Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 April 1895 — COUNTERFEIT COIN. [ARTICLE]

COUNTERFEIT COIN.

On the title page of “Coin’s Financial school” a quotation is made from a report of ttte. “United Stats Monetary Commission of 1878” as follows: “The discovery of the new world by Columbus restored the the volume of precious metals, brought with it rising prices, enabled society to reunite its shattered links, shake off the shackles of feudalism and to relight and uplift the almost extinguished torch of civilization?’ In the ifirst place it is falsely attributed to the “Monetary Commission of 1878 beings infect, garbbl from page 50 of the “Report

and Accompanying Documents of the Pnited States MtHietary Commission Organized I’nfler Joint Resolution of Aug. 15, 1876.” In the second place, it is falsely quoted, sentences being left out, while the real quotation is as follows: ’ “It needed the heroic of rising prices to enable society to reunite its shattered links, to shake off the shackles of feudalism To relight and uplift the almost extinguished torch of civilization.” The men on this commission of 1876 who wrote this were silver partisans, John P. Jones, Lewis V. Bogy, George Willard, R. P. Bland and William S. Grotsbeek, and their statements have been the amusement of students ever since. For example, there is not a single statistician of repute who ever stated that that was $1,800,000,000 of gold in existence at the Christian era.

Then “Coin” interpolated a sentence of his own coining in brackets into the quotation, as if it had been also quoted from the commisison: “Dr. Adam Smith informs us that in 1455 the price of wheat in England was two pence per bushel.” What Adam Smith actually said was this (B. L, chpter 11, part 3): “10 pence a bushel, therefore, had in the 25 of Edward 111., been reckoned a very moderate price of wheat,” etc., and “From about the middle of the fourteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth century, what was reckoned the reasonable and moderate —that is, the or average — price of wheat, seems to have sunk gradually to about one-half this price [i. e., four ounces]; so as at last to have fallen to about two ounces of silver, tower weight, equal to about 10 shillings of our present money. It continued to be estimated at this price until tbout 1570.” Since there are eight bushels m a quarter, the price per bushel was 15 pence; not two pence, as “Coin” says. These errors are not, of course very vital to the money question, but they are vital to the trustworthiness of this book. A book which dees not contain a true statement on its first page is certainly open to suspicion when it goes on to further monetary discussion. Tlielectures spoken of in this book never took place in the Art Institute, nor in any other place in Chicago; nor were the persons mentioned therin present, nor did they make any of the remarks attributed to them. The whole account of the lectures is absolutely untrue, and the money logic is as untrustworthy as the general deceit of the book. — Chicago Times Herald.