The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-11-29

England indorse the demand for inter
national bimetallism? The answer is
plain. No people on the face of the earth
customs than the English. 1t would be
almost uncomfortable for an EngIshman
to admit that England was wrong and
any other country. especially France.
was right as TO anything. Moreover,
England has maintained gold mono
metallism, practically for century, and
naturally, though enormously, attributes
English commercial precedence to this
fact. You cannot expect a man like MIR.
Gladstone, who has fairly soaked in this
idea all his life, to change his mind
readily. You cannot expect the bankers
of England, whose traditions and whose
lifelong teaching have been to this
effect, to give up readily what they
imagine to be the lesson of experience.
The surprising thing is that the senti-
ment for bimetallism has grown in En-
gland as rapidly as it has. The large
vote in support of it in the last session
of parliament is conclusive evidence of
the tremendous force of the events OF
the past twenty years in educating the
English people. This very thing was
foreseen. That much-abused bimetallist,
Ernest Seyd, knew the English char
acter and predicted the course of En-
glish sentiment with an accuracy hardly
surpassed in divine revelation. Writing
in 1871 he said:
1t is a great mistake to suppose that
the adoption of the gold valuation by
other states besides England will be
beneficial. 1t will only lead to the de-
struction of the monetary equilibrium
hitherto existing, and cause n fall i'm the
value of silver, from which England 3
trade and the Indian silver valuation
will SUFFER more than all other interests,
grievous as the general decline of pros
perity all over the world will be. The
strong doctrinarianism existing in En-
gland as regards the gold valuation is
so blind that when the time OF depres-
sion sets in there will be this special
feature: The economical authorities Of
the country will refuse to listen to the
cause here foreshadOWed; every possible
attempt will be made to prove that the
decline of commerce is due to all sorts
the workman and his strikes will be the
first convenient target, then speculation
and overtrading will have their turn.
= Many other allegations will be
made totally irrelevant to the real issue,
but satisfactory to the moralizing ten
dency of financial writer's. The great
danger of the time will be that, among
all this confusion and strife, England s
supremacy in commerce and manu-
features may go backward TO an extent
which cannot be redressed when the real
cause becomes recognized and the natur-
al remedy is applied.
Never was holder prediction than
this ventured by financial writer.
Never was one more exactly fulfilled in
every detail, thus far. Having seen so
much of fulfllment it is almost impossi-
BILE to doubt the correctness of the
opinion of the writer or to fail TO look
for the climax of the movement as he
predicts it. The Sentinel accepts his
conclusion as truth. England must face
about and accept international bimetal-
lism, or English manufacture and En-
glish commerce will be crushed. The
end of this matter is comparatively
close at hand. We urge our readers to
keep the prediction in mind, and watch
how certainly the laws of trade win
overthrow this greatest folly of the
century.