The Philipsburg mail. [volume] (Philipsburg, Mont.) 1887-current, 1894-08-23
The President of the Brown
University.
TALKS ABOUT THE WHITE METAL
The True Cause Of Our Financial
Distress LIS the Progressive scar
city of FUN Money, Leaping to
a Continuous and DiscOur-
aging Fall in All Prices.

| Ine dOcCr1nalres who till most of the
professorships of eastern colleges have
been in the habit of proving by the most
irresistible syllogisms that the system OF
levying protective duties on imports is
ruinous. Their reasoning was faultless
and impregnable; the only difficulty was
the contumacy OF the country prospering
most vigorously when the policy of pro-
lection was most strictly pursued. Most
OF the same class of learned theorists
have been engaged Of late years in teach
ing the youth who came under their in
structlon that gold is the only substance
that possesses the necessary. qualifca-
tlons for money metal, and that the
principles of economic science forbid the
use of silver except for subsidiary
coinage. It Is refreshing to find an ex-
ception to this statement, especially when
this exception is found in the person of
a gentleman of profound and varied
learning and high character. This is
true in an eminent degree of Prof. An
drews, President of Brown University,
than whom there is no more distinguish
ed political economist on either side of
the Atlantic. At Philadelphia, few
days ago, Prof Andrews expressed him
self on the subject Of bi-metallism, and
among other things said:
"The true cause of our financial dis
tress is the progressive scarcity of full
money, leaping to continuous and dis
couraging fall in general prices. Our
present malady is only an accentuat1on
of that through which the gold-using
world has been passing ever since 1873,
when Germany and the United States
demonetized silver-an act which, with
the. similar acts of other nations, caused
ashrinkage of nearly one-half in the sup
ply OF fundamental money in Europe and
North America. The inevitable result
OF this has been rise in the value of
each monetary unit each grain of gold;
or, what is the same from the other side,
fall in general prices. Since 80 per
cent OF all producers are weighted with
fixed charges like mortgages, which have
to be paid dollar for dollar, no matter
how incomes fall off, the general fall in
prices has led to constant lessening of in
come as prepared with outgo. Small
businesses have bgen ruined; the most
prosperous firms have had to cut wages;
none make money unless enjoying some
special advantage, natural or artificial
The cause named perfectly explains why
they prevail, in the gold world and no.
where else."
The above is a masterly and unan-
swerable statement of the cause of exist
ing conditions. It is the obliteration of
one-half the volume of fundamen tai mon-
ey in Europe and the United States that
has brought about the present distress.
Silver, demonetized and quoted as COM
modify in the market reports at So cents
per ounce, involves wheat at 81 cents per
bushel and cotton at cents per pound;
the facts bear to each other the relation
Of cause and effect. The remarkable
TACT is that anyone should be found to
doubt or deny that what is commonly
spoken of as the depreciation IN silver is
actually the appreciation Of gold. If |
only one commodity suffered reduc-
lion in its market price, the demonstra-
lion would not be complete; but when
there is perfect uniformity in the re-
1uction along the whole line of products,
It passes belief that any one should re-
'use to recognize the significance of the