Willmar tribune., 1900-03-07
THE GOLD CRISIS.
How Eng1and's War I'm South Africa
Has Thrown Our Money Mar
ket Into COnfusion.

Every shipment of gold out of the
United States adds link to the al
ready strong chain of evidence that the
gold standard is weak thread on
which to hang the material and per-
sonal welfare of the nation, and too
narrow an edge upon which to balance
humanity.
That England is drawing upon us
to provide for her expenditures in
South Africa, at the rate of nearly
$1,ooo,0oo daily, ought to open the eyes
OF American citizens to what may be-
come situation of positive danger.
The administration organs boast that
we are heavily supplied with the yell
low metal, but with the heavy drain
going on, our supply cannot last much
longer, and then what? The United
States is occupying the anomalous po-
sition of the worlds storehouse of gold,
and every nation is drawing upon US
for supplies; instead, there is nowhere
else for them to 60.
Why should war with which we
have nothing whatever to do throw our
own money market, as we'll as those of
the whole world, into confusion? In
every great money center - London.
Berlin, New York - there is a money
stringency and the greatest apprehen-
sion of a gold famine. Moreover, this
condition of the money market is nec-
essarily seriously affecting every
branch of business.
Edmund Thery, in the Paris Matin,
declares upon the most infallible fig
ures that the embarrassment in the
English money market is just begin
ming, and that gold is bound to ad-
vance in price all over Euorpe. A truly
singular thing to say of fixed money
standard. Between 1890 and 1899, he
says, France, Austria, Spain, Italy and
Russia have been boarding gold, until
at the present time nearly$1, ,ooo, 600, 900
in gold are practically ''prisoners of
state" held without any possibility OF
relieving the English market.
In spite of an alleged output of the
worlds gold, amounting to $300,0OO,-
600 in 1899, the European money stock
has been diminishing for three years
past. Nine of the principal countries
of Europe have decreased their money
stocks from S,000,000,000 of francs in
1857 to 7.OO0, 100000 in 1899, and the
contraction is still going on.
Mr.. Thery does not include the United
States in his investigation, but, all
things considered, this country stands
| lo
mentioned, for the reason that we must
part with our gold at the demand OF
England, and she now demands it in
such quantities that unless peace be
declared very soon indeed crisis OF
gold will be upon us, and not even the
present currency bill can save the ma
tion and the world from panic, height
ened by the persistence in using the
standard metal, gold, as the main mer.
chandising element in our financial af.
fairs.
When the full meaning of the goiG
standard shall break upon the intel.
ligence of the American people, it viii
appear as the most damnable con
spiracy against humanity that was ever
devised. English greed has brought us
to the pitiab,e condition that the
slightest relaxation of her control over
the worlds gold brings financial dis
aster and ruin. This is accentuated by
the present makeshift of the currency
bill, which plunges the nation deeper
into the slough without furnishing a
way of retreat.-Illinois State Register