The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1896-09-19

4 McCleary to this city that the Repub-
4 licans Of today cannot at least boast OF
j principle, when driven to impeachment OF
its most illustrious dead i'll justification
of it's latter day senle subserviency to
I Wall street, but this is unkind and ought
! not to be alked about. Those who are
employing it should rather regret that,
| with all their plausib!lity, learning and
research, the combined wit and wisdom
of McCleary free-trade Republicans, and
I Grover Cleveland boiling cuckoos
should have failed to call to their aid the
most eminent witness of ala gentle
man who testifies most enlphatically that
he knew al about the bill Of 1873, the
learned Robert Giffen, Of London In
their great nest-hiding labor of fact con-
cealment, none of the gold mononetallic
free-trade combinations have as yet UNI
dertaken to demonstrate that English
economists, advisory to the Bank OF Eng
land and London Board Of Trade, were
ignorant of what was intended by he bill.
| It is admitted that Alfred Latham, gov
ernor Of the Bank of England, was ad-
| yised of it, for persistent efforts OF Pc
oria newspaper to extract the truth from
| the few men who were parties to that un-
hallowed subtarfuge inspired heated dis
cussion in the United States senate in
| 1898. the result of which was the publ
cation of Alfred Latham's letter acknowl-
edging his participation in the counse.s
Of it's authors. In view of this fact 1t is
somewhat surprising that Robert Gift
fen's yindication of john Sherman has
been neglected, and kept out of print.
Mr. Giffen's testimony before the Lord
Herschel committee of 1898 was repro
duced in these columns, and since then,
on Friday, April 9th, 1894, the same
gentleman reiterated his evidence, and
added thereto some very important in
formation besides. The occasion was q
sitting of the ShaW-Lefevre commission
in London to inquire into the causes Of
agricultural depression" the witness
himself being a member of the coInm!s-
sion in question. On page 162 OF the sec
ond volume Of the minutes of the evil
dence Of that royal commission the fol-
lowing dialogue is recorded. The ques-
toms were put by Robert Lacey Everett,
member of parliament, and are as follows:
Mr.. Everett to Robert Giffen: "Now
turning again to your very able anu In
teresting essay on Price and Income
Compared which you read i'll 1888, you
tell us there that you predicted in 1873
that an era of falling prices was about
to begin, and that you based that On the
new demands for gold which were then
foreseen; were those new demands
known at the time, think it was 1872
you said?'
A. SIN 1872 we were quite certain
about the German demand which actual
ly had commenced. It commenced in
1871
@. "But you were not aware, were
you, of the demand that would arise IN
the United States?"
A "The question of the resumption OF
specie Pa, ments in the United States had
begun to be considered at that time, and
we also assumed that the resumption of
specie payments would be in gold, as the
United States had practically been a gold
vertible paper country. Upon that foot
ing it Was foreseen that there would
probably be very great demand for gold
in the United States, as they had parted
with an immense quantity during the
Civil War. They parted with the whole
stock when the war commenced, and then
they distributed over the world about
G6, 0OO,OO to 100000 annually all dur
ing the war. Therefore, we assumed
that when that came to an end and specie
payments were resumed, the United
States would make a very considerable
demand for gold, as it afterwards did"
@. .sYou We're not aware that leg;sla-
ton was likely to take place in the Unit
ed States; you had no inkling of that?'
A. eyes, I was aware of that a little.
I did not mention it, I see, in the paper,
but was quite aware of it in 1873, when
the legislation did take place. 1t was
well-known thing and very much dis
cussed."
@. You are aware that until 1873 the
mint. of the United States was equally
open to gold and silver, and that both
were equally legal tender?"
A.. No doubt the United States was In
law bimetallic country all during the
Civil War, and had been for many years
before that, but practically it was gold
using country just as England was, and
the exchanges went upon. that footing"
@. "That was simply because the ratio
at their mint was rather different one to
the ratio in France, was it not?"
A. 1.-THE ratio was 16 to l, and that
seemed to be sufficient to give them gold.
1t had been SO effective that, in order to
obtain the silver money for small change
which was really required, they resorted
to the expedient of coming silver as
token money about the year 1850, so as
to give them what silver they really re-
CURED upon that footing"
Q. eff they had not changed their law
in 1873, when they resumed cash pay
ments, they would have resumed them on
the basis of the two metals, would they
not?'
A. "What would have happened in
that case of course it is difficult to fol-
low out, but the legislation of 1873 was
quite deliberate, and quite in view of the
return to specie payments. -
@. care you aware that after the Pres