Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1898-04-15
The Cause Of Free Silver.
INDIA'S MONETARY CRISIS.
State Of Starvation Because Of
= Scarcity Of Money.

| State Of Starvation Because Of :
t. Scarcity Of Money.
2 It looks as if India were to be the
field in which the issue between gold
monometallism and bimetallism were
finally to be decided. Five years ago
the Indian government closedjthe minis
of that country 60 the free coin age of
silver; and since that time, owing to
the appreciation or gold, the silver
rupee has steadily declined in price
from "a pence in value to 16 pence-a
| fall of 80 1-3 per cent.
The reason that the government had
for closing the minis against silver was
grossly unfair one to the Indian peo-
pie. 1t had large gold payments to
make in England every year, and it
deliberately produced an artificial
scarcity of money in order that it might
obtain more favorable rates of ex-
change in it's own transactions with
London. 1t took no thought of the
fact that, by making facetious search
ty of money, it would make it still
harder for the already Impoverished
ryots and others to scrape together the
means of buying a miserable subsist-
ence.
The chickens are coming home to
roost- The money famine has gone
beyond all anticipations. The average
rate of interest has risen from Az
per cent. in 1895 to IL or 10 per cent,
and even that rate of interest fails to
bring out advances upon the most solid
securities. In consequence of this
money stringency commercial enter
prise has been stiled and economic
progress is at standstill; and clear
headed experts in India and in England
as well are beginning to ask whether
the famine of 1897 was more due to
scarcity of food or to the scarcity of
money with which to buy food.
The London Times, strong advocate
of gold monometallism as it is, inclincs
somewhat to the opinion that perhaps
the scarcity of money was factor
with the scarcity of food in producing
the famine; and it shudders at what
may happen if the hundreds of millions
of natives get the idea into their heads
that the famine was the natural result
of the artificial scarcity Of money pro-
duced by the Indian government for its
own profit. IF the conviction once
possesses the Indian mind" says the
Times, ''that the artificial enhancement
of the rupee is contributory cause of
famine, it will furnish a common rally
ing cry for all classes-peasant and
townsman, rich and poor-such as the
congress has never yet raised. Put in
economic terms, the contention is that
to discharge it's own gold obligations,
has subjected India to an artificial cur
rency that bears down the producing
industries on which the present and the
future of the people depend. Thus
stated, the question is open to fair ar
gument. But if it passes from the
Anglo-Indian to the vernacular press
it will cease to be stated in economic
terms and become popular cry of the
spoliation of the peasant-that cry for
which it has hitherto been our endeavor
to avoid by giving any just cause"
Readers will see at once what fear
full business uncertainty the action Of
the INDIAN government has brought
about in making an artificial money
famine, when it is stated that, on the
one hand, the rupee will only buy two
thirds of what it bought five years ago
in the matter Of necessaries of living;
and that, on the other hand, with
money unobtainable in the Indian
banks for business purposes at - or 10
per cent, money which fetches only
three per cent. in England will not go
to that country for the IL or 10 per cent.
Otherwise expressed, the action Of
the Indian government in contracting
the currency for it's own aggrandize-
ment has in the first place made it
very much harder for an already semi
starved population to make living,
and in the next place has produced a
condition of industrial paralysis, as ad-
vances can hardly be obtained for love
or money with which to promote indus
trial enterprises. d
crisis that may we'll appal greater men
than they are. A population of 3o0,-
100000 in state of starvation caused
by the questionable action of an alien
government is not likely to be over
nice in the measures it will take to OBJ
tain food and redress against those
who have deliberately caused the star
vation.-N. o. Times-Democrat.
"Cr9xe'' Haa Not xbated.
Senator CaHefy, Of louisiana, recent
y dselssrssdl IT consider the outlook