St. Paul daily globe., 1893-08-29
FRANCE AND SILVER.

The advocates of free coinage are not
above using misrepresentation and mis-
information TO support their cause.
For both they draw heavily on France,
which, being across the seas and barri-
caded by an unfamiliar language. is
favorably adapted to their use. A just
cause should seorn to use either: their
use is confession of weakness. 1t may
be worth while to notice and correct the
misStatements which find most frequent
use and widest circulation.
A favorite statement is that France Is
free coinage nation. Sometimes this
is put more adroltly, as it was by Sen
ator VEST the other day, and we are
told that France floats several hundred
millions of silver at parity. The I'M
preston sought to be conveyed is that
the mints of France are open to the
free coinage of silver for any one who
brings bullion to them. The fact is that
France was obliged to close her mints
to the free coinage of silver twenty
years ago in order to enable her to main
tain her silver coins at a parity with
her gold coins.
The next and more taking statement
is that France, with little more than
half our population. floats with safety
S700, ,000, 600 in silver coins on a complete
and stable parity with gold, and it is
followed by the question why we, with
double the population, cannot maintain
DrOportionately the same amount. Com
parsons which iguore controlling con-
ditions are worth little. Where they are
similar. results attained in one country
may be useful in forming politics in the
other. Where they are radically dis
similar they form no guide whatever.
No two civilized countries present
more striking points of uniikeness than
do the United States and France. We
have population numbering fourteen
to the. square mile; France has 1877.
The average of our farms is about 100
acres; hers average about oRe-tenth as
much. Our people are progressive. en-
ergetic, Speculative; hers are immobile,
piodding, frugal to parSimony. and in
tensely conservative. We transact 81
per cent of our business with checks;
there nearly as large percentage is
made with cash. Here there is hardly
village without its bank, receiving the
surplus money of the surrounding
country on deposit; there the banks are
mostly confined to the cities. When
LESsEPS was asked where he would get
the money with which to build the Pan
anna canal, he replied: From the
the stockings of France" They are the
banks of deposit for the bulk of the
money. We have the assurance of MAN
O'RELL that should you tender a peas
ant or his wife check in payment of
purchase they would call the gendarme."
Such country, witha people of such
habits and conditions. can use, and de-
mandS for daily use, an enormously
larger quantity of ready money of small
denominations than does such coun-
try as ours. We see the same condi-
tions Of what to US seem to be excessive
quantities of the minor coins floated by
all countries where the conditions are
similar to those of France. India and
CHINA have been the sink-holes of silver
ever since they were opened to the mer-
chants of the world. But what is the
use of bringing extra-territoriai facts
to bear upon this abSurdity when
the Stupendous fact confronts the
clamorers for free coinage that since
1878 our mintS have coined $4,000, 900
silver dollars, and that. in spite of the
strenuous efforts to get it into circuia-
tion, but S5S, 100000 are out of the treas
ury vaults?