Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-12-08

4
eminent should take no measyres e.
summoning or cooperating IN a ps,s
monetary conference until thew had nv.
Slously determined what policy thev
should lultiate or consent to, The vhnie
SUBJECT is understood to be under eons,d.
sra'lon OF the royal commission on the
oppression oil trade, but my lords can find
notning In the correspondence and In
formation before them which should in
uuce tnem TO depart from the instructions
given TO the representatives OF this conn.
Try al the conference Of 1881 -
The third report, last summer. of tho
raid royal commission, Of which Lord
lddeslelgh (Northcote) is chairman, al
yer reference TO every cause for the
changed relative value of the two metals
except the first cause, to which shall
presently allude, endedby recommending
special gold and silver commission.
by the return Of the Tory party 10
power In the elections of july, that re.
commentator fell into the hands OF
those who had made IT, In September
the Royal Gold and Silver commissions
was created as petition signed by 2l8
members OF the house II commons had
requested that it should be,
TO Inquire whether IL is possible TO
suggest any remedies within the power Of
the legislature or the government by IT,
/ sell or In concert with other mowers
winch would be eftectual in removing or
pAlllatlng the evils or Inconvenience thus
caused, without injustice To- other inter
ests ana without causing other evils or
Inconvenience equally great. Lastly, If
toe commission are OF opiOnion that this
IS possible they should state the precise
form which sucn remedies should take,
ana tne manner in which they should be
applied"
But the return OF the Tory party to
power was slgnalized by new dlstribu.
ton OF cabinet offices. The first lord OF
the treasury (lddesleigh) and the chan
cellor OF the exchequer Clicks Beach, -,
who had successfully held the leadershin
OF the house of commons, and whose
opinions had been cited by Mr.. Glad.
stones government for rebuke to the
lodi office, were translated TO other
functions; whereas, the former secretary
Oh state for India, who, In January, had
urged every endeavor for an International
agreement to revive the free coinage of
silver, took the chancellorship of the
eNchtquer and the leadership of
the house of commons, In that
place and office Lord R4npolph
Churchill announced, on September 7, tue
members OF the gold and silver commits
sion. It's chairman, a vice-president of
tue blmetallic league, and one OF its ex-
pert members, the financial secretary of
lhe government Of India, are known by
those who concern themse YES with the
| views OF thinkers on this subject, to share
In the belief that an int. national agr,e e.
ment to open the minis of leading govern
ments to the free coinage at fixed ratio
OF both gold and silver into unlimited
iegal.tender money would suffice to re.
store the relative value of the two metals
TO their old stability.
Whatever may be the conclusions OF
this commission, whatever the prosperity
OF those conclusions with cabinets or par
| liaments, its appointment and character
mark change in the attitude OF the Brit
lsh government toward that belief, at
least from Indifference to considerate at.
tention. The cnaDge is important. Never
iheleSs, weighty are the words OF Mr..
u alstone's government, reiterated last
May; Gan en,ire change in public opin-
Ion must take place before change of
monetary policy in this country could be
seriously contemplated" While men of
light and leading may strive to form pub
lie opinion in a matter of critical i'm
portance to the general prosperity,
but SO reconcile that not one Englshman
in 100, 900 is capable to form a Judgment
on 1t, and so repellent that not half the
capable will try, yet, even for agreement
among the competent, silence among the
incompetent, and faith among the masses,
time Will be necessary Moreover, IN
Great Britain as elsewhere, /. has been
the fashion n His1raHft
schemes OF currency-mongers or of
ignorant infationists, bimetallic theory
OF money long prevalent in the successful
practice Of nations, but which owes both
its scientific statement and authority 20 Il
generation later than that which could
but conceive an AnglO-centriC monetary
system. Apart from prejudice, wont and
use Will make 1t difficult, Ike the change
TO the modern theory of the planetary
movements, for a genera ion born and
bred since 1916 TO interpret the function
OF money from universal instead of au
insular point OF view.
am, therefore, far from supposiDg that
the recent heavy ia | of silver compared
with gold, and its effects upon Indian
finance and English trade, have dispelled
an Illusion prevalent in Great Britain for
seventy years, or that the changed atti.
tude OF her present government amounts
to candid confession tAat the act of
British parliament in 1876 was the fount
and origin OF the present great disturbance
of the monetary peace OF the world,
which her persistence in error has agra
waited and prolonged.
THE BRITISH GoLD.sIAN ILLUSION
ORIGIN OF THE MONETARY DIsL0cA-
ton.
The illusion consists Is seeing the
standard measure Of commodity prlces
throughout Great Britain, in the gold ex-
clusvely coined by her mints, Instead of
In the silver and gold OF the wor d.
The illusion is extraordinary, for it has
not beer denied by her greatest econo-
mlsts thai prices are an expression Gin
terms OF any national monetary unit EN-
bodied in 0in) OF the relation between
the quantities Of the two metals aud OF
commodities. Nos has it been imagined
that London prices expressed the relation
between the quantities OF gold only and
of commodities. Calcutta prices the re-
lation between the quantities of silver
and OF commodities. Paris prices the re-
lation en- third and different scale, be-
tween the quantities OF the wo metals
and Of commodities. The fact, too, is
apparent, that prices are one, though ex-
pressed In many lsnguages--tbe language
of each nations monetary unit, which
unit may here be embodied ia gold alone,
or there In silver alone, or elsewhere In