Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1895-05-03

per head-although other authoriti,
may put it as high as three dollars p'
head. So poor are the Hindoos tn,
six or ten cents a day in silver may /
called high wages for laborer to rt
ceive for days toll. The wear an
tear OF their coins is very great. A
air will seek vacuum so silver ma
be expected to flow from the Unite
States to India.
SHORT" SALES OF SILVER BY THE BANI
OF ENGLAND.
So scarce, in view OF the demand O
the world for silver money, is th'
| white metal, that when the so-callet
Sherman bill was in force in th'
United States, England, there is rea
son to believe, had trouble in getting
the amount OF silver bullion which hel
balance of trade account required hel
to send to Asia. About the time tha
the Sherman law Was enacted the so
called price of silver rose, all over the
world, to ST 20 an ounce. The Bank
OF England was in CONSERVATION les,
the value of silver, as measured by
gold, should rise to $l.2929. Its Di
rectors undertook to drive down its So
called price. They sold very large
amount of India Council bills, more
than they had silver at the time with
which to redeem them, and more than
was called for by the requirement ol
England's exchange account. The
Directors of the Bank of England, il
is said, boasted OF having thus broken
the silver market. There is reason to
suspect that paper money for India
with which to pay Council drafts, was
also issued.
1t was a very unhappy feature ol
the so-called Sherman bill that it was
50 framed and administered that il
converted the United States Govern.
ment into an allay of the Bank ol
England in driving down, as measured
in gold, the price of the white metal.
Silver was not treated as was gold-as
it always had been until the year
1873. The Secretary Of the United
States Treasury was obliged to buy
every month, of the lowest offerer. 4 ;
6OO,OO0 ounces of silver. II the offers
were deemed not low enough by a
Secretary unfliendly to silver they
were rejected. The prices at which it
was thus bought were telegrsphed to
all parts of the world and those figures
set the so-called price.
The Anglo-Indian merchants when
buying Council drafts in London
would naturally inquire, before max
ing their purchases, what was the
price of silver in the United States.
They would not bid against each other
when buying their Council bills. They
naturally wished to get their exchange
AS low as possible. The method that
they adopted was for a hundred or 81
OF them to give enc of their number
their orders. The Bank of England
by direction of the British Secretary
OF State, was supposed to sell to the
highest bidder-but he took for silver
what was thus offered. OF course the
Secretary for State could have placed
almost any price that he pleased on
Council bills when the United States
Government was taking up a large
part of the silver product OF the world,
and the buyers of silver exchange
would have had to payit. The English
buyers could point to the price at
which the United States Government
was buying silver. On the other hand
the Secretary of the United States
Treasury would refuse offers il they
were not as low as was the price of the
white metal in London.
For widely known reasons there is
an intimate relation between the
price of wheat and cotton and other
agricultural produce which the United
States exports to England, and the
price of silver. Did a speculator in
wheat in Chicago wish to drive down
the price of that commodity, how
could he do it more easily than by
first driving down the price OF silver!
Suppose that he lost even large sums
by buying silver at one price and sell.
ing it at u lower price to the United
States Government, what did he care
so long as he was enabled to richly re-
coup his loss in his speculation in
wheat or cotton?
If the Government of the United
States had, instead of trying such an
unwise experiment as that Of enacting
the so-called Sherman law, simply re.
adopted the bimetallic coinage system
given to our country by Washington
and the great statesmen of his day
the Bank of England could not have
been in the position to cause gold tc
appreciate in value at the expense o
silver. By the United States adopting
the bimetallic coinage system the coir
metals OF the world would have beer
inseparably linked.
CLOSING OF THE INDIAN MINTs TO SILVER
The English Government fount
that, although one class of English
men was being enriched by its policy
OF causing the value of gold to appre
ciate, the commerce of Great Britain
was being greatly injured in variou,
ways. For example, India. instead o
importing British manufactures wa.
herself establishing factories and wa'
taking away the trade of England
with silver-using countries. She va,
gladly importing silver and having il
coined into rupees. India was tindin.
it immensely profitable to trade will
silver-using countries-just as i
would he for the people of the United
States if they had bimetallic coinage
system-taking the silver it received
and having it coined into money