The Forrest City times., 1896-10-23

tldt anu IlAdnClal question. Moreover, the so-called sound money or republican par ty has already begun to find that it's dec- laration in favor of maintaining the gold standard until an international agreement is arrived at has placed 1t in a very H. logical position. and has put powerful argument Into the mouths of Its opponents. If MT. Bryan and his supporters say to the American electors, the gold standard is good thing for the United States, why should the republicans endeavor to induce other nations to help us to abolish it; and | if 1t Is a bad thing. as the republicans by their bimetallist plank practically confess | that it is. why should we wait for the per mission of other nations to abolish 1t? ! This argument Is causing the leaders of
 the sound money party 10 abandon the | plank
 Tn the pamphlets with which they are ! flooding the states. and which are being 1 poured into this country from Europe also, and in the leading New York papers ir- | ternational bimetallism is being treated as l an impossibillty and a dellsion. and the 1 single gold standard is being definitely ad- i vocated as the best monetary system for l the interests of the United States. For all | these reasons it does not at present appear
 at all probable that the victory of Mir Me 1 kinley would be speedily followed by an
 international conference, though. If the 1 consequences of such victory became suf-
 ficiently disastrous. such a conference i might be eventually forced on the govern mentS concerned.
 "On the other hand, what would be the
 position should MT. Bryan be victorious l and congress definitely determine to enact
 the free coinage plank? We need not stop
 to discuss from the moral or legal stand point the question as to whether the con- i sequence of the reopening of the American i hints to the free coinage of silver would or would not be of the nature of ! partial re- i pudiation a scaling down of American i liabilities abroad.
 Tt is quite certain that neither MT Bry- i an nor his colleagues desire any such re- suits. Their firm belief IS that free coin age would prove to be an effective and l permanent establishment of the parity be- | tween the various forms of American cur l rency and between gold and silver through ! out the world Their arguments are all d. rected to a demonstration that this would i be the result, and they are supported by | American and other economic and finan- | cial authorities of distinction who have cer- ! tanly no reason to wish that their predic- 1 tions may be proved to be wrong. For ob-
 vious reasons Mir. Bryan and his sup porters must hope that the experiment
 will be completely successful, though 1 should it fail to maintain the parity they
 would be in a position to throw the blame i for failure on the European countries, i which would be the chief sufferers by the i failure, and whose governments are al
 ready pledged, in conformity with resolu l tions passed recently by their respective 1 parliaments, to do their utmost to make 1 the experiment success
 Let us suppose that the effect of MT 1 Bryan's election were to be a speedy res ! toration of the American ratio between
 gold and silver throughout the world; can l anyone imagine that the governm ents of l Germany, France, Great Britain and India 1 would dare to take the responsibility of ! allowing such an opportunity for securing | that stability of the exchanges which all ! have declared to be desirable to pass un- utilized, or would face the possibility of | another disastrous fall without doing any ] thing to secure the position? Or to take | the extreme view on the other side, let us | suppose that the consequence of free coln-
 age in the United States would be a rapid | depletion of the gold reserves in the United | States and consequent fall of the Ameri- | can exchange until tho dollar became 's3-cent' dollar; would the European and l Indian governments regard such impend- | ing results with equanimity and refrain l from doing anything to avert or mitigate
 them?
 | For, with such a prospect, the position | of the investors, bankers, financiers, pro- | ducers and merchants of Europe would be | very different from what it would be | should the United States maintain the gold | standard. The burdens of all American 1 debtors would be frightened at the cost at least, of all those creditors whose bonds
 are not specifically payable in gold. Ameri- | can producers would become as formida- ! 5le competitors in the worlds markets, as for instance, the Argentine wheat 1 growers and the Bombay mill owners | have become. The burdens of European | debtors and of the British colonies would 1 be increased by further fall of gold prices. | Perhaps the European investors might 1 hesitate in deciding whether the fall in | American bonds might not be compensated | by rise in the value of American rail- | way shares consequent on the increased | activity of the American export trade and | the reduction-in terms of gold--of the ! fixed charges. But on the whole in view ! of such prospects, il seems probable that
 even London and Hamburg would become l anxious for a conference. and that, we
 take it. is Prince Bismarck s opinion" | Here is one from the Irish News, a
 Belfast paper. It appeared on Septen- | Der 2S, 1896:
 "The free coinage of silver in America | would have one of two consequences l Either 1t would bring about a restoration of the parity between the American cur
 rency and the double currency throughout | the world, or 1t would cause depletion of 1 the gold reserves in the United States | and a concomitart fall of the exchange Should the first-named result follow, there | is no escape from the conviction that the governments of the world would embrace
 
 | to make it permanent. In the other alter native something like a panic would be | created among European financiers and commercial men generally, and the in- 1 terference of their respective governments | would inevitably follow. Such, at any rate l is Bismarck's diagnosis of the situation and it appears to be a sound and accurato ! one. The eXperimen which Mir. Bryan and his supporters wish to make, is one which all. except of course the goldites, would like to tried. Its promoters are | sincere in their desire to bring about an | effective settlement of the currency ques- tion. and it is clear that the carrying out of their scheme of free coinage does tend 1 in that direction"
 The English bankers are laughing at our American tinaneiers. They are amused at the efforts now being made | by our British-aping money experts
 who have adopted the gold-standard
 craze because it lis English ye know"
 In an article published in the Bankers Magazine of October, 1896, W. R. Law
 son. recognized financial authority, has an interesting article entitled: "The Renux of Gold to America"