Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-01-19


: France, should the latter resum'
her bi-metallic system when she re
sumess specie payments-with d
without the adoption of the same
system in the United States
: as then the silver product of the
: United States will tend to flow
to France, where it would be re-
ceived at a fixed value in ex-
change for the manufactures and
produce of France, increasing hel
power to compete with England
IA power sufficiently important al
present to need no additional slim.
ulns.
The general argument has been
that the East will absorb all the sur
plus silver of Europe. No doubt ii
will indeed it has already done so
to great extent, on account of its
cheapness but whether to the salts
faction of merchants trading to the
East / leave them to answer. From
what hear on all sides, / fear that
two years of experience has not en-
amoured merchants with either
cheap or fluctuating silver. Excess
siYe and cheap imports of produce,
causing more sorrow than profit to
| importers while f1uctuating silver
has been an equal difficulty to ex-
| porters of goods manufactured in
| Europe.
But even allowing that ipe time
these silver difficulties will adjust
themselvelves by an Eastern alb
sorption-How will the case stand
| when the balance of trade turns
I Sln rNF
as it has been before, and as it may
and probably will do again, in the
! perhaps distant future? In that
event, Europe will have to be paid
in metal she has discarded, and
which would therefore be absolute
ly useless, unless by that time we
could persuade our American cous-
ins to pull the chestnuts out of the
fire for us by adopting silver as
money as well as gold-as is at pres
ent under discussion-tO the indig-
nation of those who hold that her
debt is payable in gold.
The long and short of the whole
matter is that owing to the demone-
tisation of silver by Germany, while
France was in a state of suspension
of specie payments, we have awoke
to the fact that France, and France
alone, has been the adjuster of the
relative values of gold and silver in
the past, and we have also
aWoke to the fact that as France |
has suspended the coinage of silver,
in unlimited quantities, silver has |
therefore lost its legal value, with |
no other machinery at hand to coun-
ter-poise the difficulty. This led to |
a general shunting of the metal all |
around-A, the holder, advising b |
or G to take 1.-THE gist of the mat
Ter being that the trading world
finds itself in a dilemma, out of
which there is no way but by the
restoration of the metal to the posi-
tion it formerly held, by return
to bi-metalism, either universal
or in part, and the question is
How is this to be accomplished Z?
Demonstration of silver in Eu-
rope can have but one result, the
continued and steady appreciation
of gold, of which there has been ev-
idence enough during the process of
absorbation of gold by Germany, in
exchange for her silver, a financial
operation that has not been equalled
in importance and gravity during
the present generation. And if, as
/ think can hardly be denied, this
single operation has caused such Sc
rious consequences by the United
States, as il inevitable if they
really intend to resume in gold In
January, 1879, as the holders of
United States bonds argue they are
morally bound to do, and not in
gold and silver.
I would, therefore, argue that in
urging the demonetisation of silver
generally, or in Europe only, we
are oontending for Q principle that
can only be followed by increasing Il
mercantile and financial difficult
ties, and continued and increasing
depression in general values in all
gold standard countries. The effect
being, so far as the East and the
West is concerned, to divide them
into hostile financial camps, each,
though anxious. to deal with the
other, unable to do so to advantage,
for the reason that the money of
the West is not the money of the
East, and rice UeySG.
Therefore, would appeal to you
to remain, at any rate neutral on
this question, and if you cannot be
made a convert to bi-metalisn, let
me entreat you to avoid the grave
possibility of urging ciYilised
nations y to adopt policy which,
there is some reason to believe, has,
so far, been one of the causes of that
commercial depression that, as yet,
shows little, if any signs of abate-
ment.
The several causes before enumer-
ated, and now pretty generally un-
derstood as affecting the silver ques-
tion, have brought that question
more before the commercial world
within the last two years than ever
before, and the law, that of France,
which hitherto gave silver its fixed
value, having been suspended, we
all set to work to demonstrate and
prove that, consequently, silver has
lost its value, whereas it has only
lost the legal value which the law
gave it, and which the same law
can, at any moment, restOre.-I am,
Sir, your most Obedieni servant, l..
LONDON, October, 1877.
p. ST. cannot, myself, under
stand the feeling of alarm with
which increased production of silver
is viewed by many. Treated as
money, as it was up to two years
back, by the law of France, inoreas-
ed silver must mean increased
wealth. We are not alarmed now
at the increased production of gold,
though we were when the discOv-
cries first took place. indeed. we
reduced production; and, there
fore, fresh discoveries of silver
should rather be viewed as a coun-
terpoise to the falling off of gold,
provided we make it money by law,
as such it was by law up to 1876 and
1870, l..
The Empty Platter,
Gath in the Cincinnati Enquirer.
ID ,Is,x