The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1895-04-03
METAL MONEY HISTORY.
WORLDS CREDITORS MAKE UNCEAS-
ING WAR ON SILVER.

WORLDS CREDITORS MAKE UNCEAs-
ING WAR ON SILVER.
Decentralization ot Silver Has Practically
Made England Present of S4,OOO,O0o,.
Oo0--Business Checked and Enterprise
Ruined-Silver Still Stable.
Conspiracy is hateful word We
naturally hesitate to charge such ac:
ton upon honorable men, bankers and
lawmakers. Nor is the matter much
helped by speaking of it as a precon-
certed movement, as has lately been
so much the fashion in Congress. It
is not necessary, however, to charge
an actual conspiracy against silver,
for the whole history OF the world
shows that class widely diffused, but
all interested in one movement, will
work as etfectually to aid it as il sit
ting in continuous convention. What
! do charge is that for over 25 years
the worlds creditors have worked
withoat ceasing, and all their efforts
have been in one direction; that the
facts, as now submitted by themselves,
show results which. though they may
not have been minutely planned in
advance, have yet been foreseen by the
shrewd ones, and while the movement
has been as uniform and persistent the
results have been as complete, as
wrongful to debtors and as profitable
to creditors as if designed by the most
artful conspiracy Of which man IS ca
pable. In proof of this let facts be
submitted to candid world.
WAR BEGUN AGAINST SILVER.
In 1867 the worlds creditors met in
convention at Paris under the name
of the international monetary confer
ence The assigned reason for this
convention was that, as international
commerce was rapidly increasing, the
diversities of coinage were becoming
a great annoyance, and the alleged
design was to assimilate the coins so
that they would pass from nation to
nation just like tons Of wheat or
pounds of cotton. But no sooner did
the convention get to work than a
deeper design was revealed. Nineteen
nations were represented, for the great
exposition was in progress, the fnan-
ciers Of the world embraced the oppor-
tunity to see it, and the French COM
mittee on coinage had made a thor
ough study of the worlds metallic
money and invited the nations to hear
its conclusion. That committee made
a lengthy and minute report, the
chief point of interest in this connec-
ton being that the Latin union, then
consisting of France, Italy. Belgium
and Switzerland, was coming freely Of
both metals at the ratio OF 15t to l
and could continue to do so because
the worlds stock of silver and gold
were almost exactly equal, and the
greater value production of gold then,
and for many years preceding, was
certain to be absorbed in the arts.
The American commissioner proposed
franc gold coin ($4.S2D, to which
the American S. piece and the English
sovereign pound sterling could by de-
grees be assimilated, but this was COM
bated chiefly On the ground that it
would disturb the whole decimal sys-
tenn of the Latin union, and our COM
missioner came away somewhat out
of humor.
Quite suddenly, as it would seem, the
ground of the discussion was shifted,
and the war on silver began. The
unexplained puzzle about this conven-
ton was that the Latin union, which
had called it, was a bimetallic union
and declared free coinage a success,
and yet with only one dissenting ma
ton. so far as can be determined, and
with surprisingly little discussion, the
convention resolved that international
money 'attainable on the basis and
condition of adopting the exclusive
gold standard, leaving each stare the
liberty of keeping its silver standard
temporarily. Holland alone com
bated the proposition All the silver
standard countries present, the United
States included, voted for it, and only
one man in the convention blurted out
the plain truth. President Mees Of the
Bank of the Netherlands predicted
worldwide trouble and declared that
ito adopt the gold standard every
where would reduce silver to change
money, and consequently gold would
rise in value. "
GOLD STANDARD ADOPTED.
Shrewd as they were, they made one
mistake. They seem to have believed
that the national debts of the world
had reached their maximum and the
corporate debts nearly so, and that
many years of peace were to follow.
Only four years later France had. to
agree to pay Germany the great war