Natchitoches populist., 1898-09-30

before the Cork, Ireland, Chamber OF
Commerce:
The question of currency reform,
and more particularly to that aspect
of reform which has to do with the
monetary future of silver, was quite
unknown a few years since, but has
now become the leading economic issue
the world over. Stated in simple Ian
guage the case for reform is this. The
world may, for the purpose OF the ar
gument. be divided into debators and
creditors-into those nations or those
classes or those individuals who have
borrowed or loaned capital for the pur-
pose of industrial production or de-
velopment, Just as England is cred
itor nation and Ireland is debtor ma
ton, so also the Western and South
er1 states of America are deDtofs 10
such states as New York or Massachu-
sets, as also to England. 1t is hardly
necessary to recall the historic presi-
Dental fight of 1896, when MI. Bryan
made his campaign for free silver,
and was defeated by majority OIL
only three per cent Of the votes In
total of nearly fourteen millions. This
great struggle in the United States
was sufficient to attract the attention
of the world to the organized claim Oh
the debtor communities --communities
such as Missouri, Georgia, or Texas
that changes in monetary laws since
the demonstration Of silver In 1873
had dealt unfairly with the property
of debtors. because they had brought
about a great fall of prices, and this
fall of prices required the sacrifice by
the debtor of nearly twice the amount
OF the product Of the farm In order
to pay the interest due the creditor.
And not less ominous than the great
electoral struggle itself was the tone
and temper of the organs Of public
opinion in the great money-lending
centers. That there have been great
changes, and even revolutionary
changes, in the monetary law, from
the demonetizing of silver at Wash
ingtOn and Berlin in 1873 to the clos
ing Of the Indian minis by England IN
l893-these vast changes have been
noted by every man of business and by
every student of economic issues, But
when it was declared by great his
toric party that these currency changes
were unfair to debtors, and that the
laws which sanctioned these changes
should be repealed, no language was
vehement and fantastic enough to stig-
Matte the reform party-the party
of anarchy" and Reputation" the
"assassins of the public credit"
The currency question is admittedly
one of much completely, question
with which public opinion is ill-equip-
ned to cope. 1t has to do with ths
most complicated and least popular
chapters of that least popular Of al
the sciences, Political Economy. Blu
It ID for all that question of incom
uarable Importance. As Archbishop
Walsh was amongst the first to de
clare, it goes TO the very root of tn
Irish question. II the price Of land
which has fallen more than one-hal
during the past quarter of century
declines no less rapidly in the comin'
quarter of a century, what will be tn
position of tenants who are today pur
chasing their farms on the instaiimen
plan under the condition OF the Ian
acts? Clearly a tenant who has agree
ia purchase his farm by forty annua
fixed payments may find fifteen 0
twenty years hence that the land ma
fallen so much below the value
which he contracted to buy, that tn
value OF his farm is even less than tn
remaining one-half of the installmeni
he still owes the British treasury. Thu
his savings and his sacrifices durln
twenty years will have been entirel
confiscated by the fall in the price
land. This is merely one, and perhar
not even the worst, of the i'll effects
the present rapid fall of prices. or,
the economists term it, of "the appr'
citation Of gold That fall of pric'
adds enormously not only to the hu
den of all fixed debt, but TO the hu
den Of taxation, and we hope that M
Frewen. who has given much attel
ton to the question of the oVertax
ton of Ireland, will be careful to e
plain to the Chamber of Commerce q
way by which the fall Of all the pric
Of produce has increased that tax trf
ute which England year by year is e
torting from Ireland.
The question of prices and eurren
is. we notice, beginning to be reason
out in our colonies. The great fall
The price Of wool-a fall Of more th'
one-half- has occasioned in Austral
great financial disasters. In rece
number of the Journal of the Sydn
institute Of Bankers" which b
reached us. is an admirable paper fr6
the pen OF Mr.. William Alison. \
Alison quotes table from the Sydn
Morning Herald as showing that I
export of the colony OF New sou
wales for the twenty years from Il
a 1896 realized more than a hundi