The Philipsburg mail. [volume] (Philipsburg, Mont.) 1887-current, 1895-04-04
PUTSCOLDIN HISSACK
Why John Bull Favors a Sin
gle Money Standard.
SEVERAL G0LDBUG ABSURDITLES

EdfdAoAlcAA StdGcmenC EnAt Free
Coinage Will gsalse the Value O
silver to Miners Alone-Ail Prod,
u:ts of Labor Have Declined
The recent changes of position by eni-
hent men Oh the issue OF bilnetull ism
ronstitute q remarkable and interesting
chapter in the history of opinions.
Americans know that our own public
men have fiuctuated wildly; that former
advocates of silver have yielded to the
Cleveland pressure and become gold
hugs Whilo former 1no;lometallists now
confess their error and even John Sher-
man shows sono signs Of relentiug at
view OF the appalling ruin lie has
wrought. When tho fall Of prices un(.er
conditions which would normally create
a rise compelled belief that some ma
Ign influence was at work, he said in
tho senate May 81, 1902: "When the
law of 1878 was passed, tho only trou-
Bile about it was that wo were not as
wise as the Almighty Ruler Of the uni
verse. We could not see ahead. "
1t is not SO we'll known, however,
that abroad the conversions to bimct-
alllsn have been far moro numerous
and important There is not today ono
monomet"llist in Great Britain who de-
lies the great appreciation of gold. Mr..
Gsltfen, III my opinion tho clearest head
ed OF them all, does not even conde-
scend to argue the matter, but starts his
discussion Oh that basis as a fixed fact
and speaks Of it as tho startling phe-
nomonon Of this age, while tho NOM
bars OF the parliamentary commission
sneer at the futile attempts Of Hon. Da-
vld A. Wells to provo that gold has
stood still while everything else has
moved. The reasons is obvious Those
Englishmen are under no political bias
OF commercial pressure against the
truth; they frankly admit that it is the
interest Of the creditor nation to have
dear money, and as tho gold basis gives
them that they see no cause to object
Decline In the Value of Products.
Interesting indeed is the case of Hon.
Henry Huclzs Gibbs, director and former
governor of the Bank Of England and
delegate to the conference of 1878. He
was there all ardent advocate of the sim
gle gold standard, but has changed his
view and become president Of the Eng
lish Bimetallio league, and i'll explana-
ton thereof says that the price tables of
such economists as Soetbeer, Karl and
Sauerbeck are conclusive. Never before
were the statistics of prices SO carefully
collected, and never We're there such
striking agreements between those of
different nations. If one great nation or
even one great statistician, had arrived at
a different conclusion, there might have
beel room for doubt, but from the
United States bureau Of statistics down
TO the agricultural minister of little
Roumania there is absolute harmony
in the statement that with the decline
OF silver, as stated in terms of gold,
has gone an equal decline in all the
products Of human labor, save the very
few where the tendency was successful
~ counteracted by other causes, ard
that very small part indeed of this de-
cline is due to the gain of production
over consumption. Whole libraries of
sophistry on this last point are swept
away by one undisputed fact. The de-
cline has been as marked, though not SO
great, III staples Of which there is an ad-
lnltted scarcity as in those Of which
there is supposed to be surplus, if in
deed there can be a surplus in articles
Of which all mankind want more than
Chey can now buy
Evils of the Gold Standard Forctold.
In 1892 Alfred D Rothschild, even
while arguing that England should
the gold standard, wrote to
The Brussels international monetary
conference that if other nations did not
maintain the coinage of silver sthere
would be a depreciation in the value of
chat commodity which would be fright
.ul to contemplate and would cause a
monetary panic, the far spreading effects
If which it would be impossible to fore
;ell. . The panic has come, and all our
soldbugs venture to promise is that
'ome time in the next decade South
Africa gold will help us out Mr.. Go
chen, great authority in England, has
ecently declared that monometallism
las been carried too far In 1888 parlia-
nent appointed royal commission On
,old and silver, composed Of six BIZ
netallists and six monometallists and
$ q result of the facts collected by it
lr. Leonard H. Courtney, leader of the
attor, h:is announced his conversion to
imeta]lism. Professor Fl. S. Foxwell,
rofessor Of political economy in Uni
ersity college, London, in recent let
er announcing his own conversion,
ames eight other prominent English
economists who have made the same
hange. Even Hugh McCulloch, who
as been both an American and Eng
sh banker and was our secretary of the
.easury and @ mononletallist, wrote in
S87 that the burden was becoming too
reat and closed his letter thus: "Debts
when both metals are used as
loney would be burden too heavy to
Q borne when measured by single
;andard. !"
Danger of Popular Revolt. ..=
as | 4