Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1909-01-22

SILVER AND GOLD.
TINE WORKS OUT WONDERS-SOME-
TIMES.

TIMES.
Increased Volume of Gold Auements Prices Of
Commodities Decreases Our Trade with
Silver using Countries -Threstensin in Time
to Erect Chinese Wall Around Oriental
Trade more Improbable than Prohibitive
Tariff-Already Exciting Apprehensions Of
Farseeins Men.
In response to Il request OF the
Macs tdrertisrr recently. Mr.. Morton
F'rewen. the London financial expert,
who is visiting Vancouver, granted a
special interview, in which he dealt
with matters of exchange, gold and
silver basic and relative values, and
their effect upon TIE commerce of the
world. Introducing the subject the
reporter said:
Mr.. Frewen. we are aware you
have given your attention for many,
many years to the silver question.
and especially, as cheaper silver af-
fects our trade with the Orient, will
you tell us the points which are at
present of interest to our readers
In reply Mr. Frewen said: For
some years | have turned my back
upon this most troublesome problem.
thinking that the great supplies of
gold would settle it, Whereas it no V
appears that SO far from settling the
question the great gold supplies and
the consequent rise in all prices is
making the silver question more Om-
inOus of disaster than ever before
Since 1896, we gold-standard COM
munities have had great rise of gold
prices. Occasioned by the abundant
supplies of the new gold; but prices,
and wages in silver using Asia have
not risen. They have actually fallen
The result is that the fall in the prices |
of silver, in other words the fall in the |
rate of exchange with all Asia, is stim-
ulating all the manufacturers and |
the exports to us from Asia. with her |
eight hundred millions of people, and
is contracting her imports from us
If you people at the Pacific ports
ever expect to have profitable export
trade to Asia, the price of silver will |
have first to rise to at least dollar
an ounce.
Please explain that statement
more fully"
Well, | will put it in this way.
China to-day stands waiting to buy
millions of tons of steel rails for u com
plete system of railways or it may be
our cOttOnS or your wheat or your
lumber; but how can the Chnaman
buy? He says: | have been absorb
ing or boarding silver for two thou
sand years; silver is my money. Be
fore can buy your rails | must
first buy your money, and with that
money pay for your rails. Thirty |
years ago four and a half of my silver
dollars or taels bought a sovereign.
but now it takes twelve taels to buy
sovereign. So you have lost my
business: my wages are no higher,
the price of the commodities | pro-
duce are no higher in silver; then
how can | pay nearly three times as
much for bill of exchange on Lon
don or New York as paid before
1873? This is why the great fall in |
silver exchange last year has dis
located the trade of Europe and
America with Asia, and your people |
here can never trade with Asia to
any profit until the exchanges rise
very considerably
Then, said the reporter, the
question of silver is really great
race problem and it requires, in your
opinion, the attention of the West
ern pOwers?'
Exactly" said Mr. Frewen, ''and
| believe this view has at last broken
in upon our statesmen. At Wash
ingtOn they have selected a commits
sion, and are to send a sub commits
sion, to inquire into wages and prices
in China and India Already Secre-
tary Root has sent circular to all
American cOnsuls in Asia. In Eng
land, | believe we are to have another
Royal Commission on Currency.
Speaker Reed phrased it very hap
PLY in 1894, when he said: The
yellow man with the white money
will cut the throat of the white man
with the yellow money If the ex-
changes with Asia remain where they
are now you will see an enormous de-
velOpment in China of the steel and
iron industries.
Men now living may witness great
exports Of Chinese steel from Shansi.
How indeed can it be otherwise?
Already thousands of factories which
recently employed white labor in Eu-
rope are closed and have been re-
opened with yellow labor in Asia.
Before 1873, a sovereign was
worth nearly five silver dollars and
five silver dollars in China paid the
wages for one day of twenty China
men. But to-day a sovereign is worth
not five but nearly thirteen dollars,
and as wages for one day of fifty
Cinnamon. Is that a condition of
competition which Free Traders
ever contemplated? 1t is little wonder
that we of England are sick to death
OF the very phrase Free Trade" '"
Mr.. Frewen believes frankly that
the whole problem can be solved, and
intimates that steps are being taken
by England, Germany and America
to agree on universal standard of
silver values.
Miss IDA URAKA, who was recent
ly appointed professor in the medi
cal college in Toxic. is meeting with
serious opposition in her new work.