New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-06-21
loss that would result directly and indirectly from
tina demonstration of her immense stock OF silver

was to have reassembled on tine l%tn oi Apri i"SV'
seems to have been altogether wise and proper
The grand machinery of international concert
which has been successfully set in motion must not
be allowed to stop until the outcome of the confer
ence shall be an International Monetary Treaty or
until the forces of English opinion which are at
work in England to bring about such Union shall
have had time to prove themselves impotent (which
God forbdy to compel the Government and the
whole people of the British Islands to see the IN
terests of their Empire, and to consent TO tine
monetary union and peace of the whole ciyillzed
world. The academic and theoretic discussion OF
the question has been exhausted the crisis calls
for the exercise of the highest diplomacy. AS has
been eloquently said: The time demands sue
cess greater even than that Of the Treaty OF Wash
ngtor."
Now 10 the true and earnest bimetallst the course
to be pursued by the United States seems clear
ne should at once stop the coinage u siir@ do"drS
under the Bland bill. This action is imperatively
necessary at the present time and should have been
adopted long ago. The Bland bill contained two
features which were of immense Importance at INC
date of its passage in 1879 it the first vigorous
protest by the law-maling body of great nation
against the theory and practice of gold monometal-
ism.-and the first powerful Though misdirected)
ATTEMPT to restore silver to its rightful place as
money; and next, the bill contained the grand pro-
vision empowering our Government to summon the
nations to meet in friendly conference looking to an
international rehabilitation of silver and the use OF
both of the tmehonored money-metals. But IN
every other particular the bill was considered an
unwise measure by the staunchcst friends of inter
national bimetallism. One of the very foremost
and abest OF these among our countrymen, MT. ,.
Dana Horton, perhaps l should say the foremost
and certainly the most learned and accomplished OF
American neutrality-suspicious. in The Bankers
Maoazine. January, 1877, a remarkable article en-
titled "The Silver Bill in Congress" in which he
opened his argument with the telling sentence:
q The Bland bill means niscs,etW Would that Con-
gress had listened to him then! But his reasoning
applies with the same overwhelming force to-day in
favor of stopping the silver coinage under the law
as il did against the coinage project while the meas
ure was under discussion. Mr.. Horizons argu-
ments doubtless helped to defeat the free coinage
clause in the original bill, which if passed would
speedily have brought the United States to silver
monometallic basis, and would have turned over 10
England and Germany the one hundred and thirty
millions Of cold which we then held "a result which
the nations of Europe were only too anxious TO see
brought about. The limitation o. the silver dollar
coinage to 100000 a month was compro-
mise which has temporarily averted she ca
lamltous effect which would have followed free
coinage at tlaU Ulule. DuJ hOIVoh oPO"N
ing for all true bimetallists showed that the United
States should not, alone among the Western ma
tons coin full legaltender silver thatn no event
ought we to coin at our ratio of to 10 while the
| ratio in France was 1 to 15i2; for there being
| difference of about per cent in favor of silver
under the French ratio as compared with ours ALI
orr silver would flow to France If the French mlnts
were open, as our experience since 1884 had aDun-
| dainty proved; and that as the minis OF france
and of the Latin Union had been closed to silver
since the demonstration of that metal by Germany
and the northern European countries, those mlnts
| must remain closed if persisted in coming at
our ratio of to 16. Says our author: Coinage at
| to 16 drives the Latin Union out OF the held.
And those countries cannot coin silver at any other
| ratio than | to 15io because of the enormous
| amount of silver circulating in their monetary
| system at that ratlo-$5OO 000,0 in France
alone. The silver dollar should be the ally of the
silver franc; but to coin dollars at to 16 is to
prevent silver from becoming an international
| money in Europe"
| AT the time of the passage of the Bland bill, BIZ
metallists were hoping for an International Con-
| ference that-to quote Mr. Horton again" might
| induce England and Germany to join the United
States and the Latin Union in free coinage of gold
| and silver at the equation of to 15l2." And he
continues: "This would be the Inauguration, If not
of universal at least of comparative monetary peace
| throughout the world" Two great Conferences
have taken place, and the wished for end is Ger
tany nearer than 1T was when the call TO the ma
| tions was first sounded by the United States in
1873. We have seen that Germany is more than
| half won and that England is deeply exercised.
Such great ideas move slowly; and the idea OF In
! ternational bmetallism is certainly advancing
The realization of the monetary union OF the COM
mercial states would be one OF the grandest
triumphs of the nineteenth century and any false
step endangering the result would be regretaDe III
proporton to the degree in which it might retard
| the contamination. The United States cannot
afford to sustain the gold price of silver in London
bv keeninc M our coinage demand for 24, 000, 0OO
| Of the metal annually which England and Germany
still refuse to accept as international money The
coinape under the Bland bill is slowly but steadily
| operatinp to change the reserves of the United
States Treasury from gold specie, which Is inter
! national money to silver specie which 49, In the
| present situation only national money-a sort oil
| metal Whiteback,p current only at home. sooner
or later this policy will bring the country to prac
tically silver basis and our present great stock OF
gold will disappear from circulation anu hnd lIs
| way over the sea and into the European pahH
| vaults from which $250,000,000 of it have been
! drawn by us during the past three years. we
would place ourselves in the position OF India and
| the gold monometallists of England and Germany
would be reinforced and might bid defiance to the
| world.
| At the present time we are well nigh masters Of
| the situation Let the Congress of the United
States reafirm this country's belief in the great
| principle OF international agreement for the free
coinage of both gold and silver as full legal tender
| money at a uniform ratio; and declare that the
! United States awaits the formation of such BIZ
metallic Union, and pending the formation OF the
| same will coin more silver 1t is believed that
| such action by our Government would have the
most powerful effect to bring about such an union
| while the continued coinage of dollars under the