The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1893-04-18
THE SILVER QUESTION
Ably Discussed by President Andrews
al WoonSOCket.
HONESTY SHOULD Be THE POLICY.
Eimetallism Cannot be Sustained by the
United states Alone-A Factor That
the silver Champions Ignore. the
Conflict for Gold Between Nations

IIebiuont ~. DeuJ. AuurcWb OIL DToW u
unive rsity addressed the Woonsocket
Bust ness Mems association last evening.
As President Andrews was one Of the dele
g ates to the recent International None
tary conference at Brussels. his words
will be read with great interest. His
subject was, 'The Arguments Against
the Free Coinage OF Silver" Ia sub
stance he said i:
1t is better to deal with any great public
question in absolute honesty. Here In the
east this has not always been done In the
treatment Of those who believe in the free
alone and they have been denounced as
dishonest. Some of them probably are, but
there Is no good reason for stigmatizing
them all In that way any more than there
fs for questioning the honesty OF those who
wish silver demonetized. We make another
mistake in denying that they have q cause,
and the free silver men are not fools, and they
have something to say for themselves. We
make another mistake In denying the appre-
citation of gold, and speaking of silver as Q
tricky and base metal. Judged by the only
true criterion, the prices of general commodi-
ties silver has had since is7S In spite OF Its de-
monetixation, q far steadier purchasing power
than gold. To contradict the free silver men
on these and such points II not only to display
ones ignorance,
1t IL Had Policy.
hindering our chances Of coming to any UNDER
standing with them. / think there are solid
grounds for opposing the free silver policy,
and the first one is-the tremendous considera-
tion that It Il unsafe for one nation alone,
even tho United States, TO coin silver freely
because we cannot by ourselves hoat the two
metals together at any ratio. Were we 10 try
II the result would be to drive gold from circu-
lation and place Us on the same money basis
as Mexico.
This h denied, know, by many able men.
who think that we alone could float the two
metals, but such theorists ignore several
weighty facts. They disregard the unpopu-
larity into which silver has, justly or un-
Justly, fallen. / view this attitude towards
silver as unjust, but 1t exists, moro or less.
Whole communities, and particularly those
who have most to do with money, have lost
confidence In the white metal Let any single
nation now using gold as its basis money,
open its mints to silver and these people will
push all of IL that they can secure into those
mints with the utmost speed Present mines
will be worked for all they are worth and old
mines, now closed, will be reopened. New
ones will be developed, particularly In Oregon
and South America.
No such condition as this existed in the con-
dition Of France, so often referred to, between
1903 and 1873. The whole world then believed
in silver and also in gold. The Paris mint,
therefore, never had to stand run on either
metal. The history Of silver since 1873 has
changed all this. Besides, the world of busi-
ness has doubled and trebled In size, and the
facilities for
Rushing q Precious Metal
from one part of the earth to another have
multiplied tenfold. The analogy Of the French
history referred to Is thus very misleading.
Another thing the silver champions ignore,
which is equally new factor In the question,
as II is a powerful one. I refer to the conflict
now going on for gold In the gold using ma
tions.
Every treasury and great bank where
this metal is stored holds on to It
with iron grip. Germany and Franco
guard their tremendous boards with
defensive premium. The Bank Of England
stands ready to put up the rate Of discount at
don. Austria and Russia pay agents q secret
bonus to get our gold away, and 1t is the
opinion Of good judges that we shall not get
through with them and their gold hunger un-
til we have lost at least S:O,000000 more Of our
already too little supply. Suppose we now
open our mints to silver without the concur
renee Of other nations. Every possible effort
will be made TO bring free silver to our mints
and every possible effort also to get away our
gold.
cannot believe that we could stand, strong
as we are, against two such pressures. Our
gold would go. In the hrst instance IL would
not all leave the country but It would
leave circulation, causing for o time great
stringency, fall Of prices and innumerable
failures. After q time, the mints working
night and day In coming silver, the circulation
would fill up again, and more than fill up to
its old level,
Prices Would Rise
moro and more until we had reached the price,
level of Mexico. This, Of course, would cut us
OF from easy and natural commerce with
Europe, just as our present gold momometall-
ism sunders us from the silver using world.
Some may relish ouch q prospect but for my
part think OF it with terror.
Another most weighty consideration against
free coinage is that as II would disassociate US
from the gold world, only to attach us to the
silver world IL would do nothing toward max
ing the worlds commerce q continuous unity,
Is 1t ought to be.
International bimetallism would accomplish
just this. Ii would set up a fixed par of ex-
change between every two ports on the globe.
Writing bills o. exchange, or buying them,
would then not be a matter Of witchery or bo-
gus process, as il Is now between London and
Calcutta. There would still be variations in
exchange rates. but they would be absolutely
limited rs to rise or fall by the cost Of freight
and insurance for precious metals, as now be-
tween New York and London.
None but a student of commerce can COM
vrenenu the magnitude OF the blessing TO the
commercial world by the establishment, or
rather establishment of such universal
par Of exchange.
Free coinage by us would not only do moth
ing to realize that, but by postponing all real
of the worlds monetary distress IL
would make such realization more distant
than ever. II would make impossible any real
monetary peace In the world for a century,
II we shoulder silver alone Europe will be re-
heved for the time. having gold
1t Will Feel Happy.
This Is the course which Europe wishes
things to take. European bankers walk the
floor in anxious longing that the Yankees may
pull their chestnuts out of the FIRE. but the
ease which our folly would bring to Europe
would be only temporary. Gold for monetary
purposes at least lis growing relatively more
scarce. Our adoption Of silver would but mar
row so much the icld of mems struggle for
gold, which is partly commercial and partly
IL would soon be just as intense
within the narrow circle ss now In the larger.
After awhile some other natien would -
frozen or squeezed out Of the gold circle, e.
pericncing the same agony as we.
IL IL better to stand our present distress .
little longer, forcing Europe and particularly
England TO cooperate with us In making the
change. We may be SURE we shall not wait In