The Goodland republic., 1898-05-06
fTf7e. Cause of Free Silver.
EDIA's MONETARY CRISIS.
Three Hundred Million People iR q
state Of Starvation because OF
Scarcity OF Money.


Il looks as if India were to be the
field In which the issue between gold
mOnometaIlism and bimetaIlism were
finally to be decided. Five years ago
the Indian government closed the mints
Of that country 10 the free coinage Of
silver; and since that time, owing to
the appreciation OF gold, the silver
rupee has steadily declined in price
from p pence in value TO 10 Pence-a
fall Of 80 1-3 per cent.
The reason that the government had
for closing the mints against silver was
a grossly unfair one to the Indian PeO-
pie. It had large gold payments to
make in England every year. and il
deliberately produced an artificial
scarcity Of money in order that It might
obtain more favorable rates Of ex-
change in its own transactions with
London. It took no thought Of the
fact that, by making a facetious scarci-
" Of money, IL would make it still
harder for the already Impoverished
TyOts and others tOscrape 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 u or Is 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 stified and economic
progress is at a standstilI; 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 10 buy food
The London Times, strong advocate
Of gold monOmetaIlism as il is, inclines
somewhat to the opinion that perhaps
the scarcity of money was a 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 a 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
the government, in order more easily
TO discharge its 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 II passes from the
AnglO-Indian TO the vernacular press
1t Will cease to be stated in economic
terms and become a 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 a fear
ful business uncertainty the action Of
the Indian government has brought
about in making an artificial money
famine, when IL is stated that, on the
one hand, the rupee viii only buy two
thirds of what IL bought FIVE years ago
in the matter Of necessaries Of living;
and that, on the other hand, with
money UnObtainabIe in the Indian
banks for business purposes at 70 or 13
per cent, money which fetehes only
three per cent. in England viii not 90
TO that country for the y or 13 per cent.
Otherwise expressed, the action of
the Indian government in contracting
the currency for its own aggrandize-
ment has in the first place made it
very much harder for an already semi
starved population 10 make a living,
and in the next place has produced a
condition Of industrial paralysis, as ad-
vances can hardly be obtained for love
OF money with which to promote indus
trial enterprises.
The Indian government IS inviting a
crisis that may well appaI greater men
than they are. A population Of 3OO,-
100000 in a state Of starvation caused
by the questionable action Of an alien
government is not likely to be over
nice in the measures 1t viii take to OBJ
tain food and redress against those
who have deliberately caused the star
vatiOn.-N. o. Times-Democrat