| Show ENGLAND INDIA AND ND SILVER The following communication cation we copy from the London Financial News It is from the pen of Moreton l Fre Frewen He Ic tells his countrymen in London that the closing of the thc India mints in 1893 was wali an historic crime T r We e all know that it was do done c to help our government put put- the final quietus on silver silve money He tells his countr countrymen men meno o oj at the danger clanger that has come conic to their Indian trade because of it if and makes clear lear why our export trade with the orient is practically call killed We are sure the of ot THE TELEGRAM I will be glad to tn read the article for the thc information it c conveys a a. a follows The Indian budget is about to bo ho presented to parliament parlia ment and I venture to ask permission to cry ery aloud in ID the wilderness as to an au issue which it is quite certain will receive no attention from rom any member of the house of common com corn mon mons I refer to the thc question of tho the shamefully tampered Indian Indu n currency We Ve have ha had in in the last four years the tho greatest fall of v all iii in the thc history of silver Between November ember 1906 and November ember Xo 1908 the extreme mc variation in tho the price rico of silver was no loss lass than 50 tO 0 per cent Now that tho the silver exchanges exchanges ex ex- ex- ex changes s seem wj m to have settled bottled down at almost the lowest point of thi this great fall faIl we are aro able ablo to mark tho sequence With the tho Indian IndiRa exchange artificially tied up Ut to a rupee at 16 it its silver value lOd JOd and with C Chinese free exchange operating as the tho upco tho ru rupee o at again with tho the govern govern- o went of Japan rJ iD their yen en exchange as the rupee at ll il the cotton and juto jute mills of main Inala competing or with Jap Japan n and an awakening China must inevitably run fun into a of disaster disa Let t me present these e few fi ures as showing what the ther r recent fall taB of silver til means to Chinese o industries China in in the last three tIreo years has bas be become for tor the first time a heavy exporter of pig pi hone iron The fhe Chinese price to tho American buyer huyer of pi pig in 1907 was 16 silver per ton tori anti and ne i is today 16 1 The Tho gold old required in 1907 to bu bw JH lG 6 bels was 3 3 sovereigns and is today toda 2 sovereigns so 60 1 that the variation of 50 GO per Percent cent in the te price of ot silver permits you or me to w purchase iron iron and over ever other product in which or Shanghai competes with Middlesbrough or Manchester or Bomb tor for 50 per cent less gold old Is it Hn any wonder that the most careless traveler returns from the far cast filled with wonder and alarm at tho the industrial nce there in the last three throe years of cheap chean silver III In the past ton ten months tho the first mill to roll steel rails n China commenced operations at My informant Mr Robert Dollar the president of the U Dollar Line Lino of trading between and San SUD Francisco ells lb in me that he lie went over ocr this mill with Mr Vatson latson the inspector tor for the United States St Steel cl corporation Mr Watson Wat V son mn reports that the tho gold price of the silver WP CS paid in in lh Mint lIitt t mill is one fifteenth the rate of wages paid in Pittsburg Pitts Pitts- burg ur and that the per pr capita efficiency of the yellow labor Jf III Si 90 per cent that of the white Let mo me endeavor or to putS put S the point snore moro clearly When lien China used to sell E say lY her silk or t ten tea a in Loudon London for one so sovereign n. n that sovereign so ave ase hiM China 3 a tacIt and 3 then thenaid aid ad the wages toT lor one day of twenty five Chinese mill hands bands but today y wha whatever Clunn jells for or a sovereign o n exchanges eH for not 3 a. but nearIS nearh 8 S tn b ami anil 5 S pay a da lays days s wage for or sixty Chinese mill I hands That is the competition to which we aro are exposed because the government of India was permitted in in 1893 1803 to close its mints tamp tamper r with its currency and depress the tho worlds world's price of silver A year since the tho Chinese imperial envoy tho the Mandarin Tour Ton Yi wrote mo me moIn In In China fluctuations in exchange e. e Mich uch as those of Ins last year ear arc of course lourse very troublesome for our importing merchants s still til no doubt last years rears fall in silver greatly assists our mills and other manufacturing industries which mi might ht be damaged by tho competition of ot imported foreign goods if tho exchange rose Thus the fall exchange e is Hf even ovon as an increasing tariff but unlike a tariff on our exports aro are not reduced but are arc so 80 to speak subsidized Let mo mc take for example le good dres dressed ed lumber costin costing the Chinese buyer 25 a thousand in Seattle say 30 delivered ered in In Shanghai In 1907 this lumber Jumber cost the buyer buer I at Shanghai 33 tads per 1000 feet while toda today at the same gold goM price 30 its cost is 48 fads So that the falin fall fal fallin in in exchange at Shanghai hai makes just tho difference there thorp I between lumber on the tho free freo list in 1007 and lumber Jumber now paying 45 per cent specific duty The same argument holds hold I good for wheat steel rails flour and cotton goods good If cheap silver er was merely coupling up labor in China Chinato to destroy destro many of our chi t r wage wago paying pains industries cot industries cot cotton I Iton ton and steel and iron iron jute and glass las and Potter pottery anc and aDd leather it leather it ml might ht conceivably find advocates nd here oven on today today to to- today day but tho the closing of the mints aunts in in iu 1893 the tampering with the tho currency of of our wards wards- this comes within the the- accepted category of great reat historic crimes and depend upon it we ve shall yet ct have havo to pay the penalty for this crime There is no on one ODO who can ran cl defend It it True it was an experiment that might conce abl have havo succeeded We were told in 1893 that the gr great aria and foreseen foreseen fore fore- seen fall in silver would dose coso down don silver mines mine so 50 that tha presently the price of silver er bullion would rise again to the artificial price of the rupee But what wa was even cven then a scandalous experiment in finance has Jon Ion since ince become become become be be- come a a. mere experiment in human suffering ring A few weeks since I was asked to give evidence before the national mone- mone tory t-ary commission commiss on at Washington and tho the questions asked mo mc as to the present monetary system in India compromise com corn promise promise our national honor nor Dor is is it possible to answer these questions I propose to put on ou ono one side the fact that at each recurrence of thousands upon thousands die of starvation stat who vho would live livo if they could convert at the tho nearest Dearest mint mint their silver ornaments into the rupees with which to buy food I pass by the tho irrefutable evidence as to this and I come to the question of the tho increase of the he burden burdon of every overy debt India Indin all authorities agree is the most indebted community com corn in iLl tho the world comparing comparin mortgage and asset What docs does the closing of the tho mint to 8 silver mean to the ryot in in debt to the local Here if a man has a mort mort- gage jago 3 O of sovereigns Ds he can pa pay it of off with an any twenty twenty- five Ive ounces o ot gold old Suppose we closed our mints and every mort mortgage ase was now obliged ed to pay fifty ounces of gold told instead of twenty five what what then In India any any trot ryot who owned rupees could with mints minta open qui date his debt with an any tolas of silver while today with mints closed ho he must bring in in about tolas and to make this bis silver sil still dearer the tho Indian government o has recently greatly increased the import duty No other government r I believe either civilized or barbaric has bas ever or imposed a duty luty on either of the worlds world's money metals metals either cither on gold goldor or silver siler The question of silver siler must bo ho finally taken in in hand That the exchange metal of of can continue to rely for its value on the accident of a fortnights fortnights fortnight's fortnights fortnight's fort fort- nights night's monsoon rain evidences an i norance an and lovit levity discreditable to our western civilizations |
