The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-05-17
|. |, HILL ON SILVER
BE Doesn't Think the United States
Can Go 1t Alone.
THE COMPETITION OF JAPAN
Effects on the Financial Conditions
of the Failure of the 3. g. o. and
Other Roads Which Publish
ed False Statements.
HE COMPETITION OF JAPAN

]. ]. Hill, president of the Great North
ern railroad, is interviewed on the silver
question in a recent number of the Min
neapolis Journal. The article is as fol-
lows:
Perhaps no man in the Northwest Is In
closer touch with the financiers both of
Europe and America than J. J. Hill. pres
ident of the Great Northern railroad. Mr..
Hill has recently returned from the east
and when seen by the Journal expressed
himself as very well satisfied with the
financial situation and the bearings Of
the currency question on the prosperity
of the country.
Mr.. Hill is a believer in silver, but
only by international agreement He does
not think that the United States can go
ii alone in any attempt to maintain a
system of bimetallism. He is also very
much in earnest as to the effect upon the
Northwest of a conservative policy. This
was shown in his answer to the question,
what he thought would be the effect upon
the Northwest from commercial and
financial standpoint of the declarations
by state conventions already held in IA
vor of sound money and similar utter
ances from those still to be held. Nothing,
he said, would do more toward restoring
confidence.
1--WE can look for better times as soon
as European nations are convinced that
we are done with financial foolishness,'
he said.
Mr.. Hill went on to say that confidence
in American investments was what was
needed, and that such confidence would
not return as long as the country's po-
sition on silver was uncertain. 'Consols,'
he said, are being bought in London by
idle capital. They produce but lilo per
cent. And If you offer them American Sc
curittes they will say that they do not
know what they are
ct believe continued Mr. HILL in
using all the silver we can in the world:
but 1 do not believe that the United
States can force 1t into use alone He
argued, however, that an international
agreement was sure to come; it was only
a question of time. English merchants
and manufacturers, he thought, were
ready for the change now. The competi-
ton of the far East was already making
itself felt so strongly in England that
one-half of the cotton mills were closed.
as he believed, permanently so.
Japan. a silver country, said Mr..
Hill, is already competing with us in a
way that would ruin our manufactures
in time. They are invading our clothing
business, and they are good tailors, too.
Go into a drug store; you will find a good
American or English tooth brush for per-
haps % or IS cents, while you can buy a
Japanese brush for cents. The Japanese
bicycle at $40. These are examples of the
conditions which lead me to believe that
period of great depression for manufac-
turing interests is before us.
The time has come when one nation
cannot act Independently of others Con-
ditions have changed greatly, even since
the war. The means of getting from one
country to another. both as to time and
cost, have improved wonderfully. Trans
portation rates are so low and products
are moved so easily that no nation can
stand alone. 1 tell you people. talk about
the universal brotherhood of man and
how desirable it is, but they are getting
1t a great deal faster than they realize
Mr.. Hill said he had nothing to do
with politics and could not say what was
likely as far as the Northwestern states
were concerned, but he was quite willing
to wager something that in the end the
people would come to the right conclusion
on the subject. Bring 1t right home to
them as a matter of personal interest,"
he said, and they will come to their
senses fast enough. Suppose we were to
send silver to our shops to pay off with
do you suppose they would keep that sill
yer very long? Not by any means 1t
would be very short time before IL
would all be converted into bills or gold
While speaking of the feeling in Eng
land toward the United States, Mr. hin
incidentally remarked that the Baltimore
d Ohio failure had done this country far
more harm than the Venezuelan matter
When the Santa Fe went to pieces, after
publishing false statements and deceiving
investors, he said. the affair did not
make much impression. But when an old
and reliable company of such standing as
the Baltimore & Ohio was found to have
put out false statements and continued a
systematic scheme of deception IL had a
very serious effect"