The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1896-02-07
BIME'PALLISM.
IMPOSSIBLE IN ANY ONE NATION.
ALL POLITICAL ECONOMISTS,
BUT ONE, AGREE ON
THIS POINT.

some time ago, on the monetary prob
lem. His declaration in favor of the
possibility of national bimetalllsm
gave great Joy to the free silver peo-
pie, who have since been quoting and
referring to him as an authority"
This appeal to "authority" caused Mr..
Charles r. Fay, of Portland, to inves-
tigate the works and writings OF most
of the prominent political economists
of the world on this subject. He finds
that Professor Ross is alone among
economic professors in his belief that
it is possible for one nation to estab-
ish bimetallism. Many others, how
ever, think that international bimetal-
ism is possible. We give below the
result of Mr.. Fay research:
Professor G. F. Bastaple, professor
of political economy in Trinity Col
lege, Dublin, is the author of the ar
ticle "Money'' in the Encyclopedia
Britannica, and he strongly favors the
scheme which he says 16 p. 1861
Cernuschi and DeLaveleye brought
forward, and which '"The former
called bimetallism; that is to say, the
establishment of universal, or at all
events, large international currency,
based on the concurrent circulation of
the two metals, gold and silver, at
fixed ratio"
Professor r. E. Thompson, profess
sor of social science in the University
of Pennsylvania, in his elements of
Political Economy" Up. ~ holds the
same position. He writes: "a gen
eral agreement on the part OF Europe
and America to restore the free coin
age at the old ratio would retrieve and
maintain its (silver's) price
President E. B. Andrews, Of Brown
University, in his institutes of
Economies" PIP. 125-127, treats the
topic of bimetallism. He says: "The
serious question is whether the two
metals can be made single standard
of value We pronounce this possible.
Sufficient nations may unite upon a
given value ratio to render both
metals current in that nation at that
ratio. This bimetallic scheme, never
yet tried. differs in principle from a
unlgovernmental one. Hence, to show,
as Laughlin, in his History of BIZ
metallism in the United States does,
the 1ll-working of bimetallism in one
land in no wise disproves the scien-
tifc bimetallist argument" Presi-
dent Andrews has been denominated
by rabid free silverites as "bye-and-
bye metallist.
President Francis A. Walker, Of the
Boston Institute of Technology, agrees
with Professors Bastaple, Thompson
and Andrews in believing in the
adoption of double standard by inter
national agreement. In his political
Economy, Advanced Course chapter
II is given to the treatment of obi
metallism," and solely as an. inter
national question. In section 562, on
"What the Binetalllst Proposes" he
says: accepting the existence Of a
large group of countries in which gold
naturally circulates as money, and an
other in which silver is so used, he
proposes to create league of states
which shall each for it
self, but by simultaneous action, estab'
| lish the free coinage OF the two metals,
making the money OF one metal to be
| legal tender indifferently With the
money of the other metal in the pay
| meat OF debts, at a certain ratio, de-
termined upon in advance by consent
ing states"
| In his volume entitled "Money,
Walker gives chapter Is to a discus
sion of the "Battle of the Standards,
in which he strongly favors interna'
tional bimetallism, and IN his "Money
trade, and industry" he explains in
detail (pp. 164-195) the way in which
international b1metallism would work
In summing up he says lpp. ISL
s'This is the modern bimetallic scheme
advocated by Walowskl and Germusch
in France, Malon and de Laveleye il
Belgium, Mees and Vrolek in Holland
Schneider in Germany, Haupt in Aus
tria, Seyd and the Liverpool writers IL
England, Horton and George Walker
in the United States. 1t differs widely
from the so-called double standard
which was pronounced 1mpractible by
Locke, Adam Smith and Ricardo.
There is nothing to show that one o
those writers, had he lived in thes'
days, might not have advocated al
international monetary union, just as
not one of the writer's whom l hav
uameds as advocates of bimetalllsn
would propose the union of the tw
metals at a fixed ratio in the colnag
of single state by itself alone" ant
he concludes that "for us to, commenc
the free coinage OF silver at l6 to
while the market is IL to l (th
ratio was that when he wrote]
would be to hazard the success of re
sumption and make it certain that W
should lose our gold. In fou
wears at the latest We should be re
duced to a solid silver basis, having
par Of exchange, indeed, with lndl
and China, with which We trade little
but having no par of exchange wit
Europe, with which we trade much An
increasingly" He exhorts bimetalllst
to "awt it the time to act with etfec
and not forfeit our present renarkabl
commercial success and imperll I.
sumption by measures which can d
no lasting good to the cause OF sllvf
and NAV do harm to ourselves.
Professor w. g. Sumner, OF Va
! University. in his COLLECTED Essa.
in Political Science writes chapt'
in which he "exposes the fallacies
bimetallis,n, "and Professor J. Laurent
Laughlin formerly of Harvard Tn
; versity, now of Chicago University,
! his "History of Bimetallism IN IL
ITnited States exhibits the historic
facts which indisputably prove tn
!. one nation cannot maintain doub
y standard.
Simon Newcomb, the eminent mat
ematician, in his principles
Political Economy" describes (p
l53.155l what mOnoInetalliSm a.