The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-04-11
ASTONISHING
CONVERSIONS.
James j. Hill and William II. Mer.
riam Come Over to Free Sill
ver.-The World Moves.
Wonders will never cease.

wonders Will never cease.
A few months ago James j. Hill,
president of the Great Northern Rail-
way Company, left for England, the
most earnest, avOwed, single-stand-
ard "gOldOcrat" in the Northwest.
We knew "Jim' was smart, smart
er than steel trap,"-but we never
could understand how he could sup
port policy which had closed up near
ly all the silver mines of Montana and
Idaho, and reduced the products of
Minnesoa, North Dakota, Washing
ton and Oregon to starvation prices:
and threatened his road with the
same bankruptcy which had Overtak-
en- his competitors, the Northern
Pacific and the Union Pacific. Well
"Jim" went over to England, and
whatever he saw there, he returns an
open and jealous advocate of BIZ
metallism; and he gives good reasons
for his new faith. He was inter-
viewed by the Pioneer Press, and
here is part of the report:
s"President James j. Hill, of the
Great Northern, returned to his
home in st. Paul, yesterday morning
after an absence of six weeks spent
principally in England. Scotland and
France. He made special study of
the financial situation of the com
mercial nations while in the great
money centers of the world and hold
ing intercourse with the great finan-
nj 10 ii 1nc%
neer Press reporter that the general
business of Europe is greatly depress-
ed, and that the heavy losses in South
America. Australia and Africa and
the heavy shrinkage of business in
India has affected the general busi-
ness of Great Britain particularly.
India shows large deficit in her
fiscal budget" said Mr.. Hill. THE
finances in France have been handled
better than those of any other nation
and she is strong in money"
All. Indeed! France, be it re-
membered, has $500, 900 of silver in
circulation; and her money supply Of
all kinds is nearly $50, per CAPITA
against ours of about s., per capita
Mark that.
MI. IL Ill CONTINUES.
The manufacturing districts Of
and-MancheSter, Leeds, Bir-
mingham. Sheffield, and in fact, all
are suffering for want of markets.
| was greatly struck with the impor-
tance Of the United States as Gus
toner for their expensive goods.
The commercial people in, both ma
tions seem to look to the United
States to lead the return to CONNER
cial prosperity. | was particularly
interested, and took occasion to look
up, as tar as | could, the silver queS-
ton. There is no room for doubt
that in England there is great
the commercial classes in regard to ST.
rer. Nearly all the writer's on politi-
cal economy and many of the leading
statesmen, as we'll as a great many
merchants and manufacturers, are
becoming bimetallistS.
''It seems to be the opinion gener-
ally Of the India officials that Eng
land can no more demOnetiZe silver
in India by an act of parliament
than she could make Christians of
the Mussulman and HindOo inha BIZ
tants by an act of parliament. The
Chinese merchants, who, by the way,
are the equal OF any other merchants
in the world in the purchase, ex-
change and distribution Of comm obi
ties of the nations with which they
deal. have practical control of the
Indian and Eastern Asiatic trade.
They pay them in silver and ex-
change their products for cOmmOdi-
ties which they convert into gold, and
the India manufacturer OF cotton
goods and yarn-in passing allow me
to state that the cotton yarns OF In
dia have in ten years increased from
10000, 900 to 175, 900 900 weight, paying
their employees low wages in silver
bought at a heavy discount below the
gold standard-are able to undersell
the Manchester manufacturers who
pay gold to their employees. TO make
the situation worse still for the Eng
liSh manufacturer India insists on
levying tax on English cotton goods
and on all English manufactures to
enable her to meet the large deficit in
her governmental expenses, and this
tax, together with the increased cost
growing out of the gold standard in
England as against the silver stand
ard in India, has practically driven
the English people out of trade.
London being the financial clear
ing house of the world, all payments,
whether for account of American,
French or other continental nations
to Central, South American or Aslatlc
countries, are made in sterling ex-
change, drawn on London; and the
Bank of England, with about e25,-
600, 200 in gold, is doing larger busi-
ness than it would usually be con-
sidered safe were it not for the nigh
credit of that bank 1t seems to be
the general opinion that there IS not
enough gold IN the ,corld to furnish a SUI,
fciently large basis of credit. England
has been on a gold basis legally from
1916, but practically she transacted
business on a bi-metallic basis, send
ing her surplus silver to the French
mint to be coined into French coin,
(which was used in exchange with
\Nrance until 1873, when France stop
NA,7 the free coinage Of silver. After
Flrlosing of the French mint in