The news & observer., 1897-05-06
FREE COINAGE QUESTION.

The Effect Of Cheap Silver Upon the Uni
ted States-Balance of Trade.
Editor Post: When writing to you re-
Gently on the currency question pointed
| out the enormous dimensions of that
"unearned increment which Great Brit
ain harvests because of the fall OF prices.
| That very same fall which has impover-
! ished her debtors is yet heaping upon the
| lap Of the money lender the riches of the
| universe.
This was the view expressed by Mr..
| Gladstone in the House of Commons aft
or tho carefully planned failure of the
| Brussels conference in 1893. America,
the great debtor nation, had decided in
| 1873 to start out upon that currency
| Journey which must lead to contraction.
| Was it then for England, he asked, the
country which profted most by her mis-
take, to take the lead in repairing that
| mistake? A year ago Sir William Har-
| court, Mr.. Gladstone's Chancellor Of the
| Exchequer, confirmed Mr.. Gladstone's
| view i'm these remarkable sentences:
| Nobody who was present will forget
| the memorable speech delivered by MIR.
Gladstone in this House on this same
question, in which he submitted to the
| worlds ridicule the proposition that this
land of money-lenders should go from
country to country, hat in hand, begging
that we should be paid ten shillings in the
| mound. This is practically the goal to
which bimetall llism would lead us. OF
course. we are told that we shall receive
more money. The truth is that we are
| not paid in gold, but in goods. 1t is out
of this merchandise that our people make
their living, and now it is expected of us
that we shall go around the world beg
ging that we shall receive less merchan-
disc for our gold Can anything more
| ridiculous be suggested? That we who
have lent hundreds, nay, thousands of
millions. to foreign nations shall ask
them that for this money they shall give
rs less i'm return than we now receive.
Such is the currency policy of the lib
eral party in this country. In Ignorance
of results to follow, our debtors have en-
meshed themselves. They have fallen in
love with "a currency system which mas
about doubled the tribute they pay an
nually to England, and because this IS
true we here who recognize the great
racial dangers which are involved If we
continue to sell Asia her money metal at
half price are yet battling for blmetall-
ism along the line OF the greatest resist
ance That is to say, the more your peo-
pie are educated the stronger to them
as debtors will the case for silver appear.
On the other hand. as the worlds credl-
tors, the plea for that Legislation which
will raise the level of prices is likely here
in England to continue to fall upon dear
ears. A chain, however. is no stronger
than its weakest link, and in this gold
chain the link that connects us WIN
India Imust involve us, for all time
to come, in the fuctuating fortunes of the
white metal In India we collect our en-
tire revenue in silver rupees. There has
been no rise ef silver prices in India,
whether in the rupee price of labor or OF
Indian commodities. Thus the burden of
the Indian government IN remlttlng TO
England the eighteen millions sterling of
interest payable in gold would have been
just doubled because of the fall in the
price of silver only for the closing of the
Indian mints in 1893. Instead of a reve-
nue. collection of 1S0,OOO,OOO rupees QO
rupees to the sovereign being required to
pay the 'home charges of the Indian
government 800 100000 would now be re-
uuired for the purposes of this remit
tance.
Second-When Mr.. Cleveland was elect
ed in 1892 the silver question could have
been settled, and settled by a gradual
process of reconciliation. Mr.. Alfred
Rothschild's proposal at Brussels stands
out as one of many evidences that the
time was then ripe and the men ready.
But Mr. Cleveland made it known,
through the subterranean channels of
diplomacy, that far from giving any sup
port to silver, he was preparing to urge
on Congress the repeal of the silver pur-
chase clauses of the Sherman act. Mr..
Cleveland's intention became known in |
official circles in Calcutta. That this was
the case l learned at the time and at |
first hand. The government of India be-
leved that the cessation of all silver pur-
chases in America would still further re- |
duce the exchange value of the rupee, and
therefore, in advance of the pending anti |
silver legislation anticipated from Wash
ington, the Indian mints were closed.
Let me draw attention to the extraordi- |
nary results which Immediately followed
the suspension of free coinage in India,
because the closing Of the only important |
mint at that time open to free coinage
gives us an object lesson which, if 1T
stood alone, is liberal education for all |
students of the currency. In the first
place, this act of legislation, applied to a
country which commercially is by no
means Of first-rate Importance, reduced
the price of silver within FIVE days from
S5 cents per ounce ito 6S cents. That is to
say. the signature of the Marquis of
Lansdowne, at Simla, in India, clipped
the United States standard dollar, which
was on Monday a "65-cent dollar" to a
"5O-cent dollar" ON the Friday of that
week. Therefore we know that with free
coinage in India your dollar was a Co.
cent dollar, but with mints closed in
India it was at once a 50-cent dollar. In
view of this result, so fresh in our mem
cries, how fatuous is that Cuckoo state