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III
Constitutional Money
The Congress shall have power ... to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures. . . .
—Article 1, section 8, Constitution of the United States
On various occasions, the Supreme Court of the land has consistently interpreted the phrase "to coin" as "to create." The Constitution has never been amended to permit this profound obligation to be delegated to private interests. It was the intent and purpose of the Founding Fathers that the government should issue legal tender money in an amount calculated to best represent the nation's wealth and gross national product—thus to permit free interchange of commerce; that the Congress should further issue money—“bills of credit”—paid into circulation to defray government expenses; and that such bills be redeemed by taxation.
Hopefully the cruel tragedy of Vietnam will soon end for the fighting men of all nations involved; but its financial burden will never end for the American people. As in all wars, they have been further obligated to eternal tribute—to eternal payment of interest on the additional $100 billion expended on this fatal instrument of moral and environmental pollution, all because the power to create and control the nation's money has been delegated to private, profit-motivated interests—to international bankers. [p. 20]
Under bankers' "counterfeit" money, huge fortunes have been garnered from the war while the people at large are left floundering in debt, taxes, higher prices, and devalued money. Had this war been necessary, and had our government created the money to conduct it, we would all be poorer indeed for the experience. The same would hold if our country were invaded or hit by a major disaster. If inflation became necessary, we would share its burden alike.
Silas Walter Adams, in The Legalized Crime of Banking, said: "The government should create money, but not lend it. Banks should lend money, but not create it." And on war: "Take the profit out of war, and you end war." Adams was right on all points.
Honest money would permit the business community to turn from an atmosphere of plunder to one of ethical competition; provide a sound base for equal employment opportunities, and wider distribution of goods and services through fair distribution of wealth. Gone would be the profusion of instant millionaires created by accumulating—through inflation—the hard-earned wages of others. Gone would be the National Debt—the foremost threat to our freedom as a nation. Gone would be most of the burdensome consumer debt, and the often costly swindle attending its finance. Gone would be the vast pockets of ignorance and poverty that shame our democratic processes before godless dictatorships. Gone would be the extra waste and pollution generated by inordinate demands from too much wealth in irresponsible hands—hands that did not earn it, hence cannot know its value.
Proponents of the status quo will be quick to respond: "Yes, and gone will be Progress, Employment, and Prosperity." Really? We have in our Constitution the framework for a great nation and a good life for all—in the true meaning of the words. Utopia is not built in, nor should it be. That must remain man's to create. He is entitled to no more than the means, the will, and the right. All are his by the grace of God and the Constitution of the United States. All are denied him by a usurious money system.
Interest on the equivalent of $346 million in U.S. notes (as [p. 21] issued by President Lincoln, 1863) at 5%, compounded semiannually, would have accumulated approximately $44 billion by June 30, 1960 (Constitutional New Review, March 5, 1973). At the time the abovementioned notes were issued, 28% interest was demanded from their government by the banking "patriots."
If the government creates our money as we are prompted to believe, then why—and to whom—do we owe perpetual interest on our ever-growing and debilitating national debt?
As Prof. Irving Fisher of Yale explained, loans between individuals cannot inflate the circulating medium for the simple reason that the lender cannot lend what he does not have, as banks do. We will never stop inflation until banks, like individuals, are required to maintain 100% reserves in Constitutional money of the people.
Under the present fractional reserve system, it is mathematically impossible to defend our economy against inflation. And, as time marches on, larger and larger doses become necessary since each succeeding deficit must be increased by the total interest on all preceding deficits. What people somehow never seem to realize is that, in the process, they are bartering real wealth and services for "counterfeit" money.
Can you imagine anything more ridiculous than the most powerful nation in the world—with vast resources—using private credit to finance its government, in fact, borrowing its own money? Our debt-financing, debt-compounding folly has finally culminated in an incredible current deficit of $60 billion, to be followed by an estimated $100 billion deficit next year. Hence, the insurmountable paradox of inflation and depression at the same time. Still, the Administration and the Congress both insist they can stem the tide of "counterfeit money" with more of the same.
The solution is implicit. The sacred obligation "to coin money, control the value thereof ..." must be returned to the Congress where the Constitution specifically places it.
There is no bona fide food crisis, no bona fide shortage whatever; only stifled production, with producers unemployed—stymied [p. 22] by the inflation-depression impasse.
The money changers have returned to the temple with a vengence. And we have joined them—in business, in the professions, in the higher echelons of labor, and in the stock market. We must first "cast the beam from our own eye," and then drive them out—repeal the nefarious Federal Reserve Act—else, come 1976, we will find ourselves lamenting the demise of freedom rather than celebrating its birth. [p. 23]
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