Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1896-07-25

all of these facts apply in the same
manner to the enormous quantities
of cotton and other products pur-
chased by Great Britain In the East.
At the same time she tells us:
ooh, yes, we will buy what you have
to spare-all of it-but we can't pay
you any more than It costs US from
India" Germany, France and other
European countries do the same,
and now the enormous debt we owe
in all these countries-to England
alone FIVE or six thousand millions
of dollars they expect US to pay,
principal and interest, in gold, or
in goods in competition with silver
using countries, where the silver
dollar has the same purchasing
power as before our surrender of
it's value. Gold we have not got of
our own production, and perforce,
we must give goods. OF manufac-
tured goods our principal creditor
has more than she needs. Your
breadstuff, cotton, bacon and beef
are really the only goods we can
can send abroad in payment OF the
debt. Were we now under the
same monetary standard as existed
prior to 1873 every bushel of wheat
you produced and sent to England
today would, when landed in Liver
pool, pay $l.4O of our debt. Now it
only pays about 20 cents of indebt-
edness, and at the same ratio or
even less is the debt-paying power
of the cotton you raise, and the
price obtained abroad for your sur
plus produce fixes the price for all
you raise.
In answer to the scarecrow raised
by the gold men that if we were to
90 back to free and unlimited coin
age of silver at the 10 to ratio this
country will be made the dumping
ground of all the silver in the world,
let me give you some idea of the
enormous quantities of silver metal
needed by European countries to
carry on their trade with the nations
of the East.
In 1851 Japan and China. with
population of three times that of
the 2OO,OOO,OO0 of Indian, were open
to the commerce of the world. That
year lS5D London, then as now the
center of exchange for the whole
world, needed only about $S.OOOOO
worth of silver to send out to settle
the years trade balances in favor of
the East. The trade of West with
East developed so fast during the
next II years that she (London) had
to find and send to the East in that
time $6OO,OOO,OO0 worth of silver, and
ii had to be all in silver, as the
creditors would accept nothing
else. So wrote an eminent author
ity in 1863. and he said that "if it
had not been for the timely discov-
cry of gold in California and Aus
traiia, and it's arrival in London so
as to enable the purchase of silver
in France and other continental
countries, replacing the silver with
gold currency, tremendous money
panic would have convulsed Eng
land" .! 80
What England has had to find of
silver for the payment of trade bal.
ances due the East for the 30 years
since is almost beyond conjecture,
and the trade of the Eastern ma
tons with the Western is expand
ing all the time and the demand for
silver for the balances due is
always increasing.
Under such circumstances can
we expect that England will ever
take step to assist in the remonet-
ization of silver! Only a short
time ago at banquet in London an
Englishman said that it used to
cost nearly twice as much to buy
silver necessary to coin rupee the
silver coin used in the East Indies)
as il does now. "Our transatlantic
cousins he said, would like us to
help them remonetize silver. We
can't afford TO. If silver bullion got
back to its old value don't believe
that we could get pound more of
wheat or an ounce more of cotton
in India for rupee"