Iron County register., 1898-08-25
AN OBJECT LESSON.
Adopting the Gold Standard
A Day OF Reckoning.


ment of Chill came to the conclusion
that the country would never be really
prosperous until silver should be de-
monetized, and the gold standard
adopted. So the necessary legislation
was enacted, and the millennium was
declared to be in order. For many
years, Chilli had done extremely well
under the silver standard, but its finan-
cial system fell short of the perfec-
tion which the doctrinaires demand.
There is no teacher like experience,
and this is what the Chilians have
learned in that incompatible scheo oil,
according to the London correspond
ent of the New York Commercial and
Financial Chronicles: THE Messrs.
RothschiId, who have hitherto been
the European bankers of Chill. point
blank refused to make any further ad-
vances. Then the Chilian government
induced another London house to offer
half million sterling of treasury bills.
The bills had to be hawked about the
city for days, and were at last placed
at discount of about six per cent. 1t
is said that since then the Chilian gov
ernment has been unable to raise
money in London to pay for 10000 uni
forms ordered, and at home it is pay.
ing up its contractors by the issue OF
treasury bills. When Europe re-
fused to lend any more a rumor sprang
up that the government intended to
suspend specie payments. There was
a run upon the Bank of Chilli. The gov.
ernment, to stop it, closed all the
banks from Thursday of last week to
Tuesday of this week, granting in the
meanwhile a moratorium of 80 days
The history of human thought does
not contain the record of any more
baleful delusion than that which seems
to have taken hold of the poverty
stricken nations of the world concern.
ing the advantages of the gold stand
ard. There seems to be an impression
that England is rich because she haa
the gold standard, and that poor coun-
tries can get rich by following her ex-
ample. That is putting the cart before
the horse. As matter of fact, Eng
land has the gold standard because she
is rich, and because, as the greatest
creditor nation in the world, it is to
her interest 10 have an appreciating
standard of value. Such policy is
perfectly sound for England, but it ia
absolutely suicidal for countries like
Chilli and Japan. It is true that the
countries just mentioned cut the gold
dollar or yen in two, but any gold unit
of value comes a good deal too high
for nations the average annual in.
come of whose inhabitants is next to
nothing, from the American stand
point.
Meanwhile, the masses are ground
between the upper and neither mill
stones, and their bitter discomfort
makes them ready for any kind of
oyerturn of the existing order of
things. In this country we have the
poor satisfaction that the American
people have had the opportunity OF
passing upon the question, and the mi
nority, as good Americans, are bound
to uphold the decision until it. shall bl
reversed at the polls. But the Chilians
and japanese have had no more voice
in the matter than the inhabitants of
the planet of Mars. OF course, there
will be day of reckoning for all this
grinding of the debtor populations,
and there are indications that it ia
not so very distant. When it comes
there will be lots of changes in things
that are commonly supposed to be inn
mutable. Then, after all the harm has
been done, we shall see the wise men
drawing from disastrous experience
the lessons which common sense ought
to readily impart. Unfortunately, men
never learn from the experience of
others. If they did, debtor countries
would no more think of adopting the
gold standard than they would of put
ting the population to the sword. We
can only wait until the madness runs
its course. There is happily strong
reason to believe that we are ap-
preaching the beginning of the end
n. o. Times-Democrat.