Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1899-05-17
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Solue Financial Facts.

In 1916 England adopted the gold
standard and at once put forth an un'
usual demand for gold. Had there
been no blmetalllsm In France, gold
would Immediately have risen greatly
In value. AS 1t was, though, large
part of the gold required by England
was furnished by France, but the de-
mand of the latter for silver to take
the place of the gold withdrawn by
England operated as compensation
and prevented the silver from falling
or the gold from rising, except to q
very limited extent. Again, when the
American civil war broke out England
was forced to turn to India for cotton.
She had no silver and the East Indians
had no use for gold. So England e1-
changed large amounts of gold for
French silver. This, combined with
the immense gold production Of Cali
fornia and Australia, drained France
of a large production of her silver.
The conditions of 1916 were now re-
versed. and England's extraordinary
demand for silver was offset by the
French demand for gold to take Its
place. and again the parity was pres
served. These are the facts recognized
by all monetary writer's of sufficient
standing to be remembered fifteen
minutes after they are dead. Wolow-
Ski, on the bimetallic side; Jeyons, on
the gold monometallic side; the Royal
Gold and Silver Commission of Eng
land, consisting of six bimetallists and
six mOnometallists, all concede the
correctness of the principle here stat
ed. But without consulting the au-
thorities at all, 1t ought to be manifest
to any person of ordinary intelligence
who stops to think. When rich and
powerful country like France said to
every man who had gold bullion,
Bring 1t to the French mint, and 1t
shall be coined at the rate of one ounce
to fifteen and half ounces of silver"
at the same time saying to the owners
of silver bullion, Bring that along and
have 1t coined ut the rate of fifteen and
a half ounces to one ounce of gold, and
when SO coined they shall both be full
legal tender everywhere in France"
~ W oC ullla llul uO lua VIII
grain of business sense would take
much less than the French mint rate.
1t was not necessary that "all the
silver in the world" rs the American
goldite puts it, should be poured into
the French mint. AS the royal COM
mission well said, the fact that as q
last resource 1t could go there was
enough. Every other purchaser had to
pay substantially that price or not get
the metal, thus helping to sustain the
French mint rate.
If France, with an average Of less
than half our present population and
wealth, and not more than one-tenth
our resources, could maintain the ratio
of 151a to from 1903 to 1865 lat which
time the Latin Union was formed),
there is no reason to doubt that we can
now sustain the ratio of IL to l. But
1t can not be done with any limitations
upon the coinage of one metal while
the other has free access to the mint.
This is conclusively proved by the fact
that the moment the coinage of silver
was limited, that Of gold remaining
free, they began to drift apart. Com
pared with each other, gold went up
and silver went down. In other words.
the Limitation of the coinage of silver
destroyed "bimetallism" and fastened
the gold standard upon the United
States. Let the reader bear this stead
| lily in mind, and be not misled by the
special pleading of those who advocate
"bimetallism" on n gold-standard ba-
sis.
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