Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1898-01-13
POINTS our DANGER
Prof. GhOsh, of India, Gives the Britt
fwh Government n Warming

Great Britain. 1t is a stanch advocate
of bimetallism and one of the most viz
ulent critics of the government for its
refusal to accede to the request of the
United States and France for an inter
national conference upon the financial
question. It is recognized as one of the
ablest Of English periodicals OF Its
class, and its contributors number
many of the most eminent financial au-
thorities of the empire
Among the many notable articles
which It has recently published is one
from the pen of Prof. 4. S. Ghosh,
distinguished native of India, who deals
with the serious political dangers aris-
ing from the closing of the Indian
mints. Upon this subject he says:
AT the present moment the artificial
shrinking Of the currency of India is so
great that the bullion value Of the rupee IS
no more than nine annas- Let us realize
what this means. The great mass Of silver
boards in the hands Of the people were once
coined rupees worth Is annas each: in fact.
the people paid that price to have the
rupees Then. trusting to the good faith
Of the government, the people converted
the rupees into silver ornaments The gov
eminent has. however, surreptitiously re-
duced the value of each rupee 10 nine annas,
and when it desires to replace part OF the
currency by coming fresh rupees, IT viii
buy back from the people at the rate Of
nine annas the very thing it had formerly
sold TO them for I6l Criminals were once
hanged in England for stealing sheep, but
the conduct Of the governments has never
found g place in our codes OF morals; the
trustee who wastes trust property is liable
TO civil and sometimes TO criminal action
without the bar of limitations, but when
the authorities sell India bills at Is 213d,
and buy them again at Is 4-1-16d- at the cost
of the starving wretches of India, no voice
Is heard to raise the cry of devastavit
Again, in coming fresh rupees. the govern
ment makes a profit from the people OF
over 20 per cent Il e., by buying at nine and
reselling at 16), but when that people, driven
to desperation, take to counterfeit coming
as some have done, with the very silver
that was once coined rupees-they receive
penal seryitude for their crimes.
After thus clearly demonstrating
the monstrous wrong of the British
governments treatment of its Indian
subjects, so far as currency is con-
cerned, Prof. Ghosh proceeds to point
out the grave political danger which
threatens British interests unless there
is a speedy reversal of the present pol
icy. He says:
This, then, is the economic condition Of
India: what is the political? Never since
1857 has the political atmosphere Of India
been so ominously sitting. Scientists tell
that just before great earthquake the
mir becomes charged with an inexplicable
oppressiveness; so ii is now in India. There
is a tremor here and there, which may yet
be the forerunner of some general upheaval,
and II may need but single force TO weld
together the oscillations of these independ-
ent units into a gigantic movement of 3o0
BOO 600. Had I belonged to the Indian ma
had I aimed at Indian insurrection
(which God forbidD, I would not have
wasted my breath in talking Of stimuli
taneous examinations" trial by jury"
and the thousand and one minor grievances,
real or imaginary, which now occupy the
sole attention of that congress. I would
have struck a heavier blow at the govern
ment had been so evilly disposed. I would
have then taken full advantage of the
wide organization which that body has
now estab lished throughout India, TO teach
the masses of the people-the country peo-
pie, who are the great hoarders of silver,
and are consequently the greatest sufferers
that the government had, without their
knowledge, conhscated half their savings.
Be it noted that the security Of the gov
eminent lies IN the contentment of the
masses, and in their continued belief in the
benevolence of the government.
Prof. Ghosh is of the opinion that the
only reason there has not yet been a
great and formidable revolt against
British injustice and misrule in India
is that no leader has appeared capable
of intelligently formulating and con-
trolling the opposition. Such a condi-
ton may not be relied upon always,
however, and evidences of the awaken
ing are at hand. Upon this point the
writer says:
80
stitutes but an infinitesimal drop in the
ocean of 500. 000, 600, and which alone has
hitherto been leavened with the doctrines
Of the congress, may indeed be ignored by
the government Not 50, however, the
country population. which forms the back
bone of the people. Happily, there has not
yet arisen in the congress a single mem
Der capable Of understanding the intri-
cacies Of the currency question, and had
not the plague interviewed We might still
have lived in the hope that no such leader
of men, no such formidable disturber of
the serenity Of the government would have
arisen for years to come. But these are the
very misfortunes which have compelled the
people TO bring out their boards. and con-
seQuently have revealed to them the I'M
merited loss imposed on them by the gov
eminent. The native press has at last
awakened, as if from a dream, and begun
to discuss this matter, some moderately
and some otherwise.
That the masses of India are upon
the eve of a revolt against the finan-
cial policy of England in closing the
Indian minis to the coinage of silver,
thus enriching herself to the extent of
hundreds of millions of pounds at the
expense of the impoverished nation OF
India, is pointed out as follows:
Is It, then, unreasonable to fear that II
now a single individual In the congress sue
ceeds in grasping even the fundamental
principles of this great question, the news
viii spread from village TO village, from
bazaar TO bazaar, from hamlet to hamlet. that
the government has cheated the people Of
their hard-earned savings. even at the mo-
ment of their direst distress? Whether to
the fullest extent this allegation be true or
false, is immaterial; 1t is enough that the
danger of its circulation is imminent. The
lessons Of 1857 have, or rather ought to have
taught, England how news spreads in In
dia, and how it gathers force from popular
imagination in its very currency. The
masses of the Indian people do not argue
do not even pause to think, but accept on
implicit faith what is told to them by those
who are deemed to be their superiors in in
teliigence, caste, or social rank. This is q
danger against which / would venture TO
warn the government ere it be too late.
From these conditions, which can
not obtain much longer without disas-
trous results to Britain, Prof. Ghosh
concludes that the Indian minis will
soon be reopened to silver coinage, as
a matter of English necessity, and in
this position he is sustained by the
most able students of financial and gov
ernmental problems, both in Europe
and America. English manufacturers
clearly see the danger and already have