Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1899-06-07
The Currency Question.



discoveries of gold to work any mate
rial betterment in our condition. ~.
We have been told that confidence is
to be our future savior; but must say
that confidence is but a poor, weak reed
to rely on if the measures are not in
themselves sound, and at the same time
free from the danger of causing injury
to trade. Where there is so much doubt
and such constant dread of the results
of investments, it is very difficult to in
fuse any large degree of confidence in
to the minds of men. 1t requires great
deal of confidence to buy when the
price, through fixity, cannot go higher,
more especially when one is reminded
of the ill-success which has attended
the measures of 1893 and the natural
laws which Illustrate any attempt on
the part of government to create
wealth by legislation,. which is the same
thing as creating it by a magiciar's
wand. I maintain that while the con-
traction of the currency is hurting and
sitting the manufacturing activity of
India, most of which derives it's origin
and support from European capital, it
will have a still more blizzard effect on
agricultural operations, which are
wholly dependent on native agency,
both for finance and labor. Prices of
most kinds of field produce have al
ready fallen. What else than stoppage
of cultivation, failure to pay rent and
taxes, famine and beggary, can ensue
from a constant and continued fall in
the price of these and other commodi-
ties, the produce and outcome of the la
Dor of nearly 20O,000,0OO of the popula-
ton? Our farmers in India are unable
to fight against hard times. They have
no money of their own, but are entirely
at the mercy of the money lender, who
has none of the sentiment of the Euro
pean merchants, or the banker who
| finances lettering tea concerns. Agri-
| cultural banks, about which charitable
people talk much and do so little
toward establishing, could not stave
off the evil day, however large their
capital. The land must go uncultivated,
India's exports decrease and the reve-
nues of the government dwindle.
An old writer on Indian finance re-
marks that if we only behold the action
of the husbandman in the seed time,
when he casteth away much good corn
into the ground, we shall account him
rather mailman than a husbandman;
but when we consider his labors in the
harvest, which is the end of his endeav-
ors, we will find the worth and plenti-
full increase of his actions. In closing
the Indian minis to the free coinage of
silver the government of India refused
the seed which this land requires, and
the harvest can be but a lean one.
1t is exactly 800 years ago since
the first association was formed in Eng
land for prosecuting the trade to and
from India, and since then the men who
! have from time to time formed the gov
eminent have never been able to divest
themselves of the idea that they could
manage commercial undertakings bet
ter than commercial men. Anyone who
reads the history of the East India COM
pany can learn how the trade of this
country has all along been paralyzed by
the deadening influence of monopoly.
1t would be fitting that the last trace
of government monopoly should cease
to exist in the three hundredth year of
our trade with India. With the sterling
debt liquidated as far as possible, the
minis could then be thrown open to
the free coinage of silver without fear,
while the government would do all that
lies in its power to discourage the i'm
port or use of gold by the people, but
encourage the free consumption of sill
yer for currency and other purposes.
Under the influence of cheap money
and suffciency of currency, her inanu-
factures and the out-turn of her fields
would splendidly increase, bringing af-
fluence to the people and peace to gov
eminent.
In conclusion I will say that all who
wish to satisfy themselves as to the
| merits of this case may readily do SO
by diverting their minds from the be-
lief that money is wealth, when in fact
it is nothing more than a medium es-
| tablished by governments for the con.
| venient exchange of those commodities
| which constitute wealth. Without such
exchanges, on free and liberal scale,
there can be no prosperity, and the ex-
changes cannot be effected without an
adequate supply of the medium. Con.
traction of the money supply has the
same effect on commerce, industry and
property values that an insufficient
amount of wholesome food has upon
the human body. The result in either
case is inevitable, and it ought to be
plain to every creature possessing the