People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 February 1894 — BIMETALLISM IN ENGLAND. [ARTICLE]

BIMETALLISM IN ENGLAND.

The 1 1 sufllciency of Cold anj Necessity of a < hiwnjt* in Her Monetary System. Senator Wolcott expresses great satisfaction at the unmistakable evidences of the growth of bimetallic sentiment which was brought to his notice duringhis recent visit to England. The truth is that from the time England adopted gold monometallism until silver was demonetized by the United States and Germany she enjoyed the benefits of a bimetallic standard, 'for her gold monometallism was supported by a fixed ratio between thet wo metals abroad; hence England’s experience with the single gold standard proper only dates back about twenty y ars and has steadily tended towards commercial depression and industrial ruin. She has only been enabled to maintain her gold reserve and settle the balance of trade against her because of the debts due her by other nations upon which she has received interest or dividends. Under the title of “The Scramble for Gold,” two notable contributions ap pear in the Nineteenth Century for January, one by Sir Julius Vogel, the other by Mr. J. P. Hazeltine. Both maintain an insufficiency of gold and the necessity of a change in England’s monetary system. Mr. Hazeltine has this to say: “The commercial situation has been growing worse and worse since 1575, and most persons having an interest in* the subject would be glad to return to the position existing before that date, when England maintained a gold standard and currency, but had the advantages of the bimetallic union of other nations,” Mr. Hazeltine further insists that the increasing difficulties in holding the normal supply of gold in England have led to a material contraction in the volume of business; that no nation can continue purchases abroad and pay gold for them, and hence that every nation endeavors by import duties to prevent transactions involving payments beyond its borders; that England's gold standard tends to her isolation in the matter of foreign trade; that England can only afford the gold standard because of the interest she receives from foreign securities; that returns from these securities are rapidly diminishing, mainly because of the fall in freights, made necessary by the low price of wheat and corn, due in turn to the competition of India as an exporter; that the competition of India date;* from the fall in silver, the export of wheat from India now being threesevenths of the export from America. Finally, concludes Mr. Hazeltine: “If the English isolated gold policy ruins English debtors, and the adverse trade balance remains, how long shall we be able to keep our gold balance?” Sir Julius Vogel deals chiefly with the aggravated conditions arising from the closing of India’s mints to silver.

! by which a heavy additional respon- ■ sibility has been assumed by England to support an enormous volume ol : token money with an adequate gold reserve. He cites the fact that the gold and silver circulation of the United j Kingdom is now but £113,000,000, : against a gold and silver circnlation in j France equal to £311.000,000, an excess | in favor of France of £193,000,000, the : population being about the same. lie | predicts that England will be serij ously embarrassed to meet the fresh j gold obligations arising from her India policy. Neither of these writers has much to say about the direct injury resulting to ; the industrial classes of England and I especially to the agricultural and commercial interests from demonetization. Sir Julius Vogel touches the subject in | a roundabout way. He cannot just trace the proofs and the evils of an appreciated unit of value, as they are | traced by the ablest financial writers j of the world, but he arrives at the same ' practical conclusions by a process of ‘ his own. The standard theory of bi- j metallists is that when one of the ! money metals was deprived of its pri- ; mary quality, the remaining metal was necessarily enhanced in value, because of the double duty that was placed : upon it and the consequent increased : demand for it. They cite as evidence of this the increased and steadily increasing purchasing power of gold as j applied to the products of labor and notably to such staple products as wheat and cotton. This condition necessarily implies business contraction, industrial paralysis and widespread under-consumption, the outcome of di- ; minished purchasing power among the industrial classes. Sir Julius Vogel attributes the decline in the products of labor to other causes and is unable to trace it to a contracted money supply and the appreciation of what is left. He prefers to reach precisely the same conclusion by a method of his own: “A scarcity of gold ' itself felt by contracting the volume of business and thus lessens the purchasing power of the community, which in its turn tends to lower prices and brings about, it may be urged, an effect something similar to that for which bimetallists contend as a consequence of the appreciation of gold.” We have thus, I he continues, as an effect of inadequate currency, a vicious circle—first, a diminished purchasing power, next a fall 1 in prices, next the crushing out of less I powerful producers, and finally over- . supply by the survivors, with all the ' baleful consequences of starvation i wages. i The result is the same. It demon- ■ strates the main causes of distress that I is afflicting the civilized area of the world and that has bean brought about i by a conspiracy of the moneyed classes j against the masses. The indications ' now are that England will not long : remain an obstacle to juster conditions. ! As a creditor nation she adopted the j gold standard from self-interest and the signs are unmistakable that she ! will soon modify her financial policy : from the same potent motive. —Denver News.