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Show YTIZAT- CARL THINKS HE r:T0V2 "The yearnin5y :: . .rnetallisrn hTMythVr v Carl Sol u-irz gives in Harper's Vcddy hm viewy on "Bimetallism'' "Bimetal-lism'' us follows: "Anions tho advocTf33 of bir.ie!-allisin bir.ie!-allisin there nro sincere and earnest earn-est men, moved by a philanthropic impulse. To judge from their utterances many of them aue haunted by a gloomy apprehension apprehen-sion that the great mass of mati-I mati-I kind is at present in a condition of exceotionallv dreadful distress ami misery, threatening to grow much worse. TI113 calamitous state of things they ascribe to the paralyzing paralyz-ing effect of the diminuatiou of the world's money, which they think has been caused by the so-called so-called demonetization of silver and the establishment of tho gold standard. The only remedy they can see is the complete 'rehabilitation' 'rehabili-tation' of silver as a money metal and the general establishment of the double standard of values. Having persuaded themselves of the necessity of this remedy, they readily assume the possibility of its application; and in this respect they encourage themselves with the belief that an overwhelming majority of civilized mankind is not only in favor of it, but positively posi-tively yearning for it, andjhat only the malign influence of a conspiracy con-spiracy of powerful financiers within a square mile around the Bank of England or within hearing distance of Wall street in New York stands in tho "way of a happy consummation. "Here we have a remarkable structure of false conclusions built upon a groundwork of false premises. prem-ises. It is an instructive instance of the imagination of otherwise one will instantly evaporate. Only some visionary who hopes agninst hope will remain, or some debtor who has a vaue impression that bimetallism will in some way relieve re-lieve him of his incumbrances. Whoever doubts that this will be the result may look at the outcome of the international conferences which have been held on this matter. There was in them much eloquence so long as the general subject was orated upon. "But when the question turned upon how the thing was practically practic-ally to be done, the members soon found it was time to break up and go home. This will inevitably be the result wherever the matter is intelligently discussed. Jn every I civilized country "the business com-! m unity is overwhelmingly against the double standard. The yearning yearn-ing of mankind , for bimetallism is a myth. "The serious consideration in Congress of a bill to bring about another international conference on bimetallism is one of the ghastliest peiformances of our clay. Hardly any of the men who vote for it believe' in the possibility pos-sibility of accomplishing the object ob-ject To say that the Republican platform obliges the party to make the attempt is like saying that a platform may oblige a party to galvanize a dead body into life. The outcome can be only to shake the confidence of the world in the intelligence or good faith of the American people, which seemed to shine so brilliantly in the late presidential election, to discredit the meaning of the sound money victory, and to furnish to the silver agitators in the United States an official indorsement of their most captivating arguments with which to make a new campaign." 1 consumption of sugar in tho United Unit-ed States has risfcn 250 per cent., that of coffee more than 60, and that of tea more than 20 per cent Moreover, the average consumption consump-tion ofwheat is one-fifth, and that of malt beverages nearly three times, greater than it was thirty years ao. A symptom of the same nature is that every American on an average now spends three times as much money on letter postage as he did thirty years ago. , The statistics of other gold standard countries show similar results. "Drawing logical conclusions from such facts, the bimetallist, to be candid, would have to admit that if the establishment of the gold standard had any effect upon the ma.erial well-being of the great masses of mankind at all, it has been in the way, not of deterioration, deter-ioration, but of marked improvement. improve-ment. "In the same conclusive fashion will the statistician disprove his pretense that tho 'volume of current cur-rent money has diminished since the establishment of the gold standard, for they show by figures that the per capita circulation has actually increased. And this fact suffices, to expose the hollownessof the assertion with which . we have been plied for years, that the extensive decline in prices irs owing ow-ing to a dimiuuation in the volume of current money. If the volume of money had determined tho movement of prices, might it not be legitimately said that prices had gone down because the volume of money has gone up? "But the most chttrueteiiotio cl l'usion of the bimetal lists is their belief that, excepting a small number num-ber of persons interested in the gold standard, all mankind is fairly hungering and thirsting for the realization of their scheme. The method by which the propagandist of bimetallism swells his rolls of adherents is a very simple one. You ask ten persons whom you happen to meet whether it would not be a nice thing to have some arrangement by which silver and gold could be made safely to circulate cir-culate together, thus giving the world about twice as much money as it has now, and nine of these persons, not having .given the matter much careful thought, will probably reply that this would be a nice thing, indeed. "The propagandist of bimetallism bimetal-lism then promptly registers them among the firm believers in his panacea, and thus puts down a majority ma-jority of nine to one. But what will the nine reply when asked the further questions, whether they think it possible, by mere legal enactment or international agreement, agree-ment, to raise the market price of silver which is now 65c an ounce to $1.29 an ounce, so as to make silver money acceptable at the ratio of 16 to 1; or whether they think that any other ratio can be agreed upon, and which, if agreed upon, would bring about a practicable practic-able double standard of values; or whether they think that any of the great commercial nations which are carrying on their business busi-ness successfully on the gold standard will be inclined to abandon aban-don that standard to tho end of making so reckless an experiment? Confronted by such practical questions, the maj'ority of nine to WHAT CAFiL THINKS HE KNOWS Continued frcn first p-jre. sensible j)ersons running away with their understanding. In the first place, the very evil which these philanthropists mean to remedy is not such as they assume. " To bo sure, there In maek distress and suffering in this world more than enough to move a good heart to pity. All the more . should we be careful to base our schemes of relief upon a correct diagnosis of tho evil. While it is true that much misery exists, it is not true that jt is. at present of exceptional ex-ceptional extent, ' or that of late years it has been growing worse. On tho contrary, the general condition con-dition of mankind as to material well-being is not nearly as unsatisfactory unsatis-factory as it was fifty or thirty years ago. It has decidedly improved, im-proved, especially since the period "which to the mind of the bimetal-tist bimetal-tist marks the beginning of progressive pro-gressive calamity the period of the establishment of the gold standard in Germany and in the United States. Not only has there been in, the countries named, as well as in England the leading gold standard country of the world a most remarkable industrial development de-velopment during that period, but tho condition of the great masses of the people has, temporary depressions de-pressions and cases of local distress dis-tress notwithstanding, on the ; whole, strikingly changed for the ' better. I "This is so well known a fact j that it hardly requires proof in detail. But by way of illustration, certain figures may be quoted which were recently published by ' the government Bureau of Statis tics. An increased consumption of the things which enter into the daily life of the individual, especially espec-ially of those things which, although al-though in common use, are not necessaries in the strictest sense, is always a trustworthy symptom j of rising prosperity among the mruiy. Now it is shown that in i tho last thirty years the per capita ! t r ( |