Mexico weekly ledger., 1895-05-02
Vol. XXXVII.
Sane Patriotism and Sound Money.

Sane Patriotism and Sound Money
From the Chicago Times Herald.
Ii has been said by an acute thinker
of the dly that the best means of in
creasins. love for our own institutions
is To reside for time in Il foreign
country. Among the Institutions of
the United States is a money system
based cn the concurrent opinion OF
all progressive and conservative peo-
piles: ard one of the methods by which
the necessity of maintaining that m
lstitutiDn is demonstrated is obserVa-
ton of corresponding or opposite
monetary systems in other countries.
Ii makes no difference whether an
intelligent man be Democrat or
Republican upon other aspects of ma
tional affairs. The logic of the mon-
etary institution is neutral. 1t takes
no note of parties divided upon other
issues. 1t is as Interchangeable as the
precious metal which alchemy and
economies alike pronounce the para
mount substance which. for exchange
and the unit of value, is universal
wherever civil COVE e~nment is stable
and Industries are guarded under
governmental protection. A none
| tary system not based upon the con-
| sent of nations is as invalid rs gov
ernmert not based upon the consent
of the governed. No matter how
Americans may classify themselves
upon other questions, whether as
Democrats or Republicans, as feder-
extremists or advocates of State So
Cialism on the installment plan, there
ought to be no division among the
intelligent Americans on the currency
question. Sane patriotism demands
sound money. There may be patriot
ism in unsound money so far as mo-
tives go, but it is not sane patriotism.
Sound money and sane patriotism are
indivisible.
Free silver coinage is the most
modern form of the chimera of my
thology. 1t is, as one of the authorities
puts il, a fiction of the imagination,
made mp of incOngruous elements,
fantastic idea, an irapracticable
scheme. a volcanic mountain in
Lycia belched out vapors which as
sumed the form of a lion, and the
superstitious inhabitants believed the
vision reality.
That free silver coinage should re-
appear in the United States as SER
iOus economic proposal might be as
founding after our experience under
the Fland bill if inhuman fatuity
were 1ot wont thus to illustrate itself
by repetition. Free silver coinage is
no novelty. Ours is not the only
country in which the Illusion has been
prom oted and exploded.
The story of silver i'll India is an
epitome of its story in every part of
the world. The most daring and as
tute tinanciering of modern ages has
been unable to maintain stable re-
lation between the two metals in a
country where all other conditions
favored production of silver The
average piece of silver per standard
ounce for thirty seven years consec-
utiVely is an unanswerable commen-
tary upon the maudlin claims of silver
monOmetallists. In 1856, at the end
of the Indian mutiny, the average
was 81 5-16; which rose little the
next year. The dream that the
abundant native metal could then be
had to hold its own in the money
markets of the world infatuated even
cautious statesmen who fancied that
a new era had begun for England in
the east. For fourteen years this
dream prevailed. Silver kept above
90, although constantly declining q
little.
The shrinkage set in after peace was
restored between France and Ger
| many; and the decline affected Ger
man labor and industry SO seriously
that Germany demonetiZed the in
ferior metal as the only means of
keeping the wages of her labor up to
u living medium. With slight up
turns, the depression of trade which
set in in consequence of cheap money
continued, and even an international
on:erence respecting bimetallism at
Paris in 1881, when the fall in the
price of silver had reached 20 cents,
failed to suggest an ef1ectual plan by
which its further decline should be
checked. Legislation in favor of sill
yer in the United States was as COM
pleve a failure as were the severa
subsequent bimetallic conferences ol
the desperate exertions of the British
and Indian governments.
To-day the people Of India are pay
ing in full for the insane course of the
government that consented to try tc
make the smoke lion out of the noun
tain's mouth veritable beast tina
could vanish or devour at will. We
ought not to tolerate in an intelligent
ami independent country proposals. o
experiments that have been so re
Gently and so exhaustively tried il
/ India. Let us keep American labo
I