New Ulm review., 1896-04-08

delegates came to US personally at Man
kato and frankly confessed that while
they voted for the gold bug resolution
they didn't believe in it that it was no
their sentiment but they said it was go
ing through, Aand what's the use of kick
ing" We don't believe even respect
able minority of second district republi.
cans believe in the British gold standard
If they do, they have departed from the
true doctrine Of the party. -Falrmon1
Sentinel
If the free coinage OF silver would not
drive our gold out Of the country and re-
duce our currency to silver basis, but
would restore the parity between gold
and silver and give us bimetallic basis
for our currency, as bimetallists assert,
chow does 1t happen" asks the North
American, "that, wherever the experiment
has been tried, the result has been precise
ly the opposite of what our free coinage
friends insist must be the case?" Thus we
are told that the evidence of experience
all goes to show that the free coinage Of
silver would force us to silver basis,
But the evidence of history shows no
such thing. For the statement of the
North American, on which it bases its
interrogatory argument, there is no foun-
dation.
Hhas not othappened as the North Amer
ican assumes, that wherever the 'sexper-
iment' of free coinage has been tried, it
has resulted in putting the nation trying
the "experiment'' on the silver basis.
From 1903 to 1878, France tried this So
called "experiment" of keeping her mints
open to silver without once changing the
ratio, and during the whole of this period
she maintained the parity of gold and
silver at her mints, secured fxity of
exchange the world over between silver
using and gold using countries, and en-
joyed all the advantages of the greater
of prices that bimetallism con-
fers, In France, free coinage of silver
did not result in silver mono -metallism.
Nor did free coinage of silver in Italy,
Switzerland, Belgium and Greece, also
members Of the Latin Monetary Union,
result in putting those countries on sill
yer basis.
But the monetary hisory of the world
down to 1878 our gold contemporaries
are prone to overlook. Otherwise they
would not refer to free coinage of gold
and silver at a fixed ratio-the custom
of the world down to 1S73-as an eek
pertinent" The experiment has been
the closing of the mints to silver, and it
has proven a miserable, disastrous, fail
ure.
But ignoring the monetary history of
the past gold monometallists point to
Mexico. Mexico, they tell us, has free
coinage Of silver and the result has been
to put that country on a silver basis.
And this they ask us to take as evidence
that the opening of our mints to silver
woul'l drive out our gold and give us
silver mCnometallism, Because Mexico,
a nation comparatively weak CONNER cial-
ly, has failed by opening her mints to
silver to maintain bimetallism, any at
tempt on our part to do SO must also re-
suit in failure! To thus compare the
commercial power of Mexico to that of
the United States and to declare that the
comparatively small demand for silver
by Mexico would affect the value of sill
yer to as great a degree as the many fold
greater demand for silver consequent on
opening our mints to silver is absurd.
The internal commerce of the United
States equals the internal and foreign
commerce of all Europe, outside of the
British Isles, combined, and our COM
mcrcial power being equal to that of all
Europe it is i'll our power to confer as
great u demand on silver as all the CO.
vernments of Europe combined.
Finally we are told silver standard
countries are at the bottom Of the scale
Of civilization and gold standard coun-
tries at the top and we are told to look
at Mexico as evidence of the degrading
influence of silver r-monometallism. With
equal business we might refer to the re-
condition and barbarity of
the Turks as the result Of the gold stand
ard. In 1S47 Holland changed from the
gold standard to silver and few years
later Germany did the same, but Dutch
and German civilization did not retro
grade nor was the material advancement
of those countries checked. To compare
the restless energy of the Anglo-Saxon