The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-01-17
BiMETALLISM IN ENGLAND.

How the Sentiment Is Gaining Powerful
Adherents and What It Means.
Events are very rapidly making BIZ
metallism one Of the leading issues in
England. There is already strong and
steadily growing bimetallist party in
that country, and it has recently received
an accession of no less importance than
Lord Salisbury, the Tory leader.
Following Lord Salisbury's declara-
ton in favor of international bimetal-
lsm, the financial papers point to con-
ference as offering the only solution for
the problem of saving India from bank
rpptcy.
Lord Salisbury's speech is very sig
niicant, and it is even limited by some of
the London correspondents that the Tory
party may be induced to make interna-
tional bimetallism plank in its plat
form. This, however, is not probable,
for the moneyed interests-the banks, the
bondholders and the shylock element
generally-are all Tories, and they will
resist any change that will reduce their
gains, even though that change will
bring comparative prosperity to the peo-
pie.
The business interests of Great Brit
ain are in worse condition than those
of this country, and her wage earners are
infinitely worse off than American work
ingmen. The low wages paid are not
the result of free trade. They are the
result Of the depression that follows in
the wake of the single gold standard
the-result of the increased and increas-
ing value Of the gold dollar.
If Great Britain had high tariff, it
would be an easy matter for the goldbug
philosophers of this country to trace the
miserable condition of the producing
classes of Great Britain to the burden
some taxation involved in protective
duties. But the English tariff is tariff
for revenue only, without a spark of
protection in it. But over there we see
the moneyed interests growing richer
and more powerful and the producing
classes steadily growing poorer, values
shrinking and prices falling.
All the scientific opinions in England
and all the fnanciers who have any
standing are bimetallists. During the
past year the discussion of bimetallism
has been widespread. All the boards of
trade in the manufacturing centers have
declared for bimetallism, and the wisest
and most conservative men in the king
dom have given it their sanction.
Nevertheless we do not look for any
important results in the near future.
The moneyed class is the ruling class in
Great Britain. It is firmly intrenched
in power.
And yet the bimetallist movement in
England, where the single gold standard
has been in operation for nearly 80 years,
is significant, to say the least. Up to
1878 the English people were saved from
the effects of the single gold standard
by the free coinage of silver in both
France and Germany, but since that
time it has been doing it's deadly work
just as Ernest Seyd predicted it would.
The bimetallist movement in England
demonstrates beyond all question that
the thinking men of that country have
discovered the origin of the depression
in business and the stagnation in trade
that have been the chief features of Eng.
lish commerce during the past few years.
The people of the United States have
the remedy in their own hands when
ever they choose to apply it. They have
only to insist that the Democratic party
shall carry out its pledge to make both
gold and silver the standard money of
the country.-Atlanta Constitution.