The Washington times., 1894-05-09
SILVER QUESTION ABROAD
Inteiligently Elaborated by an Expert
on the Subject.
VIEWS OF MR.. MORETON FREWEN
Monetary Meeting in London This Week a
Noteworthy One, and Will Have signif-
can't Bearing Upon the Financial Question
Now Before the Public.


Now Before the Public.
In complying with your suggestion that 1
should write for your columns the position Of
the silver question in Europe, it is we'll to
state in the first place that the present time is
not the time when much can be usefuly writ
ten. We are probably within a few weeks. or
at most few months, of important events.
Germany has a royal commission on currency
now sitting. One of the commissioners Herr
Arendt, appears to have declared in London
last Wednesday that since the failure of the
Brussels conference Germany has already
learned her lesson. Turning TO England,
there we are within two or three months Of
| general election. Nothing important can be
done in this moribund Parliament. The gcv-
ernment of India has borrowed money enough
| to pay its way till after the general elections;
that government must then decide how best
| to meet the crisis caused by its closing OF the
Indian minis last June.
1t is therefore evident that we are now
turning the last page of the most important
chapter in currency history. 1t is no longer
possible for any one of three or four govern
ments of the first rank to evade settlement,
| and now that this is at last recognized each
| will turn to the other for cooperation and
our complications in England and India be-
| ing the most intolerable, il is almost GER
tain that England will speak first and ask for
| conference.
The meeting in London this week is note
worthy. Far more than any of our previous
meetings. ii has been cosmopolitan. France
and Germany had good deal to say through
| their representatives; Belgium and Holland
sent NM. Allard and Boissevain; from Aus
| tr;ilia even came the chairman of the Bimeta-
| lie League to declare that the vast fall in the
! price of wool has forced Australia to send
two bales OF wool TO pay gold interest on por-
| rowed money. where Il few years since one
bale suf1iced. Seeing that Australia. peopled
| by a scanty 1000. 900 of inhabitants, exports
annually to England wool to the value OF
| $50 900 900. there is no need to look further
| for the causes of the Australian banking panic
| OF last wear.
! The incident of the London meeting, how
! ever. was doubtless the speech delivered by
Mr.. Balfour 1t is impossible to overestimate
| the value of Mr.. Baltours services in this
connection. With every inducement. even
pressure from the ''knownothings'' of his
| own party and the London press TO keep
| clear of the currency question, Mr.. Balfour
| has for twelve years past been always heart
| and soul with the reform movement. II Is
| his attitude which has forced upon public
| opinion the reflection that this question is
not merely question affecting the solvency
| of this nation or that nation; he has done
| much more than this; he has showed why the
| question is really a vast social and racial
| question: question whether the possibilities
| OF the prosperous pursuit OF agriculture in the
world of white men shall be taken away from
them. to be handed over to myriads OF Aryans
| or Mongolians IN the far East by reason
of the stimulus afforded their exports
| by the depreciation of their silver cur
rencies l am doing no injustice to
| Mr. Henry Chaplin. the farmers friend,
| In rating Mr.. Balfour's services 10 the cause OF
| reform higher than those even OF Lord Sails
| bury's minister of agriculture. Mr.. Chaplin's
earnestness and advocacy have been in
valuable but il is shrewdly suspected OF Mr.
| Chaplin that he is also protectionist and as
| such he comes under the ban of Lancashire
| and the north: and it ls TO Manchester that
bimetallism has been obliged TO look both
| for earnest able WORKERS and also for the
| sinews OF war. It is also TO be borne in mind,
when taking into account Mr.. Balfour's
| position. that at any moment he might be
! called upon to fill the position of England's
! Prime Minister: one life. and not a life
| which in all human probability will be greatly
| prolonged, alone stands between Mr.. Bal
| four and the highest position that any
| Englishman can fill.
| This, then. is the statesman denounced by
! the Times as the leader OF a sect of faddists;
"A statesman whose career in all other re-
! spects has commanded the respect. even the
| Difference, of that great newspaper. A few
weeks since the London Chamber OF Com
merce memorialzed Lord Rose5ery TO call
| conference to settle the silver question by in
! ternational agreement. Every returning vice
roy from India connects himself with this
! ''faddst' movement: the best finance minis
k,- hnl tho aiz- Enr
/ ing and Sir David Barbour. all pronounce in
! favor Of what that eminent economist, the
| late Sir Louis Malet declared WIS the exact
| scientific truth of biInetallsm; all our pro-
fessors of political economy without excep-
| ton are to-day teaching bimetallism in our
| schools Over here look at the remarkable
| agreement among your public men and lead
| il professors. And yet at a time when no
| man. not even Mr.. Gi.fen. can be found 10
| take the other side in a signed letter TO its
| columns the Times continues to declare that
| the belief in the concurrent legal tender OF
| the two metals at a ratio is a heresy and
| fad. In this country you see something OF
| the same kind. While the weight of expert
| opinion is all with international bimeta:iism
| and while gold men and silver men alike. in
| Congress and out. are declaring for it as
practicable and desirable. what is the attitude
of the New York Evening Post?
/ have never understood that the New York
/
or perhaps often represented public opinion
in this country. Readers take their news
from these papers. but their political convic-
tions are formed elsewhere, more often by
the interests of their localities. But it always
happens that the way in which your public
men come over to US in the pages of your
papers is the only way we have OF forming
our opinions as to their views. Andthe cable
message sent from Washington last Tues lay,
signed by Senator Sherman and fourteen
other Senator'S who had all voted to repeal
the Sherman act, will have doubtless excited
more attention in London than any other
episode of the gathering. In London have
long since ceased even to discuss the question
of where Senator Sherman stands in this con-
nection. Every newspaper man connected
with the New York press is prepared to de-
clare that Senator Sherman is a gold mono
metallist: that his views are Mr.. Gladstone's
views; that any general statement this Sena-
tor NAV have made friendly to silver simply
means that he recognizes the necessity of the
use of silver for dimes and quarters; that it