People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 October 1896 — Great Britain’s Fear. [ARTICLE]

Great Britain’s Fear.

A Most Remarkable Article That Ail Americans Should Read. The London Financial News says: “The finantial situation in the United States is very serious, and it demands the immediate attention of British financiers and statesmen. The trade of the world is now in our hands, but it will not long remain there if the United States goes to a bimetallic basis with free and unlimited coinage of silver. “With the addition of silver to the volume of money everything in America would take on a new face; labor and industry would gain new life. The grip of the gold standard on the products of the world would be loosened and prices would rise. Great Britain would lose her markets in South America, Asia and Europe, and American ships would not be long in capturing the carrying trade of the world. “British creditors must now apply themselves quickly to the American money problem. The American people are now thoroughly aroused and educated on the power and use of money, and made desperate by debt and business depression, they are forcing free silver as the main sssue.

Great Brilian need fear no injury to her trade or investments if the Republican party can force ‘protection tariff’ as the main issue in the coming presidential campaign, but if free silver dominates the American mind and carries at the polls, it will bring about a change in England that will be ruinous from its suddenness and severity. The damage that can be done British manufacturers by a protective tariff is slight compared with the disasters that would be entailed by a change from a single gold to a complete bimetallic standard.

“The success of free coinage will bring down the rate of interest on money, and cause an immediate rise in the price of all commodities. When silver becomes primary money the American mines will pour their products into the mint, and a new era similar to that produced by the issue of greenbacks during the civil war will begin. Gold will leave the banks and enter into competition with silver in the avenues of trade, and the manufactories of the United States which have been shut down or crippled since 1892 will resume their fight for the English markets. “It matters not to Great Britain which party succeeds if the gold standard is maintained, but either of the old parties or a new party which goes into power pledged to free coinage will be inimical and prejudicial to English manufactories and trade. “The American people are massing now on free silver. When that issue comes fairly before the American people England will regret her apathy and adherence to the single gold standard.”