The Philipsburg mail. [volume] (Philipsburg, Mont.) 1887-current, 1897-09-03
FREWENISHOPEFUL
He Claims the Monetary Commission
Has Done Great Deal.
A LETTER TO G. G. GOODWIN
One Man Who Thoroughly Under
stands the Monetary Question.
The Leaven Working.

Aho AoiloWliiS was SeuI dS private
letter, but permission to publish. if
thought best, was included 1t was
written OIL the day that the answer
was returned to the French and Amer
ican commissions, that England de-
sired more time (until October) in
which to consider the joint petition
for conference looking to the le-
establishment of b-metallism. The
letter is most interesting, for it gives
gllmpses of what is going on in tie
worlds commercial center. Ia post
script Mr.. Frew-n praises exceedingly
the work which Mr.. Wolcott has done
in London. In reading the letter it
must be kept in mind that when the
commissioners sailed for Europe Mr..
Frewen had given up and did not be-
lieve anything could be done for sill
ver
The letter is as follows:
25 Chestam Place, London,
August 7. 1897.
today that her majesty's government
will not be able to reply to the joint
representations of yoUr currency com
missioners and the French government
until October at earliest. This being
the case, you will be anxious as to The
significance of the delay.
Tho cifuoticp boro ,u oo,.,
pick. The personal factor-the attitude
of half dozen meu, here, III Berlin,
in lndia-upon this seems to be turn
ing at this moment, the monetary his
tory of the twentieth century. Your
men, it is only fair to admit, have
done extremely we'll here. | was one
OF those who thought that little good
could come of snch mission at such Il
time. | feared that it might sidetrack
the eneriges of silver men on youi
side. while adding nothing to the
movement of public opinion here.
But this is not the case, and am
quite surprised at the serious way in
which tho right people here are now
discussing the problem.
You see, our people have never had
any particular respect for your finaA-
cial methods; indeed, why should
they Thus the movement of great
nation; the hi metallism of Bryan, the
bimetallism of Mckinley, had quite
failed to impress us. But this quite
unexpected movement toward free
coinage by France has come as bolt
from the blue. French finance has
always appeared to us wholly admir-
able. That thrifty, conservative
France should adopt the attitude, that
the two great republics could safely
go it alone. - if our Indian mints re-
opened, and if Berlin would agree to
take a little silver annually, and sell
nOne-it is hardly possible to ove.. rate
the moral effect of such a deyeloDment
as this. 1t is not America then that
Is today dragging forward an unwill-
ing France; it is rather France that is
about to become the target of yonr gold
press When WolcOtt returned from
France last February and declared that
Meline. the French prime minister,
was in likely mood. he said very
little more, and the thing seemed to rs
wholly improbable. But here is
Baron Courcel the French ambassador
collaborating with your men at everv
step, and Meline declared to a friend
the other day, eff we (the govern
ment) are put out because of our sup
port OF silver, we shall not be out
long" You can then imagine the
surprise of our people at the attitude
of the French ministry. Bryan, we
We're rold was low fellow he was
a 'repudiator" "a "fifty-cent dol.
lar'' man but here is French gov
ernment working quietly for "fortv.
five cent dollar. for ratio of to
l5la, and our press, in dumb surprise,
has not yet found any adjectives.
1t is strange that the member of this
cabinet from whom the least was
hoped, Sir Michael Beach. the chan
cellor of the exchequer, il apparently
the most anxious of all to help things
forward to a speedy settlement while
on the other hand that member whose
speeches in the past have done the
most to arouse public opinion here, to
the great dangers impending, is TODAY
making all the trouble within the cabi-
net. I refer to Mr. Goschen, who
was the chancellor of the excheouer
in Lord Salisbury's former govern
ment. 1t was this same Mr.. Goscbep
who. wnen representing this govern
ment at the monetary conference in
Paris in 1878, said:
1.-The general effort which would be
made on every hand to get rid of the
white metal might occasion the great
est disorders in the economic world
and produce a crisis more disastrous
than any within the memory Of men. !"
1t was he also who descibed the gold
mono-metallic theory as "mischiev
Gus" and "Utopian. Is it not amaz-
ing that when by consent of other
nations. we are to have gold here, if
we rigidly demonetize gold in India,
making India still the free silver
Hlink'-is it not amazing that Mr..
Goschen, who has brought us all to
recognize the shoals we are running