in





The   Record and Guide,





June 12,





said that " every fresh demonetization of sUver would produce a
more disastrous crisis tban any recorded in history." His prediction is
being realized to the letter. From a gold production of £18,000,000 the ai-ts
take £12,000,000 and the East £4,000,000; losses, wear and tear,
£1,000,000. There remains, therefore, just £1,000,000 for the mone¬
tary requirements of a world whose population is rapidly increas¬
ing, and especiaUy in the gold-producing countries, the United States
and Australia. Can it be admitted that sufh a state of things
can continue without provoking unprecedented disturbance in the trade
and industry of the entire world ? England has, up to the present time,
been the champion of mono-metaUism, and her statesmen have allowed the
supposed interests of their countiy to outweigh aU statistical and historical
arguments in favor of a double standard of value. England proceeded on
the supposition that her interests as the gi-eatest creditor-nation required
that her standard of value shoiUd be the dearer metal, and to her persistent
maintenance of the single gold standai'd is largely due the existing commer¬
cial distress. The rapid and unprecedented decUne in sUver is awakening
England to a novel interest in this momentous question, and self-interest is
beginning to dictate a thorough and practical examination of all the issues
involved. It would require a volume, rather than an article, to describe all
the effects produced by the depreciation of silver on the financial position of
India. In the first place India owes a vast debt to England, and this debt
has to be paid in gold, although the revenues are coUected in silver. Of
course the depreciation of 25 per cent, in the exchangeable value of sUver
has added, in the same proportion, to the weight of this burden. A
vast amount of English capital has been invested in Indian raU-
ways and other pubUc works, and the interest on this capital,
payable in gold, has been guaranteed by the Indian govei-n¬
ment. As the traffic receipts ai'e payable in silver, the deficit will
have to be made good by the government. A very large number of EngUsh-
men who have been in the Indian service receive their pensions in silver.
Their case is a very hard one, because they live in England and their
expenses are incurred on a gold basis, whUe their income is steadUy decreas¬
ing in consequence of the depreciation of the Indian currency. British
manufactm'ers exporting goods to India have to pay for the raw material
and the cost of manufacture in gold, whUe they sell their product for silver,
and the loss in exchange almost invariably annUiUates the apparent margin
of profit. EngUsh commerce with India and the rest of the Orient has thus
been brought to a state of crisis. Indian finance, in consequence of the
essential poverty of the counti'y, has to be worked on a very narrow margin,
and an increase of taxation sufficient to make up for the depreciation of
sUver is out of the question. The United States has repeatedly besought the
European governments to take united action for the rehabUitation of silver,
but England has persistently stood in the way. It is now our turn to wait
until British statesmen rise to the necessities of the situation. We are in a
better position than anj other country to endure whatever hardships the
future may bring. This country is irrevocably committed to bi-metallism,
and it is only a question of time when Em'ope wiU see the imperious neces¬
sity of agreeing on an international ratio, and th'^s restoring sUver to the
place it has held until very recently in the financial system of the world.—
New Orleans Times-Democrat.

Is the Good Time Coming.

The era of commercial and industrial apathy is drawing to a close. The
quickening influences which are so potent in producing invigoration are in
fuU operation. With the commodities we derive from nature we are
abundantly supplied; of those that are the product of art, the fertility of
our resources assures unfaUing plenty. The state of expectancy in which
so many people have been held for years past has been a sort of purgatorial
discipline hard to bear, but good for the system. Here we have been suffer¬
ing and groaning for five years, with only an occasional brief pause. Once
in a while a Uttle spurt of activity would reUeve the dulness, but it was over
before anybody had begun to get the least beneficial sense of it. But all the
whUe it was doing the work of restoration. The country was gaining
strength by it. Riches accumulated, but were so widely diffused that the
accessions were imperceptible. At last we begin to realize the robust con¬
dition of everj^hing. There is an immense amount of property, real and
personal, far more than there ever was before, and the beauty of it is that it is
rated so low in comparison with money that there is no probability that it
will shrink any more—^indeed, a moral certainty that its proportions will be
materiaUy enlarged, as tbey may be without any impairment of the tough¬
ness which is essential to perfect healthiness. The strain upon individuals
during aU these years of decadence has been pretty severe. It has been
extremely hard for manufacturers and merchants having expensive estab¬
lishments to maintain; they haven't been able to realize profit enough on
their sales to offset their unavoidable outlays. But the people at large have
been increasing their store, and by-and-by, when they get to feeling
thoroughly weU off, they wiU take hold and buy goods at such a rate
that business wiU become remunerative once more. All the indi¬
cations point to a vast consumption of staple products and, as the
supply of them has been considerably reduced, it is reasonable to
anticipate an extraordinary degree of activity in aU departments of
industry to make up for the deficit. There have been an average of 60,000
workmen unoccupied for two or three months, and the effect of their lying
stiU must, before a great while, make itself felt. Respecting such articles
as ninety per cent, of the population use, it makes no difference in the extent
of the consumption what the prices of them may be, if they are anywhere
near reasonable. And certainly, if there is anything out of the common in
the current values, it is that they are exceptionaUy low, instead of exces¬
sively high. There are few of them that wouldn't stand some advance
without hurting anybody, and there are a good many of them, we fancy,
that would spring into brisk demand if the traffic in them should be stimu¬
lated by a slight rise—just enough to impart to buyers a realizing sense of
their cheapness. That is the sort of impulse which always precedes a reac¬
tion from very low prices. Somebody wakes up suddenly to the compre¬
hension that certain kinds of merchandise have touched such a point in the
decline that they are a bargain. He makes aventnre; another watches and
foUows his movement; others are prompted to imitate their example. The
seUers, having by these incidents discovered that their stuff is appreciating,
natuiaUy straighten up and see what the effect wiU be of asking more for
it. It does not require a great whUe, nor many sales, to convert the reluc¬
tant purchaser into an importunate one; nor to render a holder who was
exceedingly limber yesterday just as straight in the back as an iron rod
to-day; these changes from the pUable to the infiexible sfaate are often rapid.
The American people are very quick to discern the promise of brighter
days, and to act in accordance with their foresight. They are evidently
waiting, for the moment, to see who wUl make the first start, but as soon
as somebody leads off there wUl be plenty to join in.—Shoe and Leather
Reporter.

Labor and Money.

The world uses the London Clearing House for the settlement of inter¬
national balances in trade, and that Clearing House uses gold—so, reaUy,
the values of the commercial world are measured by gold, and sUver is used
only as a medium of exchange. Much as our so-called statesmen discuss
finance, this view as to the special function of gold is too often lost sight of.
Among those who lose sight of it is the Secretary of the Treasury, who, as
a member of the New York Clearing House, settles with the public creditor
on tbe gold basis—and then turns round and complains to Congress that the
silver. doUar is at a discount, .^sop never had a finer subject for a fabla.'
Not only this, but in the face of a universal labor depression, with wheat so
low that its culture or abandonment is becoming a serious question in many
localities, the administration refuses to coin sUver to the authorized-extent
by laWj and refuses to use itin the general disburKemeuts of tbe treasury.





The result is, stagnation in business, unemployed labor and diminished
industry aU around. That this is not a local, partisan, or prejudiced view
of the situation and its causes, we can refer to authority to show that it
affects the whole commercial and industrial world, the times are
as hard, and harder in Europe than in this country, and from
the same cause. The Philadelphia Press has a letter from Sampson
Lloyd, a prominent member of the English Parliament, who, in speaking
of the industrial and commercial interests of Great Britain, says: ''I
never remember a time in my forty-five years' commercial experience
when trade in this country was so generally depressed and unprofitable as
it now is." And this he attributes to the demonetization of silver. And
added to this Mr. Gibbs and Mr. Gressfell, both ex-governors of the Bank
of England, make the discrimination against silver the main cause of these
troubles. Prom Belgium we have De Lavelye, who, as an economist,
stands chief among his countrymen in the May number of the Contempo¬
rary Magazine, declaring that this effect " has already lasted ten years,
and is becoming yearly more and more acute." To hira we may add Dr.
Otto Arendt, of Germany, another financial expert of great prominence,
who speaks of this disparagement of silver as the cause, and "which has
brought such unspeakable misery upon the world." Here is one thing that
by no law of right, justice or expediency, has capital a right to do ; and we
in America ai'e simply robbing our own industries to enhance the usury
values we semi annually pay to the holders of our bonds—payable by the
express terms in lawful money—gold or silver. While we are discussing
labor troubles and going back to the natural rights of primitive man and
the buffalo to the soil that feeds us aU here is a matter that, by our own
action, can be made to bridge over many of the iUs we complain of and
the suffering endured by simply carrying out the law as it has been made,
and as it is of fuU power of enforcement today. This is the plain truth.—
Kansas City Journal.

A Chance for American Capital.

Minister Winston, who represents this country at Persia, has made an
official report of a recent interview with the Shah, in which the latter
expressed a great desire to have American capitalists invest in his country.
He manifested particular interest in the construction of railroads, and sug¬
gested the advisability of building a railr®ad from Mohammerah on the
Euphrates near the Persian Gulf to Teheran. He thought that a railroad
in that direction would develop the resources of the country and pay a good
profit besides. Mr. Winston told him that if it could be shown that the road
would pay andthe franchise could be protected, there would beno doubt that
the necessary capital could be obtained. Yankee enterprise has never been
stopped by national Unes or even climatic boundaries, and if the assurance
could be given that Persian investments would pay, there would be no more
trouble in placing them than there would be in planting investments in
England or any other safe commercial country. The interest shown by the
Shah in this matter is a hopeful sign. Eastern markets have been closed so
long to American trade that the cordial invitation to come in and enjoy
whatever commercial advantages they may afford wUl be very kindly
received. Persia is waking up from its sleep of ages. England made con¬
siderable money by being on hand when Japan woke up. Though the
opportunities for making good iuvestments in Persia are not equal to the
chance Japan afforded, still American enterprise can well afford to look
over the Persian field, and may find it worthy of ciUtivation.—Iowa State
Register.

Australian Indebtedness.

The English papers report the negotiation of a new AustraUan loan, the
borrower in this case being the province of iSouth Australia. This is only
one straw more on the camel's back, but it may be a question whether the
back could even bear another straw. In their haste to anticipate the
future, the Australasians have taken advantage of the eagerness of English
capitalists to lend money to such an extent that the colonies are in the con¬
dition which our Western States were thirty years ago—they are bonded
for more than they are worth. In this country the insolvent States and
counties gradually recuperated through the fertilizing influence of war
issues, of paper money, and through a steady stream of immigration from
Europe. Australasia can reckon on no such panacea for her troubles. If
she issues paper money it will not help her, and no sudden increase of immi¬
gration can be expected. At the present time the returning flood of
emigi'ants is in excess of the outward flow from Great Britain. The people
of New Zealand and Victoria are at the present time the most heavily
taxed people in the world. They keep up a simulacrum of British institu¬
tions which are dignified, but expensive. The country is good, but not
extraordinary; the rewards of gold and coal mining, sheep raising and
wheat growing are quite moderate. In the meantime the people have to
provide for tbe interest of a debt which is about eight times as heavy per
head as the debt of the United States. The indications are that Australasia
must experience a backset before it makes further progress. In the next
decade it will probably lose rather than gain population. It has discounted
the future too fast, and some of its debt cannot be met and will have to be
repudiated. After this has happened and Uquidation has ensued, the colo¬
nies may enter upon a new era of prosperity.—San Francisco Chronicle.

The bUl to be reported favorably to the House of Representatives pro¬
hibiting aUens from acquiring public land in this country until after they
have declared their intentions of becoming citizens of the United States,
ought to pass. Nearly 21,000,000 acres, a tract larger in the aggregate
than half of the great State of Missoiu'i, is already owned by individuals or
corporations residing outside of the United States, principaUy in Great
Britain. Recent investigation by^^a government official revealed the fact
that only about 5,000,000 acres yet remain of public lands on which crops
can be raised without irrigation, and only about 50,000,000 acres which
irrigation can make agriculturaUy productive. As the absorption of
government lands by aliens is steadily progressing, the bill should be
passed at once. Uncle Sam. even now, is not rich enough in lands to give
us ali a farm. Let us do our best to save the little we have left for the use
of American citizens, native or naturaUzed.—St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

France and Our Fishing Coasts.

The fishery question will be settled without war. If it were left to Eng¬
land and the United States they would soon find a solution of the difficul¬
ties, as they have of far more complex questions. But Canada would like to
have the subject an open one, audit is for the interest of the government at
Ottawa to keep the relations of the two countries tense. England and
America's difficulty is the Canadian poUtician's opportunity. K Canada,
by using England, can force a reciprocity treaty with the United States
the maritime provinces can be soothed, the inconveniently protective tai'itf
which the Canadian Jingoes set np abandoned, and appearances. saved. A
new ally of the United States may be found in France, which has a large
interest in the fisheries and is subject to restrictions on its fishing fleet,, less
vexatious than those which hamper the Gloucester fishermen, but stUl
annoying. Prance has two fishing stations in the Gulf—the islands of St.
Pierre and Miquelon. These are ports of outfit, supply and refuge. They
are bits of old France in the New World, and are represented in the French
Assembly. On the Newfounland coast there is chronic trouble between the
Fi-ench and the colonial fishermen, and it is intimated that France ss wUling
to join wdth the United States in pressing for a final settlement of the rights j
powers and privUeges of foreign fishing vessels off the Dominion coast and
in its waters. France has an historical as weUas a direct mercantUe interest
in the question. France buUt up Canada to control the fisheries. England
and New England fought France for the fisheries and got them. England
keeps what New England helped her to obtain. The two islands which
France retains were reserved by treaty over a hundred and twenty years