- ed d, well-hous- ed anti-contra- ct |