The Louisiana populist., 1897-04-16
THE CRY OF GOLD.
Bank of England, ITS Methods and
Their Adyantaees:''

1hc1r Advantages:
Moral: IF large pecunialy Interests
were concerned in denying the truth Of
the attraction Of gravitatioh, that most
obvious Of physical facts would be
strongly and ably disputed. Lord
Macaulay.
1t is not charged that "pecuniary in
terests" have, as yet, Influenced the
Boston Transcript in its statements.
If, however. it should continue to ex-
tol the Bank Of England its readers
may think 5thetwise. to encourage it
to read up On banking and kindred
questions the following short narrative
from Patterson's Economy Of Capital
is submitted:
THE CITY OF GOLD"
London, as everyone knows, CEN
tains city within city; and within
that inner city there is yet another, the
very heart of the metropolis. 1t is a
small place. In couple of minutes
you may walk across it from side to
side, from end to end. There
is to be found the spare capital Of the
nation.
The City Of Gold is based upon gold:
and the foundation Ia found to be
pre-eminently tinstabls and peril6us.
The golden base perpetually oscillates
to and fro and each Of its greater os-
citations is felt like the shock of an
earthquake. It rises and falls; expands
and contracts and sometimes seems to
slip away from beneath the city alto
sether. Then goodly houses 60 down
by the doZen-not because they are
lily built-not from any fault Of the
architect or occupants, but simply be-
cause the foundation upon which they
all stand has given way. OF late years
| (this was in 1869 these oscillations
have become more frequent and more
serious; and every ten years or so,
convulsion takes place--nOt Of nature,
but by Act Of Parliament-which
spreads terror and disaster through
THE GOLDEN CITY,,
and paralyzes the whole country as
effectually as if an earthquake had
strewed with ruins the great seats oi
our national industry. The merchant
and the manufacturer, the shopkeepel
and the day-iaborer, alike find their
trade stopped, and their gains swept
away. Suffering and want spread ovel
the land, as if there were great fam
Inc. Is there not something
wrong here? Ought the presence OF
absence of few millions Of gold tt
make the vast difference between ma
tional prosperity on the one hand, ant
national disaster and widespread suf
fering on the other? How will poster
ity speak Of US when it sees that WI
made the huge fabric Of our natiorla
| industry stand like an inverted pyra
mid, resting ON harrow apex forme'
of a chamberful of yellow dross? Will
they not laugh at our folly, our bar
barism? When the usual supply o
gold is temporarily diminished, VIII,
should our usual credit-system be re
stricted in proportion, or wholly sus
| pended? OF What use is credit but t
take the place Of payments in coin
Was it not for this and for this alone
that credit and paper-money wer
adopted? Why then not make use O
our credit-system as means Of com
pensating the temporary absence
gold? Why not tide over the difficult
instead Of aggravating it,"
The foregoing testimony Of distin
guished Englishmen is merely fe'
fragments from the true story about tn
so-called advantages which-the Boz
ton Evening Transcript says-pertai
to the methods" Of the Bank Of Eng
land. SIMON STETSON.
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