MONEY HAS ITS ORIGIN IN THE LOVE OF ORNAMENT-A MEANS OF KEEPING THE PEOPLE POOR-WHAT MONEY COSTS SOCIETY-THE CAUSES OF METAL MONEY THE HISTORY OF PAPER MONEY-OPINIONS OF ANDREW JACKSON.

"Gold 'tis trash, it is the worldling's god."-POLLOX.

OME village mechanics living in Europe were watching some street occurrence, which caused the magistrate to come to them and tell them to go to work. This was very thoughtful in the magistrate. He no doubt thought much was depending on their labors, and he was right. It probably never occurred to the mind of the magistrate, that if he and many others would go to work at something of utility there would be such an abundance in the world that disputes would never occur at all. Suppose these laborers should go along the banks of a stream and seek for shells and convert them into rings and ornaments, men would not be any richer. If the magistrate should say to these men, poverty will overtake you, it would be the truth. If these persons should go and seek for gold, bitter poverty would be felt somewhere.

Adam Smith, in his "Wealth of Nations," says: "Among civilized nations many do not labor at all, many of whom consume the produce of ten times, frequently a hundred times, more than those who work." Nature never designed this. As labor gives aching bones and limbs,

men are continually trying to throw the burden of their keeping on those who labor. A more prolific source of living without laboring, consuming without producing, can not be found than in money, which is truly an invention to get others' wealth and labor; which takes from him who labors the fruits of that labor, and gives it to him who will not labor.

Money had its origin in a period of the world when the condition of mankind was equal, when they had nothing to exchange. It is probable that we are indebted to the love of ornament for money. It is said that John Lander, the African traveler, had with him the same medals of brass that were used by the British Government to get the American Indians to fight against the American people. To get these medals the Indians will sell the lands of his ancestors; the African will set fire to the villages of neighboring tribes, for the purpose of selling the fleeing inhabitants into slavery, so as to get these ornaments. What a fearful price do the savages pay for these mean ornaments! With what pride do they wear them! Ships go to Africa with beads and copper coins, which are exchanged for gold dust, and ivory. No doubt these beads and coins could be exchanged for wheat if the natives had it. Some of the Chinese hang their money around their necks as an or

nament.

When the poor inhabitants of Cuba and St. Domingo, were first visited by the Spaniards, they had little pieces of gold in their hair and other parts of their dress as ornaments. They were astonished at the rage of the Spaniards to obtain these, and to give their food and clothing for that which was of no value to them, nor of any great value to the Spaniards.

The name money comes from the Latin word moneta,

a piece of stamped metal. A slave, to whom a sheep was due, could he be persuaded to receive a coin instead of it, would have no motive to receive it except for ornament.

Those who rule a country always contrive to own the copper, silver, and gold mines. William the Norman gave these to his favorites, and forbid all others to seek for silver or gold. The Duke of Cornwall owned the copper mines. He could make copper money and give it for what he liked. Wages were once a penny a day. If a penny was coined in five minutes, it got a day's labor out of the slave. Money at first was rude bars, till human ingenuity found out how to stamp on them the monarch's image.

William I ordered that twelve ounces of silver should be coined into twenty parts, each part to be called a shilling. Each succeeding monarch made it to weigh less at every coinage, a grain or more at a time. In the time of Philip and Mary, the twenty shillings only weighed five ounces. If wheat was a shilling a bushel in the time of William, his pound of silver got twenty bushels of wheat. If the pound of silver was made into twenty-one shillings, the king had twenty-one bushels of wheat.

Charles I wanted money. He said: "Let the servants of the mint mix three penniesworth of silver, with as much alloy as will make a coin of the size of a shilling.". He was told the servants of the mint would not do it. "Let them be sent to prison," said the angry monarch. order was not obeyed. It would have been in the time of Henry VIII. European coins are shamefully alloyed.

The

If the State treasurer were to get in all his taxes, and get a decree passed that half a dollar should be of the value of a dollar, he would pay twice as many debts, so would all others. When the debts were paid, if another decree were to bring back again the money to its first value it would be

a fraud. The king of France changed the livre, a coin that was divided into twenty-eight parts, to the value of forty When the king had paid his debts, he changed the money back again to the first value.

parts.

The gold and silver in the English mines was exhausted about the time of Henry VIII. England has now obtained enormous supplies of gold from the mines of South America. Many a bagful of gold-dust has gone into the Mint, to be stamped into money, and then exchanged for the products of labor. This exchanging has been going on for generations, and it makes the people poorer. Such have been the accumulations of gold and silver in England, that twenty times as much is given for wages, as was five centuries ago. This does not improve the condition of the poor toiler. A bushel of wheat for ages has been the standard for a day's labor of a skilled laborer. If wages are a penny a day, the bushel of wheat is worth one penny. a day's labor is five shillings, then is the bushel of wheat worth five shillings. Mechanics fall into a fatal error to think the higher their pay, the better is their condition.

If

Suppose the merchants of this country obtained gold amounting to $100,000,000, and spent it, the inhabitants would be that much poorer, with much less of the comforts of life. It is something we can not eat or wear.Simple tons will give their necessaries for superfluities. Stewart, of New York, one of the richest men there, has no gold on his person, proving that it is of no utility, except to surgeons and dentists. The papers tell us that during twenty years the California mines have yielded $1,200,000,000. This sum would have given 1,200,000 families a happy home, worth $1,000. A cottage worth $500 with barns and fences to that amount on land, would make many supremely happy. The Secretary of the Interior, tells us

This boy, because he paid for the broom, is made a clerk, which has improved his looks, at the expense of some one else's comfort; to prove this his patron obtains sum of money on a town-lot, or piece of wild land, the buyer of which has to practice unjust, painful self-denial to obtain it. The Being who rules on high never designed that a part of his children should keep others in unproductive toil. In Cincinnati, there are 4,000 clerks and book-keepers; these working on level, fertile land, aided by machinery, can produce a sufficiency of food to maintain its 300,000 inhabitants. If its 1,000 persons as police, sweepers of the streets, rulers of the city, etc., were to work on M. Greenwood's loom, they could clothe the city.