The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1896-09-11
IKE FRHER AID SILVER.
An Able English Opinion On tbs RsmOastiza-
ton Of Silver in America.
Sir Morston Frewer Disssets the Coinage
Question in an Article to the Lon
don ChTOnicle-The Yellow
and White Money.

Your request for a "short statement"
Of the causes which have forced the
silver question to the front in Ameri-
can politics is not very easily met. In
writing for the Daily Chronicle, I
should have wished to deal particular
ly With the labor aspects as an issue
which during the past four years has
proved a liberal education to the
American workingman. The interest
Of labor, in the silver question, has
been admirably summed up in a speech
to his constituents in 1894 by the pres
ent speaker of the house of representa-
tiyes, Mr.. Reed, Of Maine. Referring
to the closing Of the Indian minis by
the government of India, and the great
fall in the price of silver which follow
ed, Mr.. Reed said: "We have learned
from that object lesson that the yellow
man using the white money holds at
his mercy the industry of the white
man using the yellow money" This
now historic sentence crystallizes the
position admirably. The value of their
silver coin for the Chinese and Japan
ese races, for the Indian and the
Malay, is to-day as great as ever. That
is to say, that while silver has fallen
One-hslf in gold value, yet the purchas-
ing power at home of the tael, the
Straits dollar, the yen and the rupee,
for 100000 of Asiatics, is no whit
diminished. The result is that the fall
in the gold price of silver occasioned
by the closing of the Indian minis, the
repeal Of the Sherman act and those
other excuses of class legislation in
tended, in the stock phrase of the day,
to appreciate gOld," and enrich bank
ers and other money lenders. is to-day
creating in the far east mushroom
growth of industrial enterprises, in
mine, in field, and in factory, the ex-
ports Of which oriental industries COM
pete with the products of white labor
in the markets of Europe and America
on terms Of great advantages because
Of the fall in the price of silver.
Cheap silver in the east-silver
cheapened by western legislation in
wolves cheap men and women in the
west; and not merely cheap men and
women, but indeed great masses of
men and women, who can get no en-
ployment at ALL The manager of the
Pahang tin mines, when giving evid-
ence recently before the Singapore
currency commission, pointed out that
Pahsng could always sell a ton of silver
dollars, with which they pay their
wages at Pahang. After Temarking
that western legislation had in few
years reduced the exchange value of
that dollar by one-half-that is to say.
from S. to the sovereign to $40 to the
soVereign-he proceeded to assure the
currency commission that at the pres
ent reduced price of silver, Pahang
could supply all Europe with tin, and
close every tin mine in Cornwall" !
understand that the closing of the In
dian minis has been, as the Pahang
manager pointed out, the signal for the
closing of the Cornish tin mines, and
for a great restriction of the tin indus.
try in Tasmania and New South Wales
Tt is the argument growing out of eyid
ence, from all parts of the world, OF
the severity Of this exchange crisis
which has now, at last, awakened the
American nation, and this awakening
to the most imminent race danger
which has ever confronted the western
nations can be relied upon ere many
days to educate also the captains Of
industry in Great Britain to the muir
derous industrial competition, fostered
by cheap silver-by silver CHEAP" be
cause its historic money demands la;
been restricted or even abolished.
return from this depression, which
is necessary to account for the rapid
growth of public opinion in Americ5
since we closed the Indian mints il
1893, to consider the political forces
behind silver-forces which appear tt
me to presage the defeat of Maj. Nc
Kinleyand the party of "sound money
1 have referred to the attitude Of thu
labor organizations of the United
States, which are, l think, with few i
any exceptions, in favor of Stree silver
But these organizations would be pow
erless when confronted as to-day Will
the profgate elector expenditures Oh
behalf of the republican party, by thu
capitalist class which, having grow
enormously rich by the appreciation o
gold, is now preparing to pour it
'unesrned increment" like water, les
the further appreciation of its gold ant
It's gold loans should be interferreC
with. If, therefore, capitalize golt
IL