The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1896-06-27
SILVER LOGIC.

Montana. For years they have been
proud to recognize in the distin-
guished Englishman a profound stu
dent of finance, an acute logician, a
lucid expositor, a travelled man of
affairs, and an ardent and untiring
friend of silver.
To Mr.. Frewen, naturally enough,
the political situation in the United
States is just now full of intense in
terest, trimming over with hopeful
possibilities, and in response to a
communication from Richard Bland
he has sent the following letter to the
Missouri statesman:
% Gresham place, London, May
10, 1S96-Dear Mr.. Bland: Thank
you for your very interesting letter
of April p. That crisis in the silver
question which has been eliminating
since the Legislation of 1873, but es,
pecially since u legislation in clos
ing the India minis in 1893, is now
at hand, and it is impossible that the
lesson of the past three years has
been lost on your great educated de-
mocracy.
A fortnight since, | attended a
monetary conference at Brussels, and
| was much struck by the unanimity
of the recognition there, that those
nations which are, in Mr.. Gladstone's
phrase, the 'creditor nations," are
likely to concede as little as possible.
The general opinion here in financial
circles is that the United States is
we'll able to pay the interest on he,
foreign debt, eel should the price
of wheat, cotton and your other sta.
pie exports fall much lower still; anc
further that if for a few years tc
come, you are to be obliged to borrow
that gold interest from creditor Eng.
land, which you W her, all the bet
ter for the creditor. Money being ;
mere drug here at the present time
the creditor will be happy to oblige
you! For while You borrow at some
thing over three per cent, our %consol
idated y per cent bonds are nov
costing our investors 1I3.
Your entire financial difficulty i
in this: you cannot maintain a sut1i
Gent balance of exports yer import
, to pay the S30O,OOO,OOO which yo'
require (1) the interest on your for
eign loans, (2) the enormous expen
diture of your tourists and resident
in Europe, (3) the freights you pa,
to British ships. This is a difficult,
not at all confined to YOU
community; it is today til
case of all debtor communities. L
Australia, where / was travelling re
Gently, | found that the trouble is ia
) more serious than with you. Gu
colonists there are required to pa
nearly s75,0O0,O00 of interest yearl
to England on the loans they hav
made here. They make this pay
ment chiefly by their huge export
of wool; the price of wool havin:
fallen 50 per cent, 100000 bale
are now required to pay interest, il
stead of 100000. The result
that Australia, the most prosperou
of pastoral communities only a fe,
years since, has become embarrasse
to the last degree, and but for "fre
wool' in your last tariff bill, the 81
uation of Australia must by this tim
have become desperate. These Sc,
/. en- debtor Australian colonies are fiji
ancially in the same strained cond
t ton because of the fall of prices, tn;
t any seven of your once prosperol
> debtor states are o in; their pro
poets and yours are equally engulfe
' by the increasing burden of fxe
n debts.
believe that not much later IL
most bigoted gold monometallist wi
be obliged to recognize the diseas
Since 1887 we have so legislated
o depress the price of silver that 800
y 100000 of Asiatics are able to bu
their silver-silver money-at abo'
half price; these hordes of Orienta
! selling their products to Europe fe
the gold sovereign. that %sovereie
now sends them back, when e
changed into silver, twice as mar
rupees, or %taels, or yens, or dolla
|. as was the case 20 years ago; al
meanwhile, all the evidence sho,
y" conclusively that the value, the pu
chasing power, of the India rupe
st of the Chinese tael, of the Japane
j. yen, of the dollar of the Malay pc
20 %insula, is no whit reduced. This
l believe, the burden too grievous
% be borne by the industries of col
l. peting white men, although the pre-
1t of the great "creditor nation" En-
land, and equally of the great cree
~ tor state, New York, revels in obje
tons to this, the evident and ration
X explanation of your present troub
ct As to whether by going to fir
u coinage, ycur great community C
t. maintain steady exchanges eve
where an 1:1R between poId and S