Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-10-30

W nat Inc Destruction OF the Money quail
tiles of Silver Has Done Tor England
and This Country Declaration of the
Worlds Leading Financial Paper.
IN a recent Issue Tn, ~tatist If Lon
don, On" If tl4' ;.hl,.>t financial I,a?,r r in
y" world. lGt 1t @u.dhug. ut cuur~,', in
Wr!tln-'f thu neutrality-suspicious. con-
Ct.'n u Brit III industries which mad"
Io~Sitl" tn chancellor Of the cxch,q-
u"r's budget reported at the beginning
Of last month, said:
The producing Countries have been plunged
Into - much distress that they are comicil.d
:" sell at whatever prize they can get, and our
people are So well OF that they are able to buy
larger and larger quantities every year. The
first Consequence II this i TINT thu working
Glasses arr exce,d!nrly prosperous, and the
foundation i, h,..ug LAID IN tn second place {. r
great iucrua-- in o;r trade becnu~,, ,r..r-
cLHnt- are laying IN stocks IF Iuatvria, IL x
coitionally l9w prizes.
The United kingdom has the labor, the ma
ch!n"ry and the capital t. supply all the rest
tf tn" world with any quantity Of goods 1t
may rcquir., hut ,,.r foreign customers Were
too puor to tuy from Us On the usual scale
The exports mr., II confirm what the imports
toll us-that the producing countries are in
deep distress. and that we are growing in
wealth Roughly, the decline in prices In the
exports Is half the decline Of prices in the i'm
ports. or. TO put it differently, we gained twice
rs much ly buying our imports cheap as we
lost in selling our exports also cheap. But as
matter Of fact the loss must have been
tri:ling. II there WIS any loss. This country
manufactures cheap goods for all parts Of tho
world. and cheap, coarse Htutfs include in
their value luNch 1tln oh ~
item is the raw material. But j" buying thu
raw material we gained immensely, and con-
seQuently there no need for very much
reduction in the wages.
The Statist here lets rs into the secret
of what it is that is cnriching England
-"the producing countries have been
plunged into so much distress that they
are compelled to sell at whatever price
they can get" An English paper like
The Statist would not be likely to make
such cold blooded statement-that
Britishers are growing rich upon the
necessities of the producing countries
if 1t were not fact. We may accord
ingly accept it as fact and seek to as
certain what it means.
England is the great creditor nation
of the world. According to Mr.. Glad
stone, whose authority nobody will dis
pute, her credits abroad amounted in
1898 10 the astounding sum Of $40, 900, =
600, 600, and these investments, accord
ing to the calculation of the same high
authority, brought in to Englishmen
tho tidy amount in annual returns of
$500, 100000 These credits Of Great
Britain have not certainly decreased in
the course Of the last three years, and in
referring to them now it will be safe
enough to speak of them as still amount
ing to that sum. In that income Of
$500, 900, 900 from her foreign invest
ments is to be recognized one of the
leading sources Of England s we'll to do
ness. 1t represents a fine revenue when
we remember especially that it is quite
over and above all her ordinary COM
mercial gains. She is in the position of
the head Of family who has saved so
much money and has invested it so
wisely that he is able to support his
family upon it without touching current
profits or revenues 1t is very good for
England.
and the other is the view in which we,
as British tributaries, are mainly inter-
ested, for we are tributaries to Great
Britain, however much we may squirm
at the name. And. in fact, not only are
we tributaries Of Great Britain, but we
are easily the most extensive tributaries
that she has. Of the $500, 900, 900 per
annum which indebted foreigners pay
to Britishers to make them rich and
prosperous we have the pleasure Of
knowing that we in the United States
contribute over $500, 900, 900 every year.
It is worth while refectinga moment
how we pay that huge annual tribute,
all payable in gold or COLDS equivalent
Plainly we cannot pay it all with the
gold that is mined in the United States,
for the gold that is mined in the United
States in year does not amount at the
outside to more than $50, 600, 900, and
we cannot pay off gold debt of $780,
900, 900 with O gold product Of $780,
600, 900. When we have lSnded over to
our creditor on the other side of the At
lantic every ounce Of the $50, 600
which is annually extracted from the
United States mines. we still owe Eng
land an annual debt of $3.50, 900, 600.
How do we pay it?
We have to pay it in exports. And
The Statist, in the excerpt which we
have quoted, tells the nature of the pay
ment in exports-''the producing coun-
tries have been plunged into so much
distress that they are compelled to sell
at whatever price they can get" The
United States is among the producing
countries" here referred to, and the
United States, debtor, has to accept a
debtors lines from the creditor. The
United States has to sell its exports at
the ''price it can get" There is no
reader Of The Times Democrat so ill
posted at this time of day as to imagine
that the price Of cotton and Of wheat is
fixed by the producer. 1t is the pur-
chaser over in Liverpool who fixes the
price which the farmer in the United
States is to be paid for his surplus cot
ton and wheat that is for sale.
Now, then. Americans being indebted
in O large sum per annum, as we have
seen, to the Britisher, and not being
able to pay the British creditor in gold,
have to take what price for their goods
they can get. Previously to the demone.
tization of silver as money, when sill
yer and gold were both legal tender cur
rency on parity, Americans paid off
their annual Indebtedness to the British
creditor in wheat at 81 per bushel and
cotton at 10 cents per pound. That was
an equitable transaction. The creditor
got good interest ON his investment, and
the producer got good value for his labor.
But the creditor was not satisfied with
this arrangement He did not make
enough out of it. He therefore arranged
to contract the volume Of legal money
by one half, in order that the half
which was left might increase in value.
He had silver demonetized accordingly,
and then gold-the only legal money
left-went away up in value and Is
now worth 100 cents, where previously
1t was worth only 100 cents. This new
arrangement suits the British creditor
we'll but il is Dainfullv hand ON the