The Philipsburg mail. [volume] (Philipsburg, Mont.) 1887-current, 1896-09-25
SIR MORETON FREWEN
Lays Some Cold Facts Before the
British Press.
CALL US ROGUES AND SOCIALIST
Cannot Shell the Usurers of Wall Street,
but Possibly Can Bring British
Gunboats Q Do the Work.

Sir MOreton Frewen, the great Eng
lishman, who has travelled extensively
in this country and studied the con-
dition OF affairs, has written a letter to
the London Times, in which he says !:
lis it just, or evel polite, that the
English press should describe the pros
pective change of standard in Ameri
ca as 'repudiation:' We are fastening a
charge,of dishonesty upon entire states,
and after March next it is quite prob
able that our diplomatic relations may
require to be conducted with the very
statesmen who are being denounced
here as rOgues and socialists. And is
there any clear justification for such
language? What Bryan contemplates
at most is d change OF standard from
gold to silver. We're the Whig govern
ments denounced in similar terms
when, III the early days Of this CEN
tury. they replaced honest money in
! England by lncOntrOvertiDle paper:
In our own time France also suspended
y
for silver gold currency which
ipso facto apprcciatod--a spoliation not
OF the creditor but Of the debtor class.
In India we ourselves altered the stan
dard in 1893, when we deinonctized
silver
And with what Justice can that
republican party which in the sixties
suspended specie payments, in order to
Initiate the currency up to the hill
with greenbacks, now pretend to de-
nOunce the democratic platform of
1896: 1t will probably be replied that
when England repudiated they had no
alternative. But the only alternatives
today i'll the United States are either
silver or paper. The country is visi
bly, bleeding to death Fifty-fve mill
ions sterling of debt have been con
tracted in two years, during time of
profound peace, in order to maintain,
if possible, gold currency. aud an
other gold loan IS now seen to be in
evitable before the year closes. Does
anyone suppose that the Mckinley nos
trum, high protection, is going to en-
able the greatest debtor nation on earth
to pay her foreign debts without ship
ping gold when her staple exports,
wheat, cotton, copper and silver, are
selling as today at half price:
1.-The present depreciation of the
currencies Of nine-tenths of the world,
in stimulating the exports of all these
countries, has destroyed the balance
of trade for America. A great rise in
the price Of gold premium in Asia, in
Russia and South America, thereby
restoring to the United States that bal
ance of exports over imports without
xtynI I1, ,ha 30, l,<,, ~
vent. 1t is not a question of restoring
her credit--her ability merely to bor-
row; 1T is a question of restoring the
prices Of what she sells in the Euopean
markets.
MAY I add. in conclusion, that to
any student of American politics it is
impossible to contemplate without dis
may the attitude of our press when
considering that price catastrophe
!, which has submerged the industries of
out largest debtor, and which is goad
ing to desperation whole groups of
states to westward of the Alleghenies
The events of the next four months
are destined to influence profoundly,
, for good or for evil, the future rela-
, tions of England and the United
States. The party of honest money
, is openly boasting that it Will win the
J day by the most reckless and dishonest
means. In the political iargon of
America, the biggest barrel ever
| known will be so filled as to buy up
} democrats by wholesale at the primar-
les. If the nations will is to be
thwarted in this way by the lavish en-
: ployment of what the provincial Amer
ican press always remarks as British
gold, then no present settlement Of the
Venezuelan question will long delay
a war. If nothing but the stress and
, strain of war is held by financial pur.
, suits to justify suspension of specie
payment we may rely on it that in tine
present temper of millions of Ameri
can citizens preteXt for war will be
discovered.
ga western democrat wrote to me
recently we cannot shell the usurers
out OF Wall street, but possibly we can
, bring British gunboats to do the work
, we cannot do.
! 'Can any man in his senses fail to
notice in such a tone and temper as
that displayed at Chicago, coming as
it does from the heart of nation not
less law-abiding than ourselves, the
conditions of a desperate disease? l
have known Mr.. Bryan for some years
he is young man of the most attrac-
tive presence and brilliant qualities
he feels what young America feels and
resents, that the prosperity, the dig
nifty, and even the credit of the United
States have suffered with every act of
Mr.. Cleveland's administration. H.
deed, the entire American nation
through four years Of crises has been
J looking for cause adequate to such
widespread disaster. May not the
/ democrats be right? May it not be in
| the unprecedented cheapness of silver