The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1898-12-17
EXPANSION AND PRRE SILyRR.


intellectual effort to hurrah fo
free silver and damn the goldbug
or to damn Bryan and hurrah fo
sound money. These things cal
t bo done without research or inves
tigation. To discuss free sllvor a
y an economic problem and without
reference to the political prefer
ment Of either parties or indi
d viduals, is quite another thing
Occupying, for the noncc, an alb.
5olutely neutral ground, IecI
aaaply justified by the facts Of his
tory and the logic of events IN say
ing that if this country ever Sc
cures free and unlimited coinage
of silver it must do so by building
up largo commercial interests with
silver using countries. No assis-
tanco need be expected from
Europe. InSular and continental
Europe is irrefragably weded to
the single gold standard. We
sent a commission to consult
European nations on the subject,
and while the commission WAS
cordially RECEIVED, it was given no
encouragement. TO the silver
using countries we must turn if
we expect to secure free silver, and
the silver using countries are in
the Orient. China, India, the
strait countries and contiguous
lands. The Nicaragua Canal will |
bring us closcr with four of the
South and Central American re-
publics to Equador, Peru, Bolivia
and San Salvador, the trade of
which amounts to little, but to no
other silver using country to which
we have not already rail or water
connection or both. Both, the
largest country in South America,
Is on a gold basis and Chill,
stretching on the west coast from
Bolivia to Terra dol Fuego and
fencing in one side of the Argen-
tine Confederation and Patagonia
is on a gold bssises. Our Pacific
coast, British America, Alaska,
the Aleutian Islands, Russia and
Japan, are all on a gold basis, and
the AslStic coast must be reached
before silvor using countries with
our products should, therefore, be
the aim of every free silver man.
The gold men of this country rec
oginize this fact and we hear pro- {
tests loud and long against expan-
sion from the ':Enemy's Country"
There are many we'll established
principles in the science of com I
merce and among them are (I that I
people of equal advancement ,
cannot trade with each other at a |
profit; and ~ the currency Of the Z
less advanced nation can be used !
to advantage. Since America has ,
become a manufacturing country I
she is no longer a customer, but 3 |
rival of Europe's, and to make a |
profit she must seek people less {
developed than she is. When the q
founder of the Astor dynasty '
landed in New Amsterdam, Gotham 9
Manhattan, or whatever New York c
was then called, he plodded about G
in his wooden shoes and soon
discovered that the people in the G
New World were quite as smart as |
himself. He sought easier game, /
He looked for people less adyanc- i
ed than he was and he found them i
among the Indian. He bought q
their furs and paid them in such ,
things as they needed, and in q
balancing accounts he accepted ,
wampum or Indian money and
thus bEougnt it into increas- !
cd circulation. This vamgum !
was not good in Europe, but c
it was redemption money among
the Indians and it soon became
current throughout New England.
On larger scale, if this Nation
deals with silver nations, silver
will become more generally circu- t
lated; and whether or not the trade J
of 900, 900, 900 people less sdvanc-
ed than we are will, in the opinion
ef congress, justify a placing of :
this country on a silver basis, we l
must concede that it will have a
powerful influence in that direc-
ton; an influence greater than all
other influences combined, and if
free silver cannot be brought
about by this influence, no other I