434 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



as a virtue of the same rank with the prudence of Nestor, the 

 constancy of Hector, and the gallantry of Achilles." 



Elsewhere, Sir Henry Maine, when dealing with the progress 

 of a society resting upon the just relations established by free 

 contract, remarks that " the many have an almost instinctive 

 reluctance to admitting good faith and trust in our fellows as 

 more widely diffused than of old. . . . From time to time these 

 prepossessions are greatly strengthened by the spectacle of frauds 

 unheard of before the period at which they are observed." 



" But/' as he most profoundly remarks, " the very character of 

 these frauds shows clearly that, before they became possible, the 

 moral obligations of which they are the breach must have been 

 more than proportionately developed. It is the confidence reposed 

 in and deserved by the many which affords facilities for the bad 

 faith of the few; so that, if colossal examples of dishonesty occur, 

 there is no surer conclusion than that scrupulous honesty is dis- 

 played in the average of the transactions which, in the particular 

 case, have supplied the delinquent with his opportunity.'' 



In the observations of nearly half a century of business life the 

 writer has become profoundly impressed with the truth of these 

 observations, and has been almost brought to the conclusion that 

 contracts would be fulfilled, commerce would go on, and debts 

 would be paid as fully in the long-settled and well-established 

 communities now existing in many parts of this country, if all 

 laws for the collection of debts and all acts of legal tender were 

 repealed. 



When the quality of the money of a nation is evenly main- 

 tained, no act of legal tender is needed to enforce its acceptance 

 by a creditor. If there is any other point of dispute, evidence of 

 an offer of the debtor to fulfill his contract in money might be 

 perpetuated without giving him an option to pay in poorer money 

 than he had promised. It is only when the quality of money has 

 been depreciated that an act of legal tender is cited by a debtor, 

 and in so doing he transfers the fraud from his own shoulders to 

 the Government that has impaired the terms of his contract. 



In the free states which have been established by the English- 

 speaking people character stands for more than capital in estab- 

 lishing credit ; credit rests more upon the high standard of busi- 

 ness integrity than upon legal provisions for the collection of 

 debts : under these conditions, freedom on the part of the pur- 

 chaser and the seller, the employer and the employed, to make just 

 contracts, is the condition of abundant production and equitable 

 distribution, while the very existence of society depends upon the 

 maintenance of personal liberty. 



The condition under which man exists is that he shall work. 

 The work may be mental, manual, or mechanical. Some may be 



