People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1894 — MORE OF THE CONFERENCE. [ARTICLE]

MORE OF THE CONFERENCE.

The London Meeting, Although Informal, Will Greatly Advance the Cause of Universal Bimetallism. It is perhaps well that the United States was not represented in the London silver conference, and that the whole movement takes on a distinctively European aspect and coloring, This country, through its chief executive, invited participation in the discussions and proceedings of the Brussels conference, and its representatives entered in good faith upon the work of rehabilitation then as now deemed essential to the general prosperity; and had they been met in the same spirit by the delegates from the other great nations of the earth, results might have been achieved that would have greatly modified, if not entirely prevented, the financial crash of 1893, and the grievous ills that have followed in its wake. But England entered the conference only to obstruct, to confuse and to disrupt; Germany assumed the position of a cuckoo, and declared its unwillingness to adopt a policy antagonistic to that of its powerful neighbor; while France, a large consumer of silver, was yet not disposed to isolate herself by joining in a movement which might be successful only to the extent of temporarily raising the price of a commodity of which she was in need. The trouble with the Brussels conference was primarily,one of untimeliness; and that which to the greatest extent contributed to its failure was the existence of a belief upon the part of European financiers that the United States could still yet a while longer be bluffed into carrying a disproportionate share of the burden. Under these circumstances—and it required no extraordinary astuteness to correctly analyze the situation—our own delegates were powerless; albeit they were not encouraged by anything like an overwhelming or convincing sentiment at home to strive for immediate and decisive results. The influential newspapers of this country were frantically assailing the last remaining law op the statute books recognizing silver, while indications pointed to the elevation to the presidency of a pronounced enemy of the double standard. But the events of the past twelve months have produced a remarkable change in the financial situation of every civilized nation on the globe. Enlightened statesmen the world over now recognize the impossibility of utterly rejecting silver as a money 7 metal. They freely admit, what they must have known before, that there isn’t enough of gold to go ’round, and that the continued contraction caused by the attempt to make it do double duty must ultimately, and at no distant day, result in widespread ruin and bankruptcy. British and European statesmen now recognize that the United States — smallest factor in the world’s commerce with Oriental and silver-using Spanish-American countries—must suffer less than their own through the debasement of the only money with which their peoples are acquainted, the only currency with which they are possessed, and upon which they must depend for the settlement of their balances, if they are to continue to have any. Hence, and for other potential reasons, the change in public sentiment abroad has been rapid and decisive, and we see a movement that was started only a few weeks ago in England, and which was originally intended as little more than a conference of local bimetallists, wholly unofficial and entirely informal, develop into a gathering of four hundred or more of the leading financiers of Europe, embracing some of the most distinguished bimetallists of England, Germany, France, and other powerful nations, including the representative heads of the principal banking institutions of those countries, members of parliaments, diets and assemblies. It requires no argument to show that these men are desperately in earnest. There was no official call for the assembly, and their findings will have no legal or binding effect on the governments they represent. Yet the moral and educational influence attaching to the debates cannot fail to lie far-reaching, for the membership of the conference embraces perhaps fifty men who can control the finances of the world. In their capacity as delegates to an unofficial conference, they cannot of course provide for the free coinage of silver, but if there shall be anything like concord of sentiment and harmony of action. the ultimate' result will be the convocation of an international conference in which all of the nations will participate, and in which no one will be permitted ,to plead indifference to the cause of world wide bimetallism. The United States will of course take part, but not, as at Brussels, as an humble suppliant for favors.—Leadville Herald-Democrat.