The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-08-05
AN ENGLISH VIEW.


has been phenomenal, but scarcely less
phenomenal has been the modification
in the tone Of the gold press towards
it. That press has come TO recognize
the seriousness and the sincerity Of it..
A very just and conservative view of
the silver question in the United States
is put forth by the Manchester
Guardian. perhaps the most influential
Journal in the English provinces, and
ranking alongside the great London
dailies- II says:
One useful result, at least, of the
proceedings at the Democratic con-
ventfon at Chicago this week will be
the enlightenment of readers in this
country for the RECOMMENDATION of sill
yer in the United States. Owing to
the tendency of the London press to
treat the whole question as a mere
fad, and to the extent to which
prejudice has prevented leading public
men from making themselves ac-
| quainted with it's merits, there is still
| an extraordinary amount of ignor-
arce of the real nature of the great
/ controversy in this country Not long
since it was still pretty generally as
serted that the silver movement in
the United States had no other basis
! than the supposed interests of silver
mine owners anxious to obtain a
higher price for their commodity A
! cause which has apparently a1rayed
I the Democrats of the southern and
western states almost as a whole, and
even those of gold producing Cali
! foTnia and of such states as Kentucky,
! Ohio and Illinois, against the eastern
states, and has developed a sectional
bitterness of remarkable intensity, can
no longer be ascribed as a mere sill
yer miners movement. And the
wording of the plank" as adopted by
the resolutions committee of the Chi
.cago convention should do much to
promote juster appreciation in this
country of the real consideTa tions
which lie at the basis of the move
ment. The broad fact is that through
the International characterization of
silver the melting value of the silver
dollar, coined in the ratio of Is to l.
has been reduced to, say so cents in
gold. though it still circulates, or the
paper issued against it, at the par
rate of 100 cents. The apprehension of
the so-called "goldites'' is that the
reopening of the American minis
without agreement for similar action
by other nations would result either
in the disappearance of gold and the
fall of the purchasing power of the
silver and paper dollars to the present
melting value of silver coin, or in
such an initiation and rise of prices that,
even with the maintenance of the
par, the purchasing power of the gold
dollar itself would be no more than
that of so cents at present.
It then gives the view of the ques-
ton that the silver men take, and it
discriminates in its use of the word
''silverite.' It recognizes that the sill
yer sentiment is not confined to the
miners and mine owners by any
means. 1t says the silver men ait
Chicago were at least able to point
to the fact that the policy of gold
monometallism has compelled the
Unitsl States in time of peace to in
cur an additional load of debt of the
magnitude of a war debit by selling
bonds to the very financiers who are
the chief upholders of the gold policy,
and that no definite plan of escape
from this ruinous situation is dis
cernible other than that which they,
the silver men, boldly but forward"
1t says that exaggerated denuncia-
tons of the silver men, such as those
in which the London Times INDUCES,
ARE the more to be deplored because
they not only tend to intensity Ameri-
can conviction of British greed
in this connection an American paper
reproduces the 'old-fashioned' saying
Find out what John Bull wants you
to do, and don't do it,'-but they may
tend to bring to pass evils which
might not otherwise come about"
The Guardian is of the opinion that
even the election of president ON
free coinage platform would not neces- !
sarily "lower the American exchange
TO 60 cents on terms of gold dollars;
and that it is at least just possible
that free coinage in the United
States might have the effect of restor-
ing confidence in silver, giving a
stimulus to its use and helping for
ward materially the approximation of |
with gold
What all free silver advocates be-
lieve is that the adoption of free coin
age by this government would send |
silver to par with gold and keep It
there. Nor can there be any doubt /
that the adoption of such policy by
this government would be the quickest
and most certain way of bringing
about International bimetal lism.