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Page 21
BIMETALLISM ABROAD.
Many monometallists start with the assumption that what they call the
"silver craze" is a mere fad, temporary and local; that the advocates of
bimetallism are confined chiefly to the United States, and to the western
part of it, and that, if they are thoroughly defeated at the November
election, the discussion will be at an end.
"Mistaken souls that dream of heaven."
They do not realize that, although it has not taken the same popular form,
the discussion is quite as serious in monometallic Germany and England,
and in the latter country opinion has so far advanced that both parties
agree on the enormous enhancement in the value of gold. There is now
scarcely a difference of opinion in England on this point, but there is as
to the effect. British monometallists assert that as England is a great
creditor nation, the world owing her, as estimated, $12,000,000,000, every
advance in the purchasing power of money is greatly to her advantage. In
Mr. Gladstone's last public speech on the subject he stated that fact with
great frankness, claiming that it was to England's interest that money
should remain as now in purchasing power, and that if she should abandon
the gold basis, because gold is worth far more than it was a few years
ago, the world might applaud her generosity, but it would sneer at her
wisdom.
The bimetallists of England, on the other hand, assert that the enormous
losses of traders owing to the dislocation of the par with silver-using
countries, of manufacturers by reason of the rapidly increasing
competition of the same countries, of home debtors and of many other
classes, and especially the loss to agriculture, far outweigh any gain
made by the creditors as such.
The national debts of Europe now amount in round numbers to some
$22,000,000,000. Including all other countries, the total of national
debts exceeds $26,000,000,000, and the growth for many years averaged
$500,000,000 per year. The local public debts of England and Canada are
set at $1,735,000,000. According to the best authorities, the mortgage
indebtedness of the principal European nations is as follows:
For Great Britain and Ireland........ $8,000,000,000
For Germany.......................... 8,500,000,000
For France........................... 3,850,000,000
For Russia........................... 3,250,000,000
For Austria.......................... 1,500,000,000
For Italy............................ 2,675,000,000
And for all other European countries. 3,050,000,000
A total of nearly $31,000,000,000.
Hon. Samuel Smith, M. P., places the mortgages of England at something
over $2,000,000,000, which is more than half the value of the landed
property, and those of Scotland and Ireland (the latter one of the worst
mortgaged countries in the world) make up the grand total given above.
A highly suggestive fact is that, as experience develops the enormous
evils of the monometallic system, the number of conversions among
prominent men to bimetallism steadily increases, and they become more
outspoken and radical in their views.
At the Paris Monetary Conference of 1867, Mr. Mees, President of the Bank
of the Netherlands, protested against a single gold standard and foretold
literally what has followed. Two years later Baron Alphonse de Rothschild
said: "As a sequel we should have to demonetize silver completely. That
would be to destroy an enormous part of the world's capital; that would be
ruin."
At the conference of 1878, Mr. Henry Hucks Gibbs, director and former
governor of the Bank of England, was an advocate of the single gold
standard; but a few years' experience so completely changed his views that
he said: "Mr. Goschen and I were together in the conference in Paris; both
of us were sturdy defenders of gold monometallism; but I have changed my
mind. I do not say Mr. Goschen has changed his mind, but he has somewhat
modified it."
In the Paris Conference of 1878, Mr. Goschen said: "If other states were
to carry on a propaganda in favor of a gold standard and of the
demonetization of silver, the Indian Government would be obliged to
reconsider its position, and might be forced by events to take measures
similar to those taken elsewhere. In that case the scramble to get rid of
silver might provoke one of the gravest crises ever undergone by
commerce."
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