The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1894-11-30
THE SILVER QUESTION
The English Bimetal'
lists interviewed.
Appreciation of Gold and
Business Values.
British Bimetalists Are Agreed That
Silver Must Be Used as
Standard Money.

While that eminent statist and tute-
larry guardian of British statistics,
Dr.. Robert Giffen, sits in Whitehall
Gardens and declares bankers and
financial men of England will not
listen to bimetallism, the younger and
more enterprising are taking the bit
in their own mouths and listening
with undisguised attention to college
professors and statesmen who have
broken away from the obstinate, un-
intelligent inertia of the average Lon
don financial leader writer. Today
I find-and in this Professor Foxwell,
professor of political economy in st.
Johns college Cambridge, Eng, en-
tirely agrees-supporting bimetallism
the leading living professors Of polit-
ical economy in England and Europe,
Indian statesmen and finance minis
ters, the principal exchange bankers
and merchants, who have a profound
and practical knowledge of these
subjects. Members of parliament Of
four, Sir w. Houldsworth, and Mr..
Chaplin, to Jacob Bright, George
Howard, Samuel Smith, Leonard
Courtney, r. L. Everett, s. Montagu,
and Vesey Knox, some $50 in all;
three ex-governors and present di-
rectors of the Bank of England; the
finance ministers of nearly all the
leading nations in the world Ger
many and Austria are only awaiting
England's Lead; the manufacturers
Of Lancashire and Yorkshire, of Dun
dee, Leith, and Glasgow; the most
enlightened agriculturists, like Mr..
Heneage, Glare Sewell Read, and Mr..
R. l.. Everett; and last, though not
least, the leaders of the trades unions
in Lancashire and elsewhere, Bristol
included. The Manchester Guardian,
the Manchester Courier, the Financial
News. the editors of which under
stand the question, are among the
leading organs in the press on the
side of silver.
The opponents are Lombard street
bankers, the gold monopolists and
money lenders, and some highly paid
or highly pensioned treasury and
board of trade officials; the city edi-
tors Of the Times, Standard, Daily
News, Economist, and Statist, whose
purview of this subject is, as Profes-
sor Foxwell said to me, limited to the
next settling day on the Stock Ex-
change, and whose insignifcance is
sheltered under the anonymous edi-
torial "we," but who, if they signed
their venomous articles, would be ap-
praised at their true value against
such authorities as Professor Fox
well, Nicholson, and Sidgwiek, Sir
Louis Mallet, Sir D. Barbour, Fl. H.
Gibbs. Mr.. Grenfall, and Sir William
Houldsworth.
THE ENGLISH IDEA.
"Will you,'' l asked Professor Fox
well, kindly define for American
traders the present attitude of the
English bimetallists?'
'I may say that English bimetal-
lists find themselves in complete
agreement with General Francis A.
Walker in regard to the settlement of
existing monetary difficulties. I do
not know that 1 can better describe
their position than by saying that
the views of leading bimetallists here,
whether in the world Of business and
politics or at the universities, are
practically the same as those of what
SOllCllllcS Tic gnu pdl ~
in the United States. That is to say,
we are opposed to ell purchase
schemes, all mere manipulations of
silver, all partial and local attempts
at its demonetization. Nothing less
than international free mintage of
both metals appears to us calculated
to bring about a lasting and final set
tlement of all the very serious difficult
ties into which the worlds trade has
been plunged by the fateful demone-
tization of 1873. We can sympathize
of course, with the sufferings and the
injustice which have led to the ex-
treme demand of your populist and
Western parties, but we do not be-
lieve that anything less than interna-
tional bimetallism will give a general
feeling of monetary security; and
unless public confidence is restored
temporary palliaives will not have
any very sensible effect. They will
probably be followed by mischievous
reactions and will prove, in the long
run, to have only resulted in postpon-
ing the true and durable settlement" !"
'I believe one of our distinguished
statesmen. Hon. w. G. Whitney, has
been in England this summer making
some observations of bimetallism; did
you have the pleasure of meeting
him?''
eyes. I had the pleasure of meeting
Mr.. Whitney, and must say that /
liked him very much. He appears to
be an exceedingly clear-minded, con-
servative man, anxious to obtain all
the information possible in relation
to the bimetallic movement in Europe.
So far as I could gather, his views
on the monetary question were very
much in agreement with the cautious,
conservative views entertained by our
leading bimetalIists. I think such
men as Mr.. Balfour and Mr.. Whitney
view the question from very similar
standpoints. When this question
again comes under consideration in
Europe I firmly believe we shall find
such men as Ralfour and Whitney
working together in general SYM
pathy and agreement"
THE BIMETALLIC LEAGUE.
stAre there any other of our public
men who take an interest in the work
Of the Bimetallic league in England" ?"
Eyes; we received the following
cable at our international conference
this year:
"We desire to express our cordial
sympathy with the movement to pro-
mote the restoration of silver by in
ternational agreement, in aid of which
we understand a meeting is to be