Birmingham state herald., 1896-09-08

of exchange, an advantage over us in trading with the east.
 T personally do not share these fears. On the contrary, I look to the United States as the one great hope of anything being done dn the direction of interna- tfonal bimetalllsm. Matters in Europe are at deadlock
 ''One's thoughts, therefore, turn to the great republic across the seas. She has the opportunity and she has the power of setting the example. It is an example which. believe, will be speedily follow ed. Russia has come to the parting of the ways She has determined to adopt metallic basis for her money; that ba- sis must be gold or bimetallic She can not afford to have monetary system out of harmony with that of other civilized countries, and if there is no hope for si- yer then she must go on to gold, even though she knows that in the way she must face all the evils and dangers of a contracting money supply. France has already, through her parliament, de- clared in favor of the bimetalic principle, and both of these countries would wei come any step which promised definite solution of the great gold and silver ques- tion. Other countries would, I believe. soon follow. If they are going to wait for England nothing will be done. The difficulties in the way of getting any par ticular ratio sanctioned by the house of commons are insuperable. The English Bimetallic league itself Is not agreed as to the ratio to be adopted.
 "If were a citizen of the United States I should go about with IS to badges all over me. I am pretty good nuisance to my friends here about bimetallism, but over there I should be avoided like a pestilence. I believe that if the system were given fair play the United States is big enough, rich enough and strong enough to maintain the par of exchange alone and to settle the ratio of the world. Besides, l believe that other countries would soon follow her example"
 But would there not be a fear of Eu- rope unloading her silver in America If the United States adopted free coinage?"
 'I do not thlnk so. In the first place, as the silver of Germany, France and the Latin union is coined at 151a to 1, it would not go to the United States where, at 16 to 1, it would be worth per cent less. In the second place, owing to the demand for silver for miscellaneous purposes, there is very little loose silver to go. And in the third place, the delegates from Germany. France, Austria Denmark, Belgium, Russia and England, assembled at the Brussels bimetallic conference, signed a resolution in which they stated that in their opinion, if the United States adopted a, bimetallic system, an arrange ment could be arrived at which would prevent the silver from European coun- tries and their colonies being thrown up- on the hints of the United States
 "As regards the '50-cent dollar, I think, socially and economically, 50-cent dol lar is preferable to a 15O-cent dollar, and if I am paid a dollar and can pay my debts with 1t, do not much care whether it is called a 50-cent dollar or not. But there would be no 50-cent dollar about it. As soon as the hints were freely opened to silver there would be great rise in its value as compared with gold. There would be g. rise in the general level of prices, no doubt, but the population and trade of the world having increased so much since 1873 1t is extremely unlikely that prices would reach the level of 1873, even if silver were again freely coined"