The Irish standard., 1897-07-24
IRELAND AND RIMETALLISM.

ne pHDllt men Gt Ireland have bphr
| so nngrossed in the political questions
affecting The interests OF their country
that they appear to have no time for ,he
consideration of monetary matters.
Archbishop Walsh, of Dublin. is the
only lrishman who is recognized as IN,
authority on the subject of monomcl-
allism and bmrtalism or the use of
enc metal m two as standard money
His famous pamphlct is known all nvcr
the world. and has been frequently
quoted by financial writer's. In the cleo
tion Of 500 in this country it was used
as Il campaign document by the Demo-
cratic party. and it will doubtless he
used again. The arrhbiShop's brochure
is IN nnprctentious publication. but it Is
''multum in parvu. and contains a
great deal of matter which camC' b.,
found in larger works. The patriotic
prelalc discusses The question OF hi
meiallism in a nGn- bipartisan manner and
clearly proves tina, the double stan
dard'' is preferable to he Single stan
dard'' for tn" farmers of Ireland
IN the July number Of the new month
~ magazine. THE Bimctallst." there
is an interesting article from Mr.. Vr,ry
Knox. NJ. r.. reprinted from the MAJ
lional Review" ON bmetalism in lrn-
land. in which hr says that the Trls;.
people scarcely listened to Archbishop
Walsh on the monetary question; shat
the Frccman's Journal brushed him
aside with The subtle fallacics of the
gold bugs" and that when the qlrs-
ticn came up in the parliamentary sri-
sion OF 1893. the majority of the irish
party used tho pressure OF the party
pledge to make their members vote
solidly against tho hmrtalis1s. lie .r-
riarcS that the farmers for whose ben
gift the archbishop published his pamph-
let, remain apathcir through ignur-
anre Of til" question. and he wishes
that VIM. J. Bryan or somo ot her OF
the American silver men would ;ttrmDt
to show ireland how blind she is to
her own welfare. But rs MIR. Bryan
and the other silver mon have not ut
succeeded in convincing the majority
OF the American people Of their folly
in supporting the party of the British
gold standard. il would be futile to at
tempt to convince the Irish people that
The British monetary Sytrm is improrc".
ishinS them by the steady depreciation
in the gold value OF commodities.
MIR. Knox shows quite concl,lsiyrly
that the currency has much to do not
only with the value of land products
bat with Irish manufacturing industries.
After agriculture. he says the linen
manufacture is The most important
Irish industry. and that the expert of
linen goods to he United States largely
exceeds that to all the rest OF the
world put together. The increase in
the tariff under the Mckinley admin
isratun he does nosslikc. as it affect
the Irish linen industry. The linen
experts to America under high ta"itl
will decline enormously. and the Irish
will seek other markets 70" their wares.
In this connection he says: ~ must
he clear to everybody that wilhart hi
metallism any considerable reduction II,
tho tariff is impossible. The American
people desire that prices should be
maintained lesi their industrial system
should be diaorganizcd. The gold men
can only offer increased duties as their
device for keeping up prices to compete
with the Democratic plan OF free coin
age. What is more. the bitterness
which the silver men feel against Eng
land as the center of gold monomct-
allism makes many who would other
wise be in favor Of lower duties vote
for Increased duties on the produce OF
the United Kingdom as punishment
for England. AS it happens this pun
ishment falls more heavily, proportions