The state republican. (Jefferson City, Mo.) 1871-1896, 1895-04-11
BRITISH BlMETALLlSM.

house OF commons, made a strong
speech in favor of double standard.
He said that the belief in bimetallism
was growing, not only in London and
elsewhere in Great Britain, but
throughout the civilized world. One
great change was noticeable. 1t was
seldom now asserted that bimetall-
ism was intrinsically impossible.
Formerly, himetallist was regarded
as a dangerous fad >. Economists
who placed value on he lessons of
o~peI .enge nnd pefore t1am the ire
futable fact that while the Latin
nations maintained the bimetallic
system, the par of exchange of gold
and silver, was preserved for the
whole world, despite wars, industrial
revolutions and discoveries of the
precious metals. Some persons
adlritted that monometallsm in n
large portion of the world had depre
ciated prices and put bound on
imports. Thus, for instance, Great
Britain brought from India and other
countries wheat at prices below its
legitimate value, and these persons
declared that this was an advantage
to the consumers, and therefore ben
Gifted the masses of the community.
Mr.. Balfour declared, however, that
he was convinced that nobody in the
city was SO foolish as to suppose that
the interests of Great Britain were
benefited by the fall in prices. No
large body of city men was so
unscrupulous as to desire the debts
owed them by foreign nations should
be artiticially augmented by change
in the value oi the currency in which
they were paid.
Another argument was that the
banking supre macy Of London would
be threatened by currency change,
but no monometallist was ever able
to explain how. He contended that
London, as the financial center of
the world, would gain rather than
lose by placing the currency of the
world on sounder basis. The third
argument was very absurd. This
was that a change would depreciate
gold, and therefore persons Eaving
deposits in banks payable in gold
would withdraw them instantly. The
change threatened thus TO cause such
commercial crisis as the world had
never seen. This argument Is sup
ported by Mr.. Gladstone and Sir
William Vernon Harcourt. Though
panic was probably unreasonable,
there appeared to him no grounds to
show that the people would do any
thing so iDordinately silly as to
withdraw their deposits because the
worlds currency was going to be
put on a stable basis. The fourth
and strongest argument was, "Let
well enough alone" But the bimet-
allist asked, Was it well enough?
People talked OF the excellence of
the British system, but they find,
although the gold standard obtained in
Great Britain, that silver is the cur
rency of Hong Kong and the straits
settlements, while in India debts are
paid in something which is neither
silver nor gold, bur the strangest
product of monomeiallic ingenuity
the world has ever seen, as arbitrary
as any forced paper currency and as
expensive as any metal currency the
world had ever heard ola standard
varying according to the arbitrary
will of the finance minister of India.
This triple system was manifesty y
ridiculous. Some alteration of this
system was imperatively required.
If Britons would turn to the world
at large they would find the case
much stronger. To consider home
interests alone in framing a currency,
while Great Britain is connected with
foreign countries by every CONNER
cisl tie, was a violation of the COM
mon sense of every practical business
man. When the country depended
for its very bread on foreign nations,
and if it were cut off could not live a
day and would have ruin staring it in
the face, it was the height of folly to
attempt isolation respecting the
currency medium. He did not
believe that the common sense of the
nation would long tolerate such a
atate of things. In view of what
was proceeding in America, Ger
many and France, and even in Great
Britain, he was convinced that men
of all business interests would com
bine to end the reproach to oui
civilization.
The meeting adopted a report OF
progress. The league has decided
to raise guaranty fund of f100,0 ZOO
to be devoted to the propagation o.
bimetallic principles. Fifty Thousand
pounds has already been subscribed
WOMAN is THE POWER.