Show THE WISE rien HEN 0 OF F THE EAST the mining review in a recent issue contained an article entitled Is silver a cow kodity mod ity A few days later the salt lake tribune editorially published an able reply to an excerpt from the new york mail and lix press the subject in issue being currency in the philippines the substance of the tribunes tribune ls article is practically the same as the sentiments advanced by the review though probably more succinctly and comprehensively ly put this paper is heartily glad to observe the attitude taken by bv the tribune on the present situation for more than twenty year sCharles 0 goodwin has been an intelligent and indefatigable r defender of an honest cause the position he was obliged to take during the recent campaign was unnatural his work usually brilliant brillia nl and interesting te was labored strained and to him manifestly painful it clearly indicated how little his heart was in his unrighteous task the review reproduces a portion port jon of the article in question we do not know whether the men of the east who discuss that matter are too proud to admit that they have been wrong or whether they lack the comprehension to see that their proposed makeshifts could only result in adding to the present confusion they preach the daily sermon of the splendor which is to be through the mighty wave of oriental commerce which is is to come when the philippines shall be tranquilized and the troubles in china shall be settled but business in these modern days is cor conducted ducted on a money basis and china and and aDd the d daily ily individual india have very little money transactions of the people are too small to be measured in gold how then an those countries buy the cotton and we th food and the machinery which the confident ones expect they will buy tae england tried so hard to force the god standard upon india that it well nigh wrecked her richest colony her agents in that country were so go anxious to have their salaries paid in gold that they clung to the gold standard the sound money standard ard watched while they saw said millions of poor wretches die of famine because of it for their own officers reported that more people died of a famine of money than through a famine of bread v af after ter all the scheme broke down utterly for months past england has been buying american silver bullion and coining it to send to the straits settlement and to india fit at the rupee ratio established by the indian council that is about 1 to 22 that makes the ounce of silver worth about 94 cents england has been buying it for from 61 to 64 cents she is filling her possessions with it and will soon again have a great areat trade with them what is the united states doing she is discussing a makeshift make shift half dollar lor the philippines and talking big about the trade that is to be with china which has no money the great areat acting agency through which commerce is carried on in addition she is about lo co have an indemnity of fastened upon her K in the meantime gold is accumulating so fast that capital is becoming frightened lest it become so cheap that its interest will fall fearfully in value when measured by commodities x K that would result in the starting of business there which in a little while would absorb all the silver of the world for before this trouble came the hia highest liest financial officer of china told senators dubois pettigrew and cannon that china needed in silver annually for twenty years to come and then their currency would be but 5 per capita As to the ratio that would riot not matter with full reco recognition silver and gold would in a few weeks assume their relative relations and if 22 to 1 was not the right ratio silver would go to a premium with this adjustment the united states government would lose little or nothing for the great mass of the silver which the government erni nent holds was bought at a shameful discount As things are drifting our authorities will wake up some mornin morning cr to find that great britain has assumed the chinese indemnity and that she is rushing her straits settlement dollars there the silver for which she buys of the united states at 64 cents per ounce and that she has assumed control of the Chir chinese rese trade this is the time when some sensible work is ia needed amon among g the statesmen and financiers at washington and on the part of the great journals of the east but we do not expect much from them because their eyes are blinded as was while one plague after another was worked on him how like a onetime one time fearless champion of a great areat cause it reads the mining review does not seek to expound the so called principles of wild eyed western theories or fifty cent dollars the question before the american people now in this particular instance is not the alleged rehabilitation of silver orthe establishment of any defined ratio between the two metals it is ia simply how much longer is this great big country going to be the chief source of supplying great britain with silver bullion at london prices to be coined and disposed of to her various colonies at an actual advance of per ounce more than she is paying us for ou product the most partisan ene enemy my of the white metal has always insisted that silver values like all other commodities is regulated by the laws of supply and demand admitting the justice of the claim when will regulation regulate not until the day comes when there is a total suspension of speculation made possible by legislators nothing makes money like money achand A handful f ua of ordinary men in power can control the financial destiny of millions of people and they are doing it in america |