Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-08-09
HOW THE "BR1TIsHER" SEES TT.


There may be some good people in this
country who really apprehend that the
free coinage of silver by the United
States would bring upon US unimaginable
calamities. The very phrase has been
abused to conjure up in their minds Wis
Ions of "gorgons, hydras and chimaeras
dire" and perhaps the most horrible of
these has been suggested by the stupid
declaration that the free coinage of gold
and silver, without discrimination
against either metal, or charge for mint
age, would place us at once upon ''sil-
yer basis" What this really imports for
this country, beyond some idiotic drivel
about 50-cent dollars, gold monometal-
lists have not undertaken to show. What
is clearly seen in it by one of the fore
most, If not the very first, of British gold
organs our readers may discover from
the Following extract from the London
Financial News, which, in discussing the
free silver movement here, says
There is a plain moral in the remark
that IL the United States should venture
to cut herself adrift from Europe and
take outright to silver she would have all
America and Asia at her back and the
command of the markets of both coun-
tries. The barrier of gold would be more
fatal than any barrier of a custom
house The bond of silver would be
stronger than any bond of free trade
There can be no doubt about it that if the
United States were to adopt a silver ba-
sis tomorrow British trade would be ru-
med before the year was out. Every
American would be protected, not only
at home, but in every other market OF
course the United States would suffer to
a certain extent through having to pay
her obligations abroad i'm gold, but the
loss of exchange under this head would
be mere drop in the bucket as COM
pared to the profit to be reaped from the
markets of South America and Asia, to
say nothing of Europe. The marvel is
that the United Stats has not long ago
seized the opportunity 1t has been a.
piece of luck that 1t has never occurred
to the Americans to scoop us out of the
worlds markets by going on a silver ba-
sis, and it might serve US right if, irri-
tated by the contemplate apathy of our
government toward the silver problem.
the Americans retaliated by freezing out
goldP'
There never was a case for which the
Scotch poets prayer was more appro-
pirate or needful than that of our own
people in respect to this financial ques-
ton:
20, wad some power the giftie gle us,
To see ourselves as ithers see u.s.
From how many foolish fears and
cranky notions would our people be freed
if they could only see the results of our
going upon even a straightout silver ba-
sis, with the eyes of the intelligent and
sagacious gold monometallist who wrote
the above paragraph, not for our read
ing or encouragement, but to warn the
obstinate, blinded shylocks of his own
oountry IF tho dapparS aho,t opd obaod
of them! The worst result in it for us,
that he can discern, is the loss of ex-
change in paying our foreign obligations
in gold; and this, he declares, would be
u mere drop in the bucket compared with
the profits in the trade we should take
away from gold-using countries. On the
other hand, every American would be
protected, both at home and in every
other market, as custom houses could
never protect him. We should have all
Asia and America behind us, and COM
mand their markets-those markets
whence Europe has drawn and is draw,
ing most of her wealth. British trade,
this writer says, would be ruined before
the year was out. How long, with this
result plainly impending, would British
gold monometallism be allowed to crush
and destroy British trade? If 1t be a
marvel, that the United States has not
long ago seized the opportunity to grasp
the trade of two-thirds of the world,
what must be the wonder of intelligent
men abroad, and their contempt for our
financial nerve and sagacity, when they
see our people duped by designing
knaves into paroxysms of fear In the
presence of an opportunity to seize with
out burning a cartridge the commercial
empire of the globe, and actually flying
from it as they would from the advance
of the black death?
Within sixty days after the election of
a real democratic president and con-
gress, who will open our minis to the
free and equal coinage of both silver
and gold, the Contemplate apathy" of
the British governments on the silver
problem will give place to an earnest,
honest, anxious effort for international
pimetallism or. more likely, the doors
OF its mints will fly open to free coinage