BI-METALLISM IN AMERICA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5667, 11 September 1896, Page 5 (Supplement)

81-METALLISM IN AMERICA.

„ The annual general meeting of the Bi-metallic League, held in July last, was, for several reasons, of more than usual interest: Perhaps the most important part of the business was the attempt made by the League to explain the present position of the currency question in America. The politics of the United States are never very easy to follow ; and the Americans have a language of their own about currency which is not at all intelligible to the average Englishman. One prominent - English paper- lately-; made a wide distinction between bimetallism and "free silver," not ob- ! serving that the coinage of silver would mean bi-meiallism, though not the international bi-metallism which is supported by the English League. Many English | journals which advocate the single gold standard have been applauding the Republican demand for " honest " money ; while as a matter of fact in America the cry for "sound" or! 14 honest " money is for international bi-metallism, and not for gold standard money at all. While reputed financial authorities show such ignorance of the facts that they attempt to criticise, it is not surprising to find that the very vaguest ideas prevail as to the possible effects of the coming American elections on the cause of bi-metallism. The Bi-metallic League performed a great public service by inviting Professor Francis "Walker, one of the foremost living authorities on economics and finance, to come from America to London for the special purpose of explaining the situation.

It is generally known that the late Republican Convention at Sfc Louis passed a resolution bearing on the question of the currency. This Kohlsaat resolution declared strongly in favour of international bi-metallism. But because it was opposed to the policy of "free silver" — that is, to , the further coinage of silver by the United States alone, without waiting for the support of other nations — it has been enthusiastically welcomed by many English and colonial journals as binding the Eepublicans to support mono-metallism. No more absurd error could be imagined than this. As we have had occasion to remark before, there is no political party in America which represents the gold standard. One of the chief mono-metallic papers in America the. Boston Herald, lately criticised a speech delivered in Congress in favour of the gold standard by a Delaware senator. The Herald supported the theoretical soundness of mono-metallisin, but went on to assert that "the Delaware Senator puts himself in a hopeless minority*.. He is quite out of touch with Americau sentiment. Here in the pending campaign he will not find a sufficient number.of followers to give any. prac- :- tical value to the doctrine which he so frankly professes. In both parties the great mass of the sound money men are international bi-metallists.. If such an understanding could be reached they would tumble heads over heels to welcome it. Senator Gray would not find a corporal's guard in Congress to join him in rejecting a proposal from Great Britain, France and Germany for the adoption of a common ratio between gold and silver."

This statement, it must be remembered, emanates from one of the chief " gold " papers in America, and it is fully borne out by the evidence put before the Bi-metallic League by Professor Walker. Recurring to the Republican Convention, it is sufficient to add that Mr Kohlsaat, the mover of the famous currency resolution, is one of the leading bi-metallists of Chicago ; that Mr Henry Lodge, the chief instrument in carrying the resolution, is one of the leading bi-metallists

of Boston ; and that Major M'Kinley, the Republican nominee for the Presidency, has for twenty years invariably" spoken and voted on behalf ' of bi-metalli m, in fact, in the words of Professor Walker, "he never was a mono-metallist, and could not be one lif he tried." So much for the assertion, confidently made and widely believed in England and the colonies, that the success of- Major M'Kinley and the Eepublicans would mean the triumph of mono-metallism in A'merica. The attitude of the Democratic Party has also been largely misstated or misunderstood. The Chicago Convention in July passed a resolution demanding the free coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1 without waiting for the support of other nations. It is the fashion to describe the " free silverites " as men who are trying to make their own fortunes by artificially raising the price of silver. Aa a matter of fact, silver-mining is a comparatively small industry in the United States. The silver shareholders could have done nothing at the Convention without the ■"' Inflationists "-^equivalent to our .paper-money enthusiasts— rand the Populists, who are supposed to represent the agricultural interest. But the belief in " free silver " — that is, limited American bi-metallism — could never have gained ground as it has if hope deferred had not made the majority of Americans sick of waiting for international bi-metallism.

We have previously tried to indicate some possible effects of the adoption of "free silver," aud from the point of view of the international bi-metal-list, it is not a scheme that deserves much support. But it represents the desire of a large body of Americans to lessen the strain on gold by putting as much silver as tliey can into circulation. The passing of the. Sherman Act and the Bland Act for the purchase and coinage of large quantities of silver was the outcome of the same intention. And though bi-metallists now regard these Acts as errors, they were passed in all sincerity for the purpose of doing work in which other nations would not assist, in keeping up prices by sustaining silver. The whole financial policy of the United States for over twenty years has been in the direction of bi-metallism ; and this last resolution of the Democratic Convention is the natural outcome of the failure to arrange the matter on an international basis. There is thus nothing in the attitude of the Democrats to interfere with the progress of bi-metallism ; and we have already shown that the Republican Party oppose -not the joint standard based on international agreement, but " free silver " for America alone. "Whatever may be the result of the Presidential election, the cause of international bi-metallism has northing to fear in the United States.