Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1898-10-27
THE GOLD MOVEMENT.
Ifov- 1t Has Been Encouraged and
Fostered by the OmcehOlders
and Money Lenders.

EOEtered by the OmcehOIderS
and Money Lenders.
There was no agitation in favor OF
adopting single standard until about
the beginning OF this century, when q
number of writer's discussed il. In
1902 Citizen Berenger, who had been
deputized by the French government
to make report on this question. re-
ported in favor CT single silver stand
ard. Not gold, but silver. Berenger
was one of the ablest men that have
written upon this question, and it is
notice able that he advanced IN 1902
practically all of the arguments in IA
vor of silver standard that have since
been advanced in favor of gold stand
ard. Like the single standard men of
to-day, he took the ridiculous position
Of fercely contending that the gov
ernment could not increase or de-
crease the purchasing power of a
metal: that the whole matter was reg
ulated by commerce; and yet, instead
Of leaving it to commerce, he labored
for years, IN season and out of season,
to get the government to adopt one
metal and strike down the other by
law. In 1916 Lord Liverpool succeed
ed in getting the English government
to adopt the gold standard by law, and
his principal argument in favor of it
was that other nations of the world
were using silver almost exclusively,
and if England adopted gold and
coined it in denominations that. were
not in use in other countries her
money would be less liable to be
drawn from the island, and that when
it was drawn from the island it would
have a constant tendency to return.
The idea of getting an advantage over
other countries by the use of gold was
not then thought of. This advantage rose
later, out of the fact that England, hav-
ing become the great commercial and
ship-owDing nation of the world, and
London the great financial center, her
people got the benefit of the exchanges
and in time got the benefit of all those
advantages which are reaped by men
who handle large sums of money and
are in situation to compel others to
come and deal with them. There were
a number of minor steps taken by some
of the governments, which need not be
noticed in this brief survey. but the
advocates of a single standard increased
in number, and were finally divided
into three classes: One class that
wanted uniformity Of coinage. in order
to escape confusion which resulted
from great variety of coins issued by
different small principalities. This
class did not believe that there was
enough of either metal in the world to
do the worlds business, and favored the
theory of having some countries adopt
gold and other countries adopt silver.
Another class was made up chiefly of
professors, who advanced various the
cries which they wanted to have put
into practice. The third and more pow
erful branch consisted of the great cred
tor classes, who wanted to make |
money dear, and of nearly all the off, |
cial classes who hold office for life and |
lraw salaries from the government |
The charter of the Bank of England |
being about to expire, was renewed by |
parliament in 1914, and in the act re- |
lRwing the charter parliament provid- |
ID that the bank must buy up all gold |
If lawful standard that should there |
after be offered at 6 It's. Cd. per ounce
If standard gold. In other words, it |
liked the minimum price for gold by
aw and furnished the world a purchas-
r for it. Had it provided by law that
he bank must buy every pound of wool
hereafter offered at 80 cents per pound.
t is evident that 30 cents per pound
would have formed minimum price
or wool after that date, especially if
t were limited in quantity, and this
would have been due not to business or
but to the arbitrary act of
government. About the time of the
,reat discoveries of gold in California
nd Australia, the creditor and office
olding class, fearing higher prices,
tarted an agitation in favor of the de-
veil as some of the smaller German
tates, actually demonetized gold for
time. Soon after 1850, when it be-
anne evident that the new gold fields
we're not going to deluge the world, the
citation in favor of 6emonetizing
old ceased, and then became active in
avor of demonetizing silver. Interna-
iona1 monetary conferences were held
t different times, at which the idea of
single gold standard was
trongly pressed, although the folly
nd danger of it were pointed out by
ONE of the ablest statesmen and finan-
iers of the world; but the influence of
he office-holding and money-lending
lasses was sufficiently potent to quiet
: carry it out, and finally they induced
Al L l. -, L
.iative.-John p. Altgeld.