Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1896-09-09
TWO VIEWS OF SILVER
BY TWO BISHOPS OF THE M. &.
CHURCH.
Bishop TIL ObUrn of the Methodist
Church DON'T Agree with Bishop New.
man.

hihuSCil W pick up tne SduHt III IdSOr
of gold. He has had some controversy
with Senator W. NJ. Stewart on the
question. His zeal for gold is only ex-
ceeded by his zeal for the election of
Mckinley and Hobart In his last let
ter to the senator lit is dated August
15) he says, in part:
81 have travelled through nearly all
the silver countries on the globe and
seen the baneful effects of a debased
currency upon the working population.
In those lands the wage Garner.
whether accountant. mechanic or day
laborer, contracts for so much per day
or week, during which time silver and
paper currency has deprecated while
the necessaries of life remain at the
price they were before the decline but
the wage-earner is compelled to take
the deprecated dollar. You propose
to change this by legislation You
cannot do it; the history of the world
is against you. 1t has been tried. but
in vain. There is, however, a iegiti-
mate remedy for existing evils. Create
business confidence by the election of
sound money men like Mckinley and
Hobart. This commercial confidence
will revive susdended industries and
industries and inspire new ones; the
employed will need new clothing, bet
ter food and better homes and these
in turn will stimulate all branches of
trade.
When he travelled through these
countries it was at the expense of the
government and while he was ostensi-
bly, on a tour of inspection of United
States consulates he was in reality on
junket. That'he made during that
junket a study of the silver question
was not known prior to the present
campaign. In fact, his knowledge of
the silver question, and particularly
the debasing effects of silver upon the
people. may not inaptly be termed an
unearned increment of knowledge on
the silver question.
With these views of Bishop Newman
on silver let us compare those of an
other distinguished bishop of the
Methodist church, the Rev. Dr. j. NJ.
Thoburn, bishop of the Methodist
church in India In recent inter
view he said:
India, while at the mercy of gold,
is now and always has been on a silver
basis, though really silver in India has
been demonetiZed since June, 1893.
The decentralization of silver in India
was brought about in this manner:
The English government stopped the
India minis from coming any more sill
yer bullion into RUPEES. Previous to
this edict a merchant could pay his
bills with bullion, which had stand
ard value, as this bullion, could be
taken to the mint and coined into
rupees, but since the closing of the
minis the value of the rupees has been
uncertain, and that is proving very
disastrous to the country. What is
needed is a stable currency, coin that
will keep its value over night. Since
the Indian demonstration of silver the
price of the farmers products has been
deprecated. The wheat buyer of Eug-
land VIZ fuc-ts-.I.a.lis, with his gold,
buy rupees with it, and with THESE ru-
pees he will buy wheat, selling it
again in the English market for gold
This has greatly aided in depreciating
the price of American wheat. If silver
becomes standard money L believe
that Indian wheat would not find its
way, as it does now, to the London
and Liverpool markets.
India is today looking toward the
coming election of this country, and
if the United States declares for the
free coinage of silver, the price of
rupees in India will greatly increase
Business will boom up, and the wheat
Of India would not underbid the Amer
lean wheat in the English market, as
it does now
Asked what would be the result so
tar as commercial relationship be-
tween this country and India is con-
cerned, if silver carries the day at the
next election, and whether American
products would find their way in large
quantities to the India market, he an
swered:
Il think this country would benefit
by the change. The Indian merchant
like every other person, buys where he
can get the most for a given sum, and
free coinage of silver being inaugurated
here once more would mean that silver
countries would naturally trade with
the United States
Bishop Thoburn notes in India the
same bad effects following the de-
monetization of silver that have been
noted here ever since silver was de-
monetized in 1879. Farmers products
have deprecated in value, and that
always means distress to the farmer.
There is more reason and moderation
in what Bishop Thoburn says than in
what Bishop Newman says. Then he
is not so cock sure, which fact recon-
mends what he says to all thinking,
truth-Seekin1 people