side; but when in 1873 the wings
were clipped from the silver and the legal tender breath shut off, then
the gold had to do all the work; it being too weak to do so, adversity
came.

They tell us that law cannot regulate value and that gold never changes
in value. Let us for a moment form ourselves into a party of
truthseekers and look up the record as to that proposition. The law of
April 2nd, 1792, said 371.75 grains of silver could be freely coined
into one dollar, or two halves, or four quarters, or ten dimes, each to
be a legal tender at its face value, if not worn, for any amount; that
law also said 24.75 grains of gold could be coined into coins of the
value of the dollar; of course you understand the gold was in higher
denominations than the dollar. Now let us watch carefully as to whether
or not the law cannot regulate value and that gold never changes. In
1834 the law said 23.20 grains of gold when coined in American money
constituted a dollar. Let me see, the gold has changed all at once and
the law regulates the amount of gold that goes in a dollar. In 1837,
the law requires 23.22 grains of gold to the dollar, another change. In
1853 the law says that no longer shall it require 371.75 grains of
silver to make a dollar's worth of fractional coins, but that 342.22
grains of silver would make two halves, four quarters or ten dimes, and
they should be a legal tender in the payment of debts for $5. In '73
the coinage of the standard silver dollar was stopped by law, and
silver fell in price. In 1878 the Bland-Allison act allowed the coinage
of the standard silver dollar. In 1890 the Sherman act called for more
silver coinage and the price of silver immediately advanced. In 1893
the coinage of silver was again stopped and the price of silver
dropped, hence we see that the law does regulate values, and that gold
does change in value so far even as the dollar is concerned. A teacher
once told Benjamin Franklin that a boy told him, if he would take a tub
weighing 100 pounds and put 500 pounds of water in it, which only about
half filled the tub, the tub and water would weigh 600 pounds, but if
he would put a live fish weighing 100 pounds in the tub, the tub, water
and fish would not weigh more than 600 pounds. Can you explain that
curious contradiction of the law of gravity, asked the teacher of
Franklin. Whereupon Mr. Franklin requested his interrogator to call at
his office next day. Franklin procured a tub weighin