St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-09-07

A C0mmOn.Sense Talk From a
Noted English Currency student
Who FavOrs Silver Coinage.

"A 10 III kthOnSCeMS6 1aAk ErOm n
Noted English Currency Student
Who FavOrs silver Coinage.
Mr.. Morton Frewen, an English gentleman
who is largely interested in English agri-
culture, and who is quoted as authority on
subjects relating tocurrency, was interviewed
by GLOBE reporter at his room in the Hotel
Ryan yesterday. Mr.. Frewen has written a
great deal on the currency question, and his
article in the Nineteenth Century for last Oc-
tober attracted attention on both sides of the
Atlantic. When asked by the GLOBE reporter
TO give his views concerning the relations of
the silver question to the wheat market, Mr..
Frewea said: '"The question of silver coin
ageis 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 CT beef de-
ponds the price of beef, and upon the price
OF silver depends the price of wheat in this
section. Silver has only fallen because legis-
lation, both in Europe and America, has been
playing tricks and demonetiZing it, Silver,
under steady coinage demand, would again
go back to go 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 Interest in this
question, as / say, is the farmers interest, for
upon the price of silver depends absolutely
the price of wheat and hundred other com
lnodities which you export to England in COM
pGLlClOn WlDQ the great BllV6T-uSlDg nations OF
the East.
In England we are at last awakened to the
great importance of the question, and the
royal commission now sitting in London has
traced the present depression of trade in
great measure to the violent fluctuations in
the Eastean 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 as intimately conce rned as we are in the
value of the rupee. it seems to me that En-
| gland and the United States had better put
| their heads together without delay and effect
q settlement.
| Question-What do you think should be
| done?
| think you should coin not less, but a great
| deal more silver than you do. The fault of
| the Bland bill was and is that it does not make
! sufficient use of silver. Why is the Bland
dollar worth less than in bullion than the
gold dollar? Because the present coin
| age demand for silver in the
world is not sufficient to give employ
ment to silver. What makes the price OF
| anything? A demand for beef raises the
price of beef. and in the same way silver is
| cheap at present because the coinage demand
| for it is insufficient to keep it's price steady
| Germany has been the great offender in this
! respect. By changing her silver to gold IN
| 1873 she created an immensely increased de-
mand for gold, and by throwing $3.50, 100000
worth of silver onto the worlds market she
| broke the price of that metal. But the
| United States above all countries are the
| most concerned to appreciate silver, and you
can do this only by coming more of it. You
| are concerned for this reason, as long as the
| price of silver falls so long will prices OF
wheat and cotton, your two chief exports,
| fall. The price of wheat is absolutely de-
| pendent upon the price of silver, raising as
| silver raises and falling as silver falls. The
farmer delegates, recently in session here,
ought to have considered this question, as it
| is really farmers question OF the greatest
| gravity.
| Q.--What is the connection between the
| price OF silver and the price of wheat?
| 1t is this: The money of the Asiatic nations,
| the Indian and the Chinaman, is silver; it de-
| ponds upon now many rupees he gets for 1t,
whether the Indian ryOt can afford or not to
| export wheat to Europe; you see he sells his
| wheat in London for gold and with that gold
| he buys silver, which he takes into the gov
ernment mints in India to be coined into ru-
| PEGS; now, before the fall in the price of
| silver, the English sovereign only bought for
| him ten rupees, now it buys sixteen; he is
| therefore able to sell wheat 80 per cent.
| cheaper and still get as many rupees as be-
| fore.
| O.-Ouite so, Mr.. Frewen, but surely the
| rupee must have lost its value in India by
reason of the fall in the price Of the bullion
| that it is made of; that is to say, surely the
Indian, when he has got his rupees, has to
| give more rupees for land, labor and every
| thing in India that he buys?
| Your argument is most natural one, but
| such, however, is not the case; the rupee in
| India to-day is worth more to buy everything
| Indian than 1t was when it was composed of
| the same amount of silver, which silver was
worth at the rate of 60 pence per ounce. The
! evidence before the royal commission shows
| that prices in India have even fallen
Notwithstanding the fall in the price of
silver and this being the case exports of
wi India
mously stimulated with each successive
fall in the price of silver. Prices in India
are the same, but the Indian who used to get
% rupees per quarter for wheat in England,
when the rupee was worth 2 sh1llings, now
also gets 20 rupees per Quarter-rupeeS which
cost him only Is pence each. And this is
why say this silver question is pre-emi-
nently farmers question. Wheat, maize
and hides and many other products will con-
tinue to fall lower and lower with each fresh
fall in the price of silver, and silver will con-
tinue to fall until you support its price by
coinage demand for it here. Since 1879 silver
has been falling steadily, dragging wheat
down with it; the exports from the United
States in 1879 were 125, 100000 bushels, last
year they fell Off to $1,000, 600 bushels. India,
on the other hand, exported in 1879 only
1000, 900 bushels, and last year over 40, 000,-
900. Your currency legislation which refuses
free coinage to silver is running the farmer of
Dakota and Minnesota in order to bring about
the agricultural prosperity of Bengal and the
Punjaub.
OIL see you wish to leave the whole bur-
den of coming silver on our shoulders Your
farmers in England are as much concerned
as ours are Why not do your share in this
matter?
/ hope we shall, aud think you may count
upon our corporations; but remember our
agricultural production has value of only
$500, 000, 600 year. whereas your agricultural
production has annual value of nearly or
quite $5,eo0,o00,00O And at present England
within the bounds of her empire is doing as
much for silver in the way Of coinage as you
are You coin about S24,000,000 a year,
which is about the amount England annually
coins in India. Some years our coinage in
India has risen to the large amount of S15,-
100000.