The San Francisco call., 1896-08-02

Now. that the people of the United States are
Involved in a Presidential campaign turn
ing mainly upon the long vexed problem of
sailed with instructions ON the subject from
the press, from the stump and from q thou |
sand pamphleteers. 1t is to be a campaign |
of education, and all intelligent. Americans
know what that means. 1t is fortunate
for those who wish to read intel
ligible arguments on the great issue and to
arrive at conclusions upon which they can
vote with satisfaction, that General Francis
president of the Massachusetts In
stitute of Technology, has just published a
summary of series of lectures delivered by
him at Harvard University on the subject.
The. work bears the title international Bi-
and while thoroughly scientific
in character, is written in. . style so simple
and. clear it can be read and understood with
ease by the average voter.
It did not require Presidential election to
raise the CONTROVERSY between bimetsllists
and monemetsllists TO q white heat. 1t has
been:'at that point ever since the Barring
failure in London removed the question
from the domain Of speculative finance and
made it 8 vital issue in the politics both
of Europe aud of America. General Walker
tells US that for a long time past popular
Misunderstanding of the controversy has
been greatly increased by the bitterness and
unfsirness of the Eastern press. "Many
papers in other things respectable have never
ceased to denoNnce those who favored the
rehabilitation of silver as cranks, fanatics
and. lunatics. Journals ordinarily decent
and dignifed have never given q single
statement as to what bimetallism is and
what bimetallist is desire, from which careful
reader could form the faintest conception OF
that system" It is not, however, in
america only that this unfair treatment has
been.given to the question by the imonomet-
allists. General Walker quotes statement
msde in 1894 by the Right Hon. Henry
Chaplin, g member Of the present British
Cabinet before the Scottish Chamber of
Agriculture at Edinburgh in WHICH he said:
"I .often think it is very fortunate for US
that we do notlive in the dark ages, for am
quite confident if we did we would have
been burned at the stake, if that were possi-
bic, by. our monome tallic opponents before
could escape from Edinburgh"
Leaving the bitterness OF the controversy
aside General. Walker proceeds to discuss
the problem both as regards history and as
regards the existing financial condition.
The science OF money, he points out, has its
origin in comm ission spPoin ted by the
British Government in 1866 to reconstruct
the monetary system Of that country. Up to
in all European countries had been the out +
growth of the Ignorance and the higotry of
the dark ages. In that British commission
however, the work was entrusted to four
men-somers, Montague, Locke and New
ton-who constituted one of the most intel
.lec3ual groups known to history. 1t was to
the last of these, Sir Isaac Newton, that we
are indebted for the first announcement of
the principle of bimetallism, and, while his
British Governmental was never afterward
l6stsight OF, and remained q permanent con-
tribution to the science of money.
The application of the Newtonian theory
of pimetallism to practical use as monetary
system Yas reserved for Napoleon. He put
1t into effect in Teorganizing the financial
system of France in 1903. In speaking of
this decree General Walker says: at was
not only to beeome.,and remain for the two
generations succeeding a power for good
which can hardly be estimated, but 1t was to
give. rise to a monetary scheme of still
wider application which should command
the supporter hosts of economists, fnanciers
and statesmen of the highest rank through
the greatest monetary controversy of the
worlds history"
The principle of bimetallism as applied by
Napoleon, and operated in France from 1903 to
1s73.is thus described: 'fBy declaring the
two metals indiferently. legal tender in the
payment Of debts at a certain ratio it at
once powerfully influences the demand for
the one and the other of the two metals This
was what France did by the law OF 1908
That law gave an. ounce of gold in coined
money precisely the same power to pay debts
as that possessed by 1554 ounces of silver in
coined money. The operation of this princi-
pie was simple, infstan taneous, automatic. II
al any time either of the two metals became
less valuable than by the legal ratio, every
debtor instinetively sought coin of that
metal with which to meet his obligations in
preference to coin of the other metal This !
increased the demand for the cheaper metal
and by that very act decreased the demand (
for the metal which was hecomlng dearer in
the market. Now to increase demand is
othet things being equal, to raise price,
while to decrease demand IS other
things being equal, to lower price
Thus through its power to regulate |
the payment of indebtedness the Gov
ernment practically threw its weight
upon that one of the two metals which |
tended to rise, and kept it down. No one
wanted the dearer. metal to pay debts with
every one wanted the cheaper metal for that
purpose: and since the volume OF indebted |
ness coming due every day in any CONNER
cial country is very large the force thus
invoked was sufficient to produce an enor-
mons. economic effect. 1t was not at all
because the French Government declared
that one part of gold should be worth fifteen
and half parts OF silver that this result took
place, but because the French Government
set in. motion competent economic forces to
that emo"
The reasons that bimetsllism did not succeed
in this country as well in France are two
First. the business of the United States is done
largely with bank notes and is not ''sat-
ura ted" with coin as in the business of France,
and consequently the demand for either sill
yer or gold is not sufficient TO keep up the
pr1ce in falling market. Second, because
the bimetallic law has never been fairly
tested in the United States. General Walker
claims that Hamilton in fixing the ratio of
coinage of the United States in 1892 at 15 of
silver to l 'Tof gold deliberately underrated
gold. with the intention of letting gold go
out of the country, as less suited than silver
TO the imm ediafe wants and occasions of the
American people in that stage Of their COM
usercial and industrial development.
(. If .bimetallism was not fairly tried in the
IJuited States by the act of 1892, still less
fasr was the test made by the act of 1884.
At that time. says General Walker, the public
mind. of this country was agitated by the
discovery of gold mines of unknown value