Mono-Metallism Militant,

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5282, 12 June 1895, Page 4

Mono-Metallism Militant,

(Lyttelton Times.)

With the prospect of an international conference looming in the near future, and the probability that its decision will be in favour of abandoning the single standard experiment and reverting to the timehonoured system of bi-metallism, the mono-metallists are awaking to the gravity of the position and arming for the fray. The practice of deriding the bi-metallistß as benevolent faddists and harmless lunatics is, if we may be allowed the expression, played out. Now we are having the stock arguments paraded again, and may expect tobear them repeated adnauseam. We shall be told that although trade is certainly depressed and everybody is Buffering, it cannot be because prices have fallen, for low prices are good for the community, in that they enable the consumer to get so much more of what he wants for his money ; and if income has fallen, expenditure has fallen equally, so that no one is any the worse off. We shall be told that even if low pricea are not on the whole so beneficial as they should be, the fall is not due to any preventible cause, such, as the alleged tampering with the currency, bat to the opening up of new lands, the ex* tension of railways and improvements in machinery — circumstances which, operating throughout a long period of uninterrupted peace and unchecked development, have led to over-produc-tion and general over-supply. We shall be asked to regard with becoming resprct the glorious British system of currency which has made the Mother Country supreme among the commercial nations of the earth, and bo filled other countries with envy as to iucite them to the sincereßt f own of flattery — imitation — and we shall be warned to do nothing which shall imperil this monumental specimen of wise and prudent statesmanship.

Then we shall be asked to believe that the bi-metallic agitation has been promoted in the interests of the silver mine-owners, who have been flooding the markets of the world to their own loss, and now wish to recoup themselves by thie crafty legislative device. Further, we shall be informed that bi-metallism always was, and is bound to be, a failure ; that a ratio between two metals cannot be.maintained ; that ah international agreement can never be arranged, and if it could, that the first disturbance ; would break it up and scatter its fragments to the wind ; that the quantity of money in use really has nothing to do with prices, and if it had, that the production of gold is increasing bo | rapidly as to make the restoration of silver unnecessary. And we shall be adjured with all earnestness to shun the evil waya of the bi-metallists, who would repudiate their contracts, would pay their debts in depreciated silver at 10s in the pound, and would subject those unfortunates who have been ao generous as to lend them money arid so guileless as to trust to their honesty, to undeserved and crushing loss. A whisper will be sent round among the working . men that every advance in prices must be a tax on wages and that the capitalists are scheming to entrap them and rob them of their earnings ; and the capitalists will be warned in turn that the working men are at the bottom of this pestilent agitation, and that they and the community of borrowers generally want to make money niore plentiful so as to depreciate the existing stores of gold and appreciate their own particular wares. All these and half a score of further arguments are put forward with due elaboration, and ib is not in the least degree surprising that in the variety of their pleadings the opponents of bi metal lism should occasionally become perplexed and contradict each other and themselves. It is sometimes as effective to confuse an adversary in debate as to convince him, and it is probably a much easier method to adopt in discussing difficult questions of currency. The danger is lest one should become confounded himself, and this, we think, has happened to some of those who oppose ■ bi-metallism. Otherwise we cannot account for the fact that many to whose interest it ia that the earnmg-power of money should increase, deliberately set their faces against the change, and that others, to whom the earning-power of labour is of the highest importance, should hesitate to support a proposal which, when put in practice, seems certain to advance their interests.

So far as we can gauge the probable effect of the introduction of bi-metal-lism, we tbink that neither moneylender nor workman has any loss to fear, but, rather, that both have much to gain from the reform. A somewhat careful and certainly unprejudiced study of the subject has led us to the conviction that an increase in the volume of full legal tender money available for trade and for international settlements by the restoration of silver under free coinage, and at an agreed ratio with gold, would tend to check the fall and probably cause an actual rise in prices ; that it would give a stimulus to commerce and enterprise, and that it; would bring about an enhanced demand for labour and more abundant opportunities for the employment of capital. We do not believe that low prices due to failure of demand are good for any community, but on the contrary that diminishing returns and falling profits sap the very foundations of prosperity. It is abundantly clear that: the fall in the general price level during the last twenty yeara is largely, if not altogether, due to contraction in demand and not to increased facility of prodnction. The remedy to be effectual must be applied to the right spot. Historically, bi-metallism has not been a failure, while mono-metallism hae. It has been possible in the past to maintain a ratio between gold and silver under the most trying circumstances, and it is possible still. We have never heard that workmen Buffered because of general prosperity, and we do not believe' that purely mercenary motives are at the bottom of the bi-metallic movement. j