People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 November 1893 — THE CONSTITUTION AND SILVER [ARTICLE]

THE CONSTITUTION AND SILVER

The Framers of Our Constitution Had No Idea of Regulating the Commercial Value of Gold and Silver. But the constitution could not permanently fix and settle the law of values for mankind. The position of silver and its commercial value throughout the world have changed greatly since the constitution was formed and adopted. Silver was indeed recognized by the constitution as money, and silver is still recognized by the country as money; but its commercial value has undergone so great a change that it can no longer be kept at parity with gold but by limiting its issue.—Oregonian. The above is an extract from the editorial columns of our morning contemporary in which silver advocates are accused of “suffering from a misconception of the situation.” We have no misconception of the language of the constitution, as our contemporary admits, in recognizing silver as a part of the money of the country. Nor have we had any misconception as to the inability of that instrument to fix the commercial value of any commodity. That is the point the silver advocates are contending for. They say that congress has no constitutional right to either appreciate or de* preciate the commercial value of gold or silver by legislation. Congress has no power in the premises except within the limitations of the constitution, which makes it imperative unon that body to provide for the coinage of both gold and silver and to fix the ratio of one to the other. It is there the power of congress terminates, hence our argument that congress has not the constitutional right to demonetize silver in order to depreciate its commercial value. There was never any depreciation in the commercial value of silver until congress assumed the unconstitutional power of demonetizing, and as soon as congress gets back within the limits of the constitution and restores silver to its proper use as money, the white metal will again appreciate in commercial value. But the question of regulating the commercial value of either gold or silver did not enter into the minds of the framers of the constitution. They had no such purpose in view. If they had, congress would been invested with that power. They no more thought of regulating Ahe commercial value of gold and si Mr bullion than they did of fixing an unalterable price for wheat, corn or cotton. They are all commodities, and it does not comm

within the purview of legislation to fix the commercial value of any one of them. But it was the purpose of the constitution to determine what should be the money of this nation without regard to the commercial value of the material from which the money was made. Money is an artificial something created to be used as a medium of commerce and a representative of commodities. It is not supposed to have an intrinsic value, hence the framers of the constitution did not bother their heads about the prospective rise and fall in the price of gold or silver bullion. They merely selected the two metals most in use among the nations of the world, both of which had been recognized as money from time immemorial, and directed congress to provide for the coinage of the two metals without discriminating against either. When congress shall have performed its constitutional obligations the money question will be settled. —Portland (Ore.) Telegram.