Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1898-01-14
POINTS OUT DANGER
Prof. Ghosh, Of India, Gives the BRIT.
ish G0vernment q WARMING,

prominently the representative
monthly Of the conservative party in
Great Britain. It is stanch advocate
Of bimetallism and one of the most vir-
ulent critics of the government for it's
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 it's
class, and it's 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. A. S. Ghosh, a
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 16 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 nto silver ornaments. The gov
| eminent has, however, surreptitiously re-
duced the value of each rupee to nine annas,
and when it desires to replace part of the
currency by coming fresh rupees, it will
buy back from the people at the rate OF
nine annas the very thing it had formerly
sold to them for 16! Criminals were once
hanged in England for stealing sheep, but
the conduct of the governments has never
found a 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 212d,
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 70 per cent. ii. 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 servitude for their crimes
After thus clearly demonstrating
the monstrous wrong of the British
governments treatment of it's 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 omtnously sitting. Scientists tell
us that just before great earthquake the
mir hannmnG oharCni with inovD1ina hlo
oppressiveness: so it is now in India. There
Is tremor here and there, which may yet
be the forerunner of some general upheaval,
and It may need but single force to weld
together the oscillations Of these independ-
emit units into a gigantic movement of 300 =
tional congress" (Which I never did, and
had I aimed at an Indian instruction
(Which God forbidD, I would not have
wasted my breath in talking Of ''simul-
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. would
! have then taken full advantage Of the
wide organization which that body has
now established throughout India, to teach
| the masses of the people-the country pee
pie, who are the great hoarders Of silver,
| and are consequently the greatest sufferers
that the government had, without their
knowledge, confscated half their savings
Be 1t 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 condi-
ton may not be relied upon always,
however, and evidences of the awaken.
ing are at hand. Upon this point the
writer says:
The town population Of India, which con.
stitutes but an inf1nitesimal drop In the
ocean Of 8oo,oo0,o0o, and which alone has
hitherto been leavened with the doctrines
OF the congress, may indeed be ignored by
the government. Not so, however, the
| country population, which forms the back.
bono OF the people, Happily, there has not
yet arisen in the congress single mem
Der capable Of understanding the intri-
cacie4 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 m1sfortunes which have compelled the
people to bring out their boards, and con.
sequently have revealed to them the un'
merited loss imposed on them by the gov
eminent. The native press has at last
awakened, as If from q dream, and beguI
to discuss this matter, some moderately
and some otherwise.
| That the masses of India are upor
the eve of revolt against the f1nan
pial policy of England in closing thu
Indian mints to the coinage Of silver
thus enriching herself to the extent Of
hundrsde Of millions of pounds at thu
expense Of the Impoverished nation Of
India, il. pointed out as follows:
I IL It, then. unreasonable to fear that i
now single individual In the congress sue
| ceeds in erasping even the fundamenta
principles OF this great question, tho new.
will spread from village to village, from
bazaar to bazaar, from hamlet to hamlet, tina
the government has cheated the people O
! their hard-earned savings, even at the mo
ment Of their direst distress? Whether Il
i tho fullest extent this allegation be true o.
ta1se. ID immaterial: It. is enough that tn
danger Of it, circulation is imminent Tn
1 tsael' s seej s fsss IRlE