The herald., 1895-02-19
BY A BANKER

| To THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD:
An "out'' of two words in my last COM
munication made me say that the only
source of the value either of gold or silver
! is the fiat of law. 1t should have been
''the only source of the value either of
silver or gold as money is the fiat of law. 3"
The Associated Press dispatch from
Berlin, Germany, published in The Her
aid last Saturday, figured prominently in
the stormy financial debate in the United
States Senate on the same day. Senator
Hill had the dispatch read as an omen of
progress towards bimetallism. The dis
patch stated that Count Mrbach had in
troduced resolution authorizing Ger
many to take the initiative and invite the
nations to participate in another interna-
tional monetary conference farce, and the
Reichstag had adopted the resolution by a
| decisive vote
The significant part of Count Mirbach s
| speech upon the resolution was what he
said about America and the Eastern
trade. He said that bimetalism would
cause the rise of prices in England,
where gold was the currency. "Agricul-
ture (in Germany would be ruined if the
present (gold) system was maintained.
America would either absorb Germany s
gold, or adopt a pure silver standard and
, capture tlle WDOlc Eastern trdQe.
1t is curious that the so-called finan-
ciers of the United States who have been
permitted to control the money system OF
the country do not see what Europe sees,
that the interests of the United States,
both in respect to domestic business and
foreign trade, lie in the direction OF the
adoption of bimetallsm by independent
action rather than through cooperation
with foreign nations In Professor e. B.
Andrews book The Honest Dollar, pub
llshed last summer, the author discusses
the opportunity for an extension OF for
eign trade that bmetallism, if adopted,
would open to the United States He says:
ut is at this point that the far-sighted
and patriotic among the advocates of free
silver find their inspiration. Aware of
the absolute necessity resting upon this
country to extend its foreign markets
they would take advantage of England's
folly in continuing under gold monomet-
allism, and would place the United States
at the head of the silver-using
group of nations to do for
them their manufacturing. Let us
break off commercial relations with
Europe, they say, if only we can estab-
.lish such relations with that vast part OF
the world where manufacturing is either
non-existent or inchoate, and must grow,
if at all, with difficulty; and let us create
for those teeming millions all their man
ufactured articles, taking in return those
things which they can produce SO much
more easily than we. When men point
out the prosperity that might come to our
country through the introduction of such
a scheme, to ridicule them betrays no in
telligence Their thought in itself is
magnificent. In declaring that there is
an opportunity by the means suggested to
dish England in the markets of the
world, they are quite right. So
much reason attends the notion that it
seems to me sheer madness to oppose to
it a policy like England's present one of
stubbornly adhering to gold monometal-
lism. With that idea of the ultra-siver
men falls IN eXcellently the idea OF reci-
grocity put forward by the late Mr..
Blaine.
The money power OF England is too