The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1903-02-03
COMING TO TIME.

The joint note from the powers of
Mexico and China, seeking the aid
of the United States in the matter of
tween gold and silver, should receive
the earnest attention of this govern
ment.
Fully three-fOurths of the worlds
population are exclusive users of sill
yer as a medium of exchange, and
while we are wont to regard the bust
ness world as having it's center in
either London, New York or Berlin
as matter of fact, the great aggre-
gate of daily transactions are had in
the silver using countries of the
world. Heretofore the silver using
countries of the east and the gold
standard nations of the west have
lived as separate worlds of business
each traversing it's own path without
reference to the existence of the
other. With the growth and expan-
sion, however, of civilization and
commerce, the world has come to be
too small for this condition to longer
endure. Each system is crOwding
upon the other. and wherever there
is contact there is friction. With mod
ern steamships. railroads and tele-
graph cables, commerce is no longer
a matter of local exchange, but now
encircles the globe, the wheat and
machinery of the west being sent in
exchange for the silks AMI spices of
the Orient. The great barrier to
silver using nations is not the fact
that they use different metals for
money, but the difficulty comes from
the constantly changing ratio at
which the two metals are exchanged.
SO long as free coinage of both gold
and silver obtained this difficulty did
not exist, but through the denometiz-
alton of silver that metal has come
to be as unstable in value as wheat
or corn, or any other commodity. The
burden that is thus placed upon COM
merce between gold and silver using
countries is most patent. The mer-
chant who sends shipload of goods
may find that his expected profit has
been turned into a loss through the
change in the value of silver while
his goods were in transit; hence all
business must be done upon mar
gin that is almost prohibitive, and
legitimate trade becomes matter
of gambling.
While the burden is apparently
borne mostly by the silver using
countries. in reality it bears most
heavily upon the commerce of the
gold using nations. for those nations
have most to sell. and any injury to
commerce must ultimately fall upon
them. During the year 1902 the sill
Yer using countries of the world pur-
nations to the value of more than
eight hundred millions. and this in
spite of a decline during the year of
20 per cent in me value of silver,
and like decline in the purchasing
power of the silver using countries
With silver at a fixed ratio, and the
consequent stability and help given
tC the purchasing power of the silver
using countries of the world. the ex-
tent to which this commerce would
grow is hard to imagine.
1t is distinctly declared by China
and Mexico that they do not seek the
restoration of the free coinage of
silver but this is merely Juggling
of terms to please those who have SO
persistently opposed what they are
pleased to call the free silver craze
Free coinage of gold and silver does
not mean that all of the metals
mined must necessarily be coined
but if the government stands ready
to accept both metals at fixed ratio
the purchasing power of both will &c
ur or down together.
In the communication sent to con
gress both the president and secre
tary Hay admit that the fixing of q
ratio between the two metals would
be of great benefit to this country
but how such ratio can be fixed with
out accepting the despised theory O
Mr.. Bryan they do not explain. Witt
his usual method of assuming full
knowledge of just what ought to b.
done, President Roosevelt says in hi
message to congress. ''I reQues
that the executive be given sufficien
powers to lend the support of tn
United States in such manner as h
may deem expedient." It seems nc
to occur to the president that wha
he may deem expedient may not sui
the country at large, or that it woul
be in better taste for him to recon
mend the creation of a commissio