The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1893-06-12
A RAILWAY MAGNATB's FINANCIAL
OPINIONS.

It 10 astonishing how muck some
! people know, or assume to know. The
latest illustration OF this superabound-
ing wisdom has been given to the United
States in the utterances of Mr.. y. N.
Hill, President of the Great Northern
Railway. That this gentleman has
some solid points in his character can
be safely assumed from the position he
occupies. Men without intellect very
rarely find themselves In stations such
as that occupied by Hill. He is no
doubt good railway man, and on ques-
tons on which he has had an opportu-
nifty of forming better opinion than
the mass OF his fellow citizens his judg-
ment Is doubtless entitled to much re-
spect. On general problems OF finance,
however, he knows no more than the
ordinary Westerner, and not 1.-THE as
much as many of them. This gentle
man has taken occasion, of late, to refer
all the financial evils which exist in the
United Statea today to the passage Of
the Sherman silver bill. This is all rot.
American extravaganza, which has lat
terly go enormously increased our inn
ports, at the same time that our exports
have decreased, is responsible for much
OF it, while joint New York and London
intrigues are responsible for the rest.
Mr.. King says that the status of silver
should be governed by the law of supply
and demand. He acquits himself OF
al r.rtv ~ al
Very well. Mr.. King Why then was
not the question OF the status of oliver
left to the ordinary laws OF supply and
demand. II it had been nobody would
be complaining now, and we should not
witness the universal distress that pre-
walls in the world today, from the rising
to the setting Of the sun. One of the
accursed effects of the Franco russian
war was the placing in the hands of Big
narck Of a thousand million dollars OF
French gold. The possession of this
vast sum OF the yellow metal imbued
him with the fatal idea of establishing
the single gold Htandard-a thing that
has done more TO impoverish Germany
than any event in the history of that
mighty empire. OF couree, England |
looked very benignly on this suicidal
policy In a recent speech Mr.. Glad |
stone said that the world owed England |
ten Thousand million dollars, and that
country would be only too happy to be
paid this enormous cum in gold. As
matters have turned out, she will be
compelled to take much of it in wind, as
witness Argentina, Australia and other
favorite fields OF Engliah speculation.
II the United States, instead of de-
monetizing silver, had let it alone, or,
as Mr.. King puts it, had left it to the
control of the law of supply and do
mand, silver would now be at par. Tho /
time 10 return TO the law of supply and
demand Is when the great wrong
wrought by the act of 1873 shall have
been repaired. This thing of expecting
silver to hold its own in view of an
elaborate international conspiracy to
knock il ont Ia like hitting q man be-
hind the ear with slung shot and ask
ing him to walk straight.
The special session of congress will
have no more interesting topic before it
than silver. II ia an issue that cannot
be ahirked now in this country, and it
will not be possible to shirk it long in
Europe. The question 10, here and
everywhere, will mankind submit to the
most gigantic eystem of spoliation ever
known since the world began-one that
would dwarf the freebooting looting OF
the Middle Ages