The Bozeman weekly chronicle. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1883-1889, 1886-09-15
A Common Sense Talk.

Mr.. Morton Frewen, an English
gentleman who is largely interested in
English agriculture, and who il quoted
as authority on subjects relating to cur
rency, was interviewed by Globe re-
porter at his room in the Hotel Ryan
Yesterday. Mr.. Frewen has written q
great deal on the currency question, and
his article in the Nineteenth Century
for last October attracted attention on
both sides of the Atlantic. When asked
by the Globe reporter to give his views
concerningthe relations of the silver ques-
ton to the wheat market, Mr. Frewn
said: 1.-THE question of silver coinage is
not a bankers question at all, at least not
primarily. Upon the coinage demand
for silver depends the price of silver,
Just as much as upon the consumption of
beef depends the price of beef, and upon
the price Of silver depends the price of
wheat in this section. Silver has only
fallen because legislation, both in Europe
and America, has been playing tricks
and demonetizing it. SILVER, under a
steady coinage demand, would again go
back to 80 pence to the ounce, in which
case the bullion value of the silver dollar
would slightly exceed the bullion value
of the gold dollar. But the greatest in
terest in this question, as say, is the
farmers interest, for upon the price Of
silver depends absolutely the price Of
wheat and hundred other commodities
which you export to Englrnd in COM
petion with the great silyer-using nations
of the East.
In England we are al last awakened to
the great importance of the question, and
the roy al commission now sitting in Lon
don has traced the present depression Of
trade in great measure to the violent
fluctuations in the Eastern exchanges
that is, in the value of the silver rupee
which is the legal-tender coin of India
And as you in this country are just a.
intimately concerned as we are in the
value of the rupee, it seems to me thai
England and the United States had bet
ter put their heads together without de-
lay and effect settlement.
Question-What do You think should
be done?
think you should coin not less, bu
great deal more silver than you Dc
The fault of the Bland bills was and il
that it does not make sufficient use o
silver. Why is the Bland dollar worth
less than in bullion than the gold dollar
Because the present coinage demand FOL
silver in the world is not sufficient t.
give employment to silver. What makes
the price of anything? A demand for bee
raises the price of beef, and in the sam.
way silver is cheap at present because
coinage demand for it is insufficient II
keep its price steady. Germany has beer
the great offender in this respect By
changing her silver to gold in 1873 sh'
created an immensely increased demand
for gold, and by throwing S250, .0O'
worth of silver onto the worlds marke
she broke the price of that metal, Blu
the United States above all countries ar
the most concerned to appreciate silver
and you can do this only by coininl
more Of it. You are concerned for thi
reason, as long as the price Of silver tall
so long viii prices Of wheat and cotton
your two chief exports. fall The pric
of wheat is absolutely dependent upol
the price Of silver, raising as silver raise
and falling az silver falls. The farme
delegates, recently IN session here ough
ia have considered this question. as
is really q armens' question Of tn
greatest gravity.