People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1896-06-11
FREWEN TO BLAND
Great English Economist Has
Written a Letter.
WITHERING BLIGHT OF GOLD
Points Out that the Creditor Nations
Are Resolutely Set Against De-
parture from Gold Standard
Money Power Bleeding
Rest of the World.

Hon. Richard P. Bland of Missouri
has received from Mr.. Morton Frewen
the great English bmetalliSt, a le.-
ter dealing with the world wide as
peCt of the money question which Is
Of deep interest. 1t is as follows:
% Gresham Place.
London, May II, 1896.
Dear Mr.. Bland-Thank you for
your very interesting letter of April
q. That crisis in the silver question
which has been eliminating since the
legislation Of 1873, but especially
since our legislation, in closing the
Indian minis in 1893, is now at hand
and it is impossible that the lesson of
the last three years has been lost on
your great educated Democracy.
A fortnight since | attended
monetary conference at Brussels, and
| was much struck by the unanimity
of the recognition there, that those
nations which are 10 Mr.. GladStone'S
phase, the creditor nations" are
likely to concede as little as possible.
The general opinion here in financial
circles is that the United States is
well able to pay her interest on the
foreign debt, even should the price Of
wheat, cotton and your other other
staple exports fall much lower still;
and, further. that if for a few years
to come, you are to be obliged to Dor
row that GOLD interest from creditor
England, which you owe hcr, all the
better for the creditor. Money being
a mere drug here at The present
time. the creditor will be happy to
Ohige you For while you borrow at
something overs per cent. our con-
soledited p per cent bonds are n0w
costing our Investors ll3.
Your entire financial difficulty is in
this; you ca1uOt maintain a sufficient
of exports ever imports to pay the
S3OOOOO,O90 which you require to meet
lWthe interest on your foreign loans,
I{2) the eEermOus expenditure Of your
tourists and residents in Eurupe, (3)
the freight you pay to British ships.
This is difficulty not at all confined
to your community; it is today the
case OF all debtor communities. In
Australia where | was travelling re-
GENTLY, found that the trouble is
far more serious than with you. Our
cOlOnists there are required to pay
nearly $4,000, zoe Of interest yearly to
England on the loans they have made
here. They make this payment
chiefly by their huge exports of wool
the price Of wool having fallen 50 per
gent, 2,OO9, 600 bales are now required
20 pay interest instead of I,OOO,0aO
fHhe result Is that Australia, the NEST
lDrOsperoRS Of pastoralcommunlties
lOnly few years since, has become
\ embarrassed 30 the last degree, and
but for "free wool" in your tariff bill,
the situation of Australia must by
Z this time iEave been desperate.
These seven debtor Australian colon.
les are financially in the same strain.
ed condition because of the fall OF
prices, that xny seven of your once
prosperous debtor States are now in;
their prospects and yours are equally
engulfed by the increasing burden Of
] fixed debts.
! | believe that not mach later the
most 6igotsd gold nonemetallist
will be Obliged to recognize the
disease. Since 1873 wehave so hgis.
lated to depress the price of silver
that 00,00Ole0O Of Asiatics are ab,e tn
buy silver-their silver money-at
about half price; these hordes OF
Orieutals selling their product in
Europe for the god sovereign, that
sovereign DOW sends them back, when
exchanged into silver, ;tWice as many
rupees or taelS or yeas or dollars, as
was the case twenty years ago; and
meanwhile all the evidence shows
j cOnclusively that the value, the par
! Chasing power Of the Indian rupee OF
the Chinese tael, or the japanese zen
or the dollar of the Malay peninsula
: is no whit reduced. This is, 7 be
=. lieve, the burden too grievvns to be
born, by the Industries Ct competing
white men, although the press of the
great creditor nation England, and
equally Of the great creditor state,
New York, revels 10 objections to
this, the evident and rational explain
alton Of your present troubles.
As to whether by going to free
coinage, your great community can
maintain exchanges every where az |
TO 10 between gold and silver, | am
not going to dogmatize. At Brussels
l found much difference of opinion.
Mr.. Herman Schmidt, whose know
ledge of exchange problems entities
his opinion TO respect, believes that
Won can Mr. GronfalI nm H. o.l.