Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1878 — Solid. [ARTICLE]

Solid.

Judge Campbell, from his seat in Congress, laid down this proposition: Suppose A should render a thousand dollars’ worth of labor in the mines to bring out a thousand dollars’ worth of metal, which the Government puts its stamp upon, and it becomes money; and If should render his labor not in digging “ rat holes ” in out-of-the-way hills, but should render his thousand dollars’ worth of labor upon some public improvement, for the benefit of the whole people, and should simply ask for a treasury certificate, stamped a full legaltender the same as gold. Would there not be as much labor to produce the paper as the gold, and would not the paper be as much an equivalent and as much money, under the law? And would not the people receive the benefit and a proper equivalent? For his public improvement has not cost them one cent of taxes, and they now have the money to facilitate exchanges. And would not labor have the first chance ? And would not this be as “honest” money as to allow a few to charge interest on their own promise to pay ? Let the doubting read the history of Gournsey island, and study the first principle of political economy, and learn that money is a creation of law, and law is “ the perfection of reason.” The people are fast waking up to one thing, viz.: that they must have something that will buy “ butter” and pay taxes, if they have to make it themselves, through the agency of the Government and law.