The advocate., 1891-07-08

HNAfAh~0 RA%~F~~Ape~N@ ~-rN ~NA-@~~
many, the emissaEies of contraction re-
newed their efforts to demOnetize one of
the precious metals. This time they made
war ON silver instead of gold. The first
governmental action for chat purpose was
the United States mint law of 1873. Ger
many immediately thereafter closed her
mints to silver and adopted gold coin as
the standard money. The Latin union did
not yield for long time thereafter. But
finally, in 1876, the gold standard contrac-
tionists succeeded in closing every mint in
Europe against SILVER, since which time the
average range of prices of commodities, as
compared with gold, has declined between
20 and 40 per cent; and as compared with
silver the average price of commodities has
been comparatively stationary.
THE REMoRsELEss POWER OF MONEY
MONARCHs.
The contraction of the circulation Is
thus stated:
During all that time the iron hand of con-
traction has been Tightening it's grasp upon
the business and enterprise of the CONNER
cial world. II silver had not been demone-
tized il would have been at par with gold
to-day. There has been no inequality in
the production of the two metals which
could have affected their relative value. In
no period of the worlds history has their
production been so nearly equal as during
the last seventeen years. Legislation, and
legislation alone, advanced gold and de-
pressed silver. While each had free access
TO the mints Of the United States and the
Latin union, their relative value, as fixed
by law could not be changed by production,
Cor while given quantity of gold and a
given quantity of silver can be coined into
q dollar, franc or pound, the value of
such given quantities must always be the
same. Nine-tenths of the demand for the
precious metals has always been money
demand. Such money demand is purely
artificial and dependent upon legislation or
other governmental action. If either were
rejected as money throughout the entire
world, nine-tenths of it's value would be
lost.
But, Mr.. Carnegie, had almost forgot
that I was addressing q devoded advocate
and admirer of England, the "wise old
bird" Since your love of England and
English aristocracy has made you willing to
vote for free trade ON any condition, I can
hardly expect TO convince you that Eng
lands gold policy is wrong. do not ad-
mire the gold policy of England as applied
to this country, because believe it has al
ready transferred thousands of millions of
wealth from It's producers to cunning few
who profit by legislation. Nor do admire
the gold contraction policy of England as
applied TO other countries besides ours.
Take, for example, Egypt. There Eng
lands monetary policy is in full force. A
proligate Khedive sold Egyptian bonds at
from 25 to 30 per cent. discount, until he
involved that country in a debt to English,
French and other speculators to the enor-
nous amount of $5O0OOO,OOO. With the
money he built twelve palaces, in the build
ing Of which European contractors robbed
him right and left. When these monu-
ments of folly were completed, Egypt de-
faulted in the payment of interest on her
public debt. England became lawyer,
Judge, jury and sheriff in the collection of
these debts for the benefit of speculators in
Egyptian securities. She bombarded Alex
andria, took military possession of the
country, placed English taskmasters over
the people and enforced the payment of
gold interest on a fraudulent debt, con-
tracted 70 be paid in either gold or silver.