Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1899-05-12
OUR CANDIDATE IN 1900
The Market Question.

While silver rose to 63 1-2 cents an
ounce last Thursday, the average
price for the week was about 81 cents
During the year ended April IL, 1899,
British, exports of the metal to the
orient aggregated ELIAS, 337-e1, 313, 4
800 to India, e4O9, $50 to China, and
e24, 9O7 to the Straits. The silver thus
exported was American silver, and it
was bought from the American pro-
,ducers at less than go cents an ounce.
Under American free bimetalic coin
age the British would had to pay
$1.29 an ounce for it. Because of our
folly in refusing to reopen our mints
the British got it for less than half
price. If England were as great a
silver producer as the United States
would she thus discredit her product?
Would she cheaper the metal for the
benefit of foreigners and to the loss of
her own people7 Her record answers
negatively. In New York city the
other evening Senator Frye expati-
ated on the commercial benefits which
he assumed would come to the United
States from American possession of
the Philippines. The Philippine trade,
as Prof Laughlin proved in his speech
at the Chicago an5i-imperialist meet
ing Sunday night last, will never be
worth fraction of what it is costing
and will cost to get and keep it. But
granting that 1t should become as
valuable as the imperialists profess to
anticipate, the advantage it would
bring to Americans would be mere
bagatelle compared to those which
would infallably flow from restora-
ton of bimetallism. Free coinage,
by making the pursuit profitable,
would at once and vastly stimulate
the industry of silver mining. Tens
of thousands would d esert the dense-
ly populated cities and towns of the
east for the sparsely settled mountain
states in search of metal. The hegira
would relieve the congestion of labor
and simultaneously inaugurate an
era of needed and great development
In the part of the country most re-
quiring it. At the same time the in.
crease of the money quantity through
the addition of silver would supply a
stable foundation for business, in
crease the ability of consumers to
buy, and create such demand for
goods as in turn would create a gem
eral demand for labor. Within a
brief period the domestic market for
home goods would be enlarged to an
extent immeasurably greater than
any new market it is possible for us
to acquire through the costly policy
of imperialistic expansion. Boast is
made that for the first time since the
formation of the government our
manufactured exports are now one
third of our total exports. A speedy
consequence OF reopened minis would
be an increased home consumption of
more domestic manufacturers than
the aggregate OF our exports. Yet
Senator Eyre and men of his political
creed would spend hundreds of mil.
lions of treasure and sacrifice tens of
thousands of lives in an attempt to
procure market not worth thou.
santh part of the market which with.
out any cost of treasure or life, and
by simply returning to the coinage
system which obtained from 1909 TIC
1878, would be opened American pro
ducers at home. Much that passes
for wisdom is folly, and statesman
ship is often screen for stupidity
Telegraph.