Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1894-11-29
Our Financial System a Failure.

Many OF our readers nnO IL OlfncuIt
to understand why our gold continues
drifting to Europe. and they wonder
why 7O,OOo,O0O people should allow
England to control their finances.
The fact is our financial system is a
miserable failure. England alone
holds $4,000, 10000 of United States
securities, bearing interest, including
exchange, of per cent. payable in
gold. This is what London statistic
ians say. and they also say that France
and Germany hold $50O,O00,O00 of
American securities. So we owe Eu-
rope s., 900, 900. 900, imposing an in
terest charge, including exchange, of
$3.50, 100000 per annum in gold.
These facts fully account for the
steady flow of gold from this country.
About 10 per cent of the principal of
our foreign Indebtedness natures eve
ry year. The principal is generally re-
newed, but when Europe has made
bad investments elsewhere she throws
Americans securities on the market to
meet her losses. This was the course
pursued after the Argentine collapse.
Foreign capital seeks our market be-
cause we have not enough capital, snd
the reason why we lack capital is be-
cause we cut off our own money supply.
We produce more precious metals than
any other country in the world, and yet
we decline to coin the money metals,
which we have in abundance. A re-
cent writer says:
We decline to coin the American sill
yer product, by the use of which the
entire cotton crop of the south and the
great substances of the west could be
produced. Silver is the equivalent of
gold in every country of the world
where the law so declares. 1t was so
in the United States when the law so
declared. All money is the creature
of law; there cannot be inequalities in
law between things that the law makes
equal. If the United States would
freely coin her own silver product at a
ratio to gold fixed by law, and endow
it with the same money function as
gold, the parity of the two would be
permanent in this country. A larger
supply of capital would be furnished
to carry our own securities at home,
and we would cease to be enslaved by
foreign power. The secretary of the
hof hn 0f tho
investment of so much foreign money
on this continent is our own inability
to invest from lack of native money.
We have the means to supply ourselves
with the additional amount, if we
would.
England, Germany and France pur-
sue a different policy. They hold
their own securities, and do not stint
their money supply to make a field for
the investment of foreign money.
At present we pay Europe $3.50, ,O00,-
900 per annum in gold for interest,
and if the annual maturing of 10 per
cent of the principal of our indebt-
edness is not renewed, we must pay
an additional $500, 100000 a year in
gold. This makes an annual gold
drain of $3.50, 100000, and to this we
must add the $50, 100000 in gold spent
in Europe every year by American
tourists.
If this is to go on it will bankrupt
US. Our government, banks and peo-
pie hold only $3.50. 200, 900 in gold, and
still we are foolish enough to make
gold our single monetary standard.
So long as we stick to it Europe can
disturb and convulse our money mark
cts at will.
The remedy is to remontize silver
and re- establish state banks under
proper safeguards. Free silver coin
age cannot hurt our European credi-
tors who have gold contracts with us.
The silver would give US a domestic
currency that would develop the coun-
try, and with state banks of issue we
would be able to carry our own secur-
tiles by our own means, like all other