The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-12-27
A Trojan Horse.

= Resuming our essay, so to speak, of
the extraordinary proposition of the
Hon. w. d. Kelley, of Pennsylvania,
in the alleged interest of bimetalism,
as he strangely fancies, to put an end
tor the present to the coinage of stand
ard dollars, w must notice as extra
ordinary the chief reason which he
said, substantially, to a Washington
correspondent of New York news
paper. had prompted him, namely,
that suspension must break down
the price of silver to so great an eX-
tent as to make the silver rupee of
India, which is worth now but Is. I'D
worthless; thus to carry further
trouble into the Indian ex-
changes of England, and in that force
the British government to concur in
the demand for bimetalic currency.
TO get at this result, the oldest mem
Der of the House of Representatives,
noted for his ELUSIVE advocacy of the
duty of Congress for protective legis-
lation, to foster and stimulate the
iron mining and fabrication industry
Of Pennsylvania, would advise and
urge Congress to measure that must
at once paralYZe the silver mining in
dustry, whose prodnct last year was
of the value of from $46,0OO,0OO to
S4S,OOO,OOO. 1t would seem to have
escaped Mr.. Kelley that any measure
which would tend to make the rupees
of British India substantially worth
Iesss, must serve alsy to place
100000 of standard dollars
in precisely the same category in this
country. Therefore he seems willing
to pay for ultimate genuine bimetal-
ism as the present naturalization for
money purposes, here at home, of 160,-
100000 of standard dollars, with the
direct consequent paralysis of the sill
yer industry, whose production dur
ing the past five years has averaged
$4O,66O.OOO yearly; a paralysis which
would assuredly not stop only with
that industry, but must serve to les
sen the production of gold by twenty
per cents and which, moreover, must
sensibly injure the railroad interests
with all the industries that sympa-
thiZe with the repair and maintenance
of railways in active profitable bust
ness, not to speak of those industries
and businesses in all parts of the
country that are in one way OF an
other employed in providing mining
machinery and plant, and in the sup
ply of mining communities with food
and raiment, as well as luxuries. In
fact this proposed measure, if ac-
cepted, would prove in operation to
this country as boomerang in IN
skilful hands, for it would not reach
and smite the object at which it was
thrown, but would return back and
strike the source whence it had pro-
ceeded. There can be no rational
doubt of this. We do not doubt that
the low price of silver is hurting the
British trade both at home and in In
dia, and greatly harming the In
dian subjects of the British en-
pire, but it would at the same
time enrich certain classes both
in England and India who. pur-
chasing silver in London at something
above fifty pence an ounce, would
subsequently convert it into rupees at
the Indian minis, at the rate of a
fraction above sixty pence an ounce
or one penny an ounce more than the
value given to silver in our dollar of
APPS grains. Therefore, very natural
ly, the lower silver was deprecated in
London, the more of 1t would be
taken up for Indian minis. Thus,
for the three following fiscal years
ending on the 3Oth of June, the Indian
coinage was very large, taking up all
the silver there was offered; witness
the following:
1871 ...-............--... 3O,51S, 4l5
1875 S77SS.............. 4 4S55I SSl
Indian silver coinage SOth June, 1876
Average annual coinage. ........... 9,937, 3lS
This 100000 standard ounces of
silver, which, under Mr.. Kelley's bill,
would be rejected from our minis
next year, would necessarily seek a
market in London, where the effect
would of course be to depreciate the
market below the lowest price hither-
to reached Gin 1875, and would be
bought all the more readily for
India coinage purposes, and yet, with
the enormous population OF In
dia, have little more effect than peb
BILE would have if flung into the Cen
trail Park reservoir. Not so, however
would be the effect in this country OF
the inevitable fall in the price of sill
yer upon the widespread, complex
network of industrial and capital in
terests ineXtricably connected with
the development of the underground
wealth of our country in silver, which
Mr.. Kelley's proposed measure would
make worthless.
*The silver bullion Of Nevada, Utah, Colora
do, Arizona, Montana and New Mexico, when
refined, furnishes about 20 per cent of the gold
annually produced in the United States.