Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1897-02-19
WIDER BIMETALIIISM.
ALL I6 TO MEN FAVOR IN.
TERNATIONAL AGREEMENT.
They Believe, However, That Independ-
ent Action Would Bring 1t at Once
win Help Mckinley to Secure It-If
He Means Business.

tain quarters disposition TO SET uOWH
the supporters of Mr. Bryan in the
last campaign as opponents OF inter-
national bimetallism. This Ia done
from variety of motives and in diff
serent ways. Chiefly it springs from
an entire msconception, when not
founded on deliberate Tisreryesenta-
ton, of the aims and doctrines of those
who advocate the restoration of the
Independent initiative of this govern
ment; and it illustrates, as do so many
of the positions of our critics, the
amazing lack of information and OF
correct mental processes that for the
most part characterize the arguments
against free coinage. This reference
to those arguments is not meant as
mere fling at an opponent. 1t is the
sober truth.
To student of monetary science and
history fully four-ffths of the matter
contained in the gold-standard press
and the speeches of gold advocates is
absolutely pitiable. Not that something
cannot logically and weightily be said
on the other side, but that, as matter
Of fact, those who try to say it seldom
know clearly what they are talking
about. Any man whose relations or
ambitions are such as to make him
wish to be. or think that he is, in ac-
cord with the dominating forces in the
business and political world, considers
himself qualified to jump into the arena
and call anarchist" "repudiator," and
"imbecile," with the best of them, and
when his temerity brings him into an
argument actually exhibits to the COM
petent observer that he has entered
an unfamiliar contest with improper
weapons and Impractical in the exer-
else. Such a one is astounded to be
told that our contention rests on no
new-fangled philosophy, but, on the
contrary, justifies itself by the accented
teachings Of economics for over ewo
thousand years; that We invoke no
inequitable or immoral principle, but
ground ourselves upon the clearest
justice; that we are not revolutionists
and destructionists but the staunchest
defenders of order and rational prog
ress.
Because some people who do not
know what bimetallism is, and others
who do not wish what it is to become
better known, have called us Silver
monometallists" so persistently, it is
assumed by many that we have no
sympathy whatever with efforts to Sc
cure international concert of action in
the free mintage of gold and silver.
"An international agreement" they
argue, would secure and maintain the
parity Of gold and silver. This is BIZ
metallism. Opening the minis of the
United States alone would drive out
all the gold and put us on silver basis.
(This, of course, we deny, let it be I'M
derstood) This would be silver mono
metallism. (This is a persistent error
that l cannot pause to correct, equal
and concurrent circulation being no
necessary condition of bimetallism.)
The effect is so obvious that it must
be contemplated and desired by any
body who counsels the step. Therefore
those favorable to independent action
are monometallists. Hence, of course,
they are not bimetallists. Accordingly
all such must oppose any attempt to
secure an international agreement"
AS matter of fact, however, the
great body Of those who advocate indie
pendent action and those who demand
an international concert of action aim
at precisely the same thing. Both want
gold and silver, at a proper ratio, to be
freely coined into money of full legal
tender power, and that is bimetallism.
The principle upon which the practices
bility of the system depends is, that
after the metals have been minted into
coins there shall be demand and inter-
changeable use enough for both kinds
of coins to keep them employed as me-
dia of exchange and stores of value. The
international bimetallist maintains
That this condition can be supplied
only by the concurrent and associated
effort of the leading commercial ma
tons" The national bimetallist be-
lieves that the magnificent and diver
sified commerce. internal and for
eign, of the United States, its ex-
banding and incompatible resources
and fortunate situation, give assurance
Of sufficient power to absorb by use
and exchange whatever stock of either
metal would seek her open mint. The
question between them is merely one of
degree. And surely we who believe
that the United States alone may safely
assume the free coinage of both gold
and silver can regard as only an in
creased guaranty of its success the con-
current opening of other great minis
besides. Add to this that the certainty
of a general concert would undoubtedly
array an overwhelming majority of the
American people on the side Of bimetal-
Ism instantly, and you have reasons
enough why every free silver man
should be in favor of international BIZ
metallism. But suppose international
action cannot be secured? OF course
the issue would then be squarely pre-
sented between a definite and perma-
nent policy of gold monometallism,