The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1896-05-08
INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT.
IL. aavoc.tes Admit That Remonetixatto,

Its Advocates Admit That Recommendation
Is Desirable, II It Can he Attained.
Perhaps the most amusing feature of
this whole controversy is the demand (?)
for an international agreement"
Men who never bestowed AN hour of
consecutive and intelligent thought
upon the subject in their lives, who
actually do not know that there ever
was such a thing as an international
| monetary agreement, are vociferously
claiming that the United States must
nave one, and that it cannot arrange
is own financial system without the
| concurrence of one or more European
| states.
There are several things to be said
! with reference to international agree
| nents. First, there never was one
until 1865, when the Latin union was
formed.
Second, that agreement merely rec
ognized condition that had existed
in France since 1903. So far as France
was concerned, the only substantial
change introduced by that agreement
was that her coins were made legal
lender in the other states, and theirs
The agreement in no way changed the
:atio or the coinage.
Third: Why does the opponent of
free coinage want an international
agreement? If the demonstration of
silver did no harm as we are constantly
told, why should we have an interna-
| ,ional agreement to remonetize it? If
The restoration of silver will do no good,
why do we want an international
| agreement to restore it? If there
never was bimetallism in the United
States, why should we have it now Tor
1t any time) by international agree
ment? If the demand for free coinage
is merely dishonest attempt on the
part of the silver miner to get dollar
for so cents worth of silver, why should
his wicked purpose be gratitied by in
ternationa1 agreement? If the half
civilized condition of China and India
is owing to the use of silver, why
should we enlarge the use of silver by
International agreement and thus en-
danger our civilization? If England's
| greatness is owing to the gold stand
ard, why should silver be restored by
International agreement and the
wheels of progress be turned back
ward? If silver has deprecated be-
cause the cost of producing it has been
reduced, how can an international
agreement restore any portion of its
lost value?
If the value of gold is intrinsic, +"
fixed. Interchangeable and independent
of all law, how can an international
agreement affect its relation to silver?
And SO we might go on interrogating
those who absurdly claim in one breath
that the gold standard is the only true
and honest standard, and in the next
breath avow themselves in favor of an
international agreement to establish
bimetallism.
When a man declares himself in IA
vor of restoring silver by international
agreement he absolutely surrenders
his case upon every question of princi-
pie. He admits that its demonetiZa-
ton did harm and that its remonetiza-
ton will do good. He stands solely
upon the ground that the United
States cannot do it alone. But how
does he know that? If England
France, Germany and the United
States can do it, is it not possible that
three of them could? If thr@e. nigh,
not two? And if two could accom-
plish it, might not one?
Is it not plain that it is only ques
ton of strength and capacity? 1t foul
great nations can combine and restore
silver, they could certainly do it JUS
the same if they were all united int
one country. That is self-evident
Then it is only a question OF how
much gold and how much silver the,
could absorb and use after the want
of other countries are supplied. l
they could take it all, that would set
tie it If one country be large enough
populous enough and have bushes
enough to take and use for monetar.
purposes all of either or both metal
that might be left after satisfyin,
every other demand, that also woul
settle it
Then why cannot we do it alone? D
they attempt to demonstrate by figure
that we would fail in such an attempt
Never.
The figuring and demonstration ar
all on the silver side
The bimetallist takes the annus
product of the mines, the amount cor
sumed in arts. the coinages OF differ
emit nations, the wealth. populatio
and resources of each, and upon thes
data he proves almost to mathema'
ical certainty that the great America
republic can settle this question alon
if it will only try. For answer we ar
simply told that we cant "-Nations
} BimetaIlist