Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1894-06-15
Head. Hendrix, and Silver.


articles on The Renewed Agitation
for Silver Coinage" as the editor puts
it, one from Franklin III. Head, of this
city, and the other for Congressman
Hendrix, of Brooklyn. Mr.. Head does
not favor free coinage of silver by Con-
gressional enactment, but does insist
that the need of an international agree
ment to that effect is the supreme need
If civilization. Mr.. Hendrix, on the
contrary, sneers at the idea much as
the "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table
does at ''fresh water colleges" He
thinks it is interior proyincialism to
agitato for anything of the kind.
"Will England consent to bimetallIsm, "
asks Hendrix, "if it will make her food
supply cost more?n And then an
Swer his own question by adding, "The
cause of the Western farmer who wants
more for his wheat will not become the
cause of his chief customer who wants
to get his wheat cheap" He seems to
think that John Bull is mainly wheat
bear, and that the cost of the bread he
eats is of paramount Importance to the
price of the cloth and general wares he
makes. 1t is as if the Western farmer
were more concerned about the cost Of
clothes than the price of grain and pro-
visions.
The narrow and foolish view of the
single-standard goldite is clearly shown
by one sentence in this article from the
brooklyn Congressman. "All we have
to do with England" he says, sis to get
as much of her gold as we can, and our
surest way to do that is to re-establish
the confidence oft he English investor
in our financial integrity" What he
wants is To be able to place American
stocks and bonds in London on good
margin. If the promoters can do a
thriving business, never mind the West
ern farmer. He is of no account. The
law of supply and demand will DO the
rest. There is fortune in placing the
debentures of a great corporation. The
millions who toll are beneath considera-
ton, as weighed against the bakers
dozen who exploit
Mr.. Head writes in refreshing con-
traSt TO all this sort of twaddle, AL
though himself member OF the capt.
talistic class, he is strongly in favor of
increasing the volume of currency as
fast as the development of our gold and
silver mines will permit, and 10y "our"
is meant the whole world, and not this
country alone. He contends that there
is no overproduction of either of the
precious metals and that there is no
danger of monetary disturbance from
the excessive production and coinage,
mining and minting, of both gold and
silver. The depression of silver is en-
tirely attributable, he contends, to its
demonstration, and not at all to over
production. But they key to the entire
Head article is found in the almost cas-
ual remark: "In our complex civiliza-
ton all prosper or suffer in common"
That is the secret of the universally
of the present depression. The fixed
income classes are responsible for the
discrimination against silver which be-
gan in England, and in 1873 extended
to other countries, including the United
States. That element of society
thought they were gaining great ad-
vantage when they handicapped the
producing and industrial classes. Time
has shown that, as Paul bluntly puts it,
if one member suffers all members
suffer.
1t cannot be denied that interration-
al bimetallism would be the easiest and
most desirable solution of the problem,
and no doubt if England really favored
it it would be brought about without
any serious difficulty, but it would be
illogical and inconsiderate to assume
that an international monetary agree
ment is the only solution of tie prob
lem. On the contrary the feelers put
out by Senator Lodge and eX-Speaker
Reed in favor of bringing to bear the
pressure Of commercial exchange in
favor of such an agreement must be
accepted as the premonitory symptoms
of what may becexpected Mr.. Head
and his class of bimetallists have reach
ed the stage of persuasion represented
in the story of the old man peltlng the
apple tree boy with sod. By and by,
if need be, the stone-throwing of the
Lodge-Reed policy will have to be
adopted in some form or another
Inter Ocean.