The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1896-07-17

would prevent Its operating IN thai
way. The first OF these is the enor-
NOUS debt, corporate, industrial, mum
cipal, state and national, which we
owe in Europe, the result Of whole
sale borrowing in the past for our
over speculation and overbooming.
1t is with nations as with individuals
loaded with debt, risky business tc
undertake to force" the creditor.
The second abnormal condition is the
great load Of silver, some authori.
ties estimate it as high as $1,000,
coo, 000-held in Europe, dsmone
tized used only as subsidiary coin, or
one entirely unused, which would
go back into their circulation under
international bimetalism, but which
there is every reason to fear, il we
move without international action
they will exchange for our gold. 1t
will be the natural expectation of
European creditors that they will do
this, and the creditors will thsre-
fore move, so Far as they can, to
realize on their holdings while they
can get gold And how can these two
movements, If they occur, fail to drain
us of gold of which we have not over
$500, 600, 600. And how canIthe expec-
tation CT them, if the silver men carry
the election, fail to send gold to pre-
MUM, drive it into hiding as mer
chandize for the sake of realizing this
premium, and SO reduce us to silver
basis? If this is the effect, giving
us the silver and Europe the gold, of
course the dream Of our controlling the
price of silver throughout the world
would be broken. We would control
1t beyond our borders no more than
Mexico, Central and South America |
and Asia, all on silver standard, now |
control it, it would seek it's level in
the worlds exchanges, influenced by
the increase in production that would
inevitably follow the stimulus of free
and unlimited coinage. Such being
the acts what reason is there to be
lieve Europe would follow us?
Wouldn't it be natural for those ma
tons, now so pressed by mon tary
insnfiiciency as to be willing to. join
in international bimetalism, TO con-
clude that our rash action had solved
the problem for them, relieved their
strain, and put all the money metal into
use by giving them the best and US
the worsts Even though this view
pc mistaken in ire long run, wouldn't
it be human nature for them to at
east wait and see how the experiment
works with usg
To illustrate concretely, Russia now
las 500, coo, 900 of gold which she
las accumulated by paying premium
or it, for the purpose of going on to
gold basis. Would she be likely to
bandon the plan for which she has
aid SO much, if we take this action =.
o help her along with it:
For these reasons, which we have
ever seen adequately answered, it .
Gems plain TO us that independent
Tree coinage by the United States, =
'ould be, to say the least, very haz- Il
rdous experiment, practically certain
, fai. of the purpose desired, to re -
uce us to silver monome:alism and y
ut us through a severe squeeze while !.
DING it, On the other hand inter u
ational action, if we are content to Az
ait for 1t, cannot fail sooner or later III
} solve the problem completely and II
sfely, without wrong 10 ANYBODY or !"
anywhere, and il will
ave not only this country but thewhole m
orld better off than it ever was "
,fore. X
Which way?'' is the sole question TO
the campaign. re