The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1897-06-10

rupees when hard times came around
and the boaraer had to reconvert hi.
hoardiugs into current coin. Practically
ell jewelry in India is merely boarded
money. Many Of the wealthy natives
have boarded coined money; yet, though
such boards are often large, the number
is small compared with the countless
kmass Of boards Of the great mass of the
Indian artisan and middle-clNss peas
sntry, the bulk Of the Indian people
Now these are not the classes which come
TO the governm ent for assistance of chsri
table relief works and aims houses; but
they are the Glasses whom tho govern
ment has cruelly robbed of their savings
by keeping The mints closed against thu
free coinage Of silver. Daring my late
tour Throughout the famine stricken ois
tricts mixed largely with this GLASS, and
also with the nah hsjsns, or banker class,
and heard their views freely expressed on
the late currency legislation of the gov.
ernment. Most bitter are the complaints
against the action Of Lord Lausdowne's s
government, and frequent the predictions
that the historian of the future will have
to brand that act as ore Of the most cruel
and unjust pieces Of legislation that was
ever enacted by any civilized governments.
1 will give your readers or instance out
of many which came undsr my notice
of how the closing Of the mints Is rob-
biug the people of their savings. In the
city of Allahabsd l met man who had
one come In from one of the most severely
famine stricken districts, with silver
jewelry weighing RS 1000, which in
former years he could have sold for about
Rs. 1880, but owing to the mints be-
log closed, the silver smiths, who are the
bullion merchants Of India, had offered
him only Re. 33 for Rs. 100 weight of
silver, or only Rs. 660, for what had
cost the poor man Rs. 1000, and when
I demonstrated with the silversmith his
reply was, "What can l dop 1t is not /
W no wish to plunter the poor of their
savings; 1t is the act of the govern
ment who have closed the mints and will
not coin silver je ewelry into rupees and
in these famine times silver ornaments
ale Of no use to me- I cannot eat them"
That is oily 9ue case out Of thousands.
TIE gold and silversmiths Of India are
proverbial as the greatest usurers in the
country. The proverb is, "In manufac-
turing ornaments or in making a bar
gain, the suusr (gold or silversn itl)
would cheat his own mother" The
closing of the mints has put the most
thrifty and most loyal classes of India
at the mercy Of these usurers, who are
not slow at laying the blame on the BIit-
ish government, and 1 must admit,
with too much reason in this instance.
This incident caused me to have sev-
eral conversations with one Of the lead
ing bankers Of Allahabad on the late
currency Legislation Referring to those
who advocated the adoption Of gold
standard for India, lie said: "They are
thought whatever for the poverty of the
great mass Of tho people. People in
may make their monetary
calculations In gold, but about 80 per
cent. of the pople of India are obliged to
make their monetary calculations in
copper. The calculations Of this masses
"a tn hn pf
cisted rupee; copper price forms the
money of more than 80 per cent Of the
people. But our foreign British govern
ment, who have burdened the country with
home charges and debt redeemabls in
gold, appear tl ignore this fact, and to
be anxious only to protect their own
change. Although pour, the mass Of
the people Of India are very thrifty
and, owiGg to their acquisitiveness, mil
lions of RUPEES are even now, with closed
mints, monthly Withdrawn from circu-
lRtion and hoardsd, and this tendency
to hoard the silver and to calculate
strain on the copper cur
-ency of the country, which the British
government has hitherto failed to recog-
nize. The native money changer sits in
an iron barred cage at the corner Of
sVery street, charging one price per rupee,
or over e per cent. discount for chang
ing a rupee into copper or small silver
coins, which annually amounts to an
enormous tax on the earnings Of the
starving poor In Calcutta, at the very
door of the Currency Office, the money
changer sits, growing fat on the one price
discount taken from the change of every
rupee. What would the workingman
Of England say If the grocer or baker
were to charge a faTthing for the change
Of every shillingf
After this ny friend went on: "Thare
Is smother point of vast importance
bearing on the closing of the mints. No
attempt whichever was made by the gov
eminent to make the mass of the Indian
people understand what effect this mo-
change would have on their
customs and habits-the PEOPLE were al
lowed to go on converting millions of
coined rupees into ornaments. You, sir,
must know the vast amount Of silver
sent from Calcutta every year into the
j1te producing district. Not even 30 per
cent. of that silver ever finds its.way back