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Show SILVER AND A RATIO. The San Francisco Chronicle, noting that Japan Jap-an has asked that a ratio of 32 silver to 1 of gold be adopted by the nations, thinks "the outcome out-come will be an international agreement upon a ratio of silver to gold which wih De maintained, in coinage, regardless of the price of silver bullion." bul-lion." We are surprised to see that in the Chronicle, because when that ratio Is determined upon and legalized by the nations, that will exactly ex-actly fix the price of silver bullion, and would have done the same at any time from 1873 down to date. It will always be so, too, until there is gold and silver enough in the world to answer the world's demand for money, which has never been and ls not likely to be. We hope, moreover, that when the final adjustment draws near there will be sense enough on the part of some one interested inter-ested to point out that all the silver of all the civilized countries is in use at a ratio of from 15 to 1 to 16 to 1, that there is not enough to satisfy the demand, and point out the utter foolishness fool-ishness of a 32 to 1 ratio and get It reduced to 20 to 1 or at least 25 to 1. The Chronicle closes its article with these words: "It is gratifying to know that financiers and professors of economics will concede that they were wrong when they and everybody else see things actually happening which they avowed could by no possibility occur, The world do move. The value of silver coin actually Is be H lng regulated and made stable by government ac- I tion." The tone of the Chronicle's words indicates I that those financiers and professors of economics I were sincere when they went about fooling the I people. I Some one has recently pointed out that about B thirty-six financial magnates in two or three fl Eastern cities control the finances and for the fl most part the government of this country. That fl has been true for the past thirty years. Thirty fl years ago they desired to double the pui chasing fl power of the interest they collected on govern- fl ment and other interest-bearing bonds and of the fl principal of the bonds when they should be ie- fl deemed. So they by stealth caused the demon- fl atization of silver and set an ignorant and vicious fl press and some accommodating so-called political fl economists like Edward Atkinson, Prof. Laughlin, fl of the Chicago "University faculty, to preaching fl the doctrines of a new political economy, and to fl denouncing those who opposed the hired liars as fl men who would pay their debts in depreciated fl currency, and they fooled the credulous public so fl well that they prevented the repeal of the infa- B mous law of 1873, though the business of the coun- fl try sunk almost to extremis and millions of peo- fl pie were ruined. Silver men continued to point fl out that there could be no relief to or rally of fl business until the volume of real money should fl bo vastly Increased and that there was no other I visible source of supply except through the ie I storation of silver, but they received nothing I but abuse for telling the truth. However there came a time when abundance fl of crops in our country and failure of crops I abroad brought a famished world to our coun- I try, even as Joseph's brethren went to Egypt, B for bread, with the result that in three years our fl country drew in trade balances from a distressed fl outside world 2,000 millions of dollars. The vol- fl ume of money was restored, though from a source I that no mortal could have anticipated. It did fl what silver men always said it would do set fl business roaring like a young earthquake. I But then something more was discovered. fl Right across the Pacific are huddled in a small I space half the great world's workers, but they I are helpless because they have no means with fl which to work and, moreover, their daily transac- fl tlons are too small to be measured in gold. Our I railroad and steamship companies want to send I freight to them and want to get freight in re- I turn, but when they tried that they were foiced I to report to those great financiers in the East I that the wretches were too poor to buy and that I they had not the means to produce the staples of I trade. I Three years ago Mr. James Hill of the Gieat I Northern and Northern Pacific roads made the I exultant statement that if China would but pur- I chase of us to the extent of $5 per capita, the I mighty aggregate would be 2,000 millions a year. I If he were to report now he would be forced to I say that they have not done that and that they I cannot do it, cannot do anything like that. Again, I a great cry arose from the Oriental and Spanish' I American merchants that they could no longer I safely transact business because of the fluctua- I tions in the value of silver and that no other I money could be substituted for it. The name I trouble appeared in our Philippine possesions I Well, the bonds being nearly all called in, it was I only natural for the "thirty-six" to learn the truth I and to be willing to listen to reason. We believe I a ratio will be agreed upon, and if those "thirty- I six" can manage tc lay in some millions of ounces I of silver at present prices, it will be just like Miem I at tho last moment to decide that 32 to 1 is a I foolish ratio; that 20 to 1 or even 1G to 1 vuld I be better. We say Jf would be just like them be I qause at that ratio they could more than double I ti10 amount they might have invested in silver. If they decide upon that it will be easy to set their old friends who control "sound money" eW8pipers to provihg that, after all, silver is a needed money and that when the world agrees to accept it, the supply can never meet the demand de-mand And old man Atkinson, Lyman Gage, John Eckel'' and the others, for a consideration, will come nut of their holes and say that things have chane d, that what was heresy ten years ago has become the real gospel because of changed conditions |