Show silver question of 1932 affects the world by CALEB JOHNSON the restoration of 0 silver to its former position in the worlds currency system would put an end to a great many of 0 the worlds present economic troubles according to many experts on the subject who wh have been heard by the congressional dional committee subcommittee sub which Is considering a resolution oil to call an international conference on silver whether t her such a c conference on ference will be called or not Is as yet uncertain but more ta talk about cabout silver as money has been going on in 32 washington in the past two or cr three weeks than has been heard there since the days now nearly forty years ago when sliver silver dick bla bland abed about the crime of 73 and the populists lists led the unsuccessful fight tor for the principle which later became william J bryans chief plank in his presidential campaigns of 1896 and 1900 the tree free and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 ounces of silver to one ounce of gold there Is now no talk of sixteen to one nor any attempt to fix a given ratio between the two metals but there Is a growing understanding that more than halt half of the people of the world the inhabitants of india and china cannot use gold as money without great dif faculty and that unless silver is restored to use as money in those and some other countries there can be no important revival of international trade to and from those nations chinese merchants indian manufacturers french german and american experts on metals and foreign exchange have been telling their stories to the subcommittee of the house committee on coinage weights and measures of which representative andrew L somers of brooklyn is chairman K C lt li president of the wah chand trading corporation and a governor of the new york metal exchange told the committee that the tha present depression Is due either to tte the short supply of gold or the of gold or the practice of hoarding gold and in the orient he said hoarding was the principal trouble the low price of silver had bad frightened people away from that metal and it if the coln age e of f silver were resumed so BO that the white mew metal could perform a part ot of the service which gold alone now performs hoarded d gold gold would be released all thru the far east and in many other parts of the world it Is not a question ol of bimetallism mr lt said silver could be used in the form of a reserve against currency or as token money so long as its former market value was restored in the last few months said mr lt LI there has been a gradual awakening to the tact fact that silver after all plays a big part I 1 in a the monetary systems of the world S R Bo Boman manji jl a cotton manufacturer 0 of f bombay pointed out that the united states could make money by accumulating a stock of silver at its present low price and later selling it to other nations which will need more silver in order to restore their debased subsidiary coinage something like that was done in 1918 when the indian government purchased from the united states gover government ament ounces ot of silver at arx an ounce rene leon regarded reg legai aided ded as one of the foremost authorities on silver declared that the fall of silver began in 1926 when the royal hoyal commission on indian curren currency moncy and finance undertook to put the monetary system of india on a gold bullion basis this made it necessary tor for india to obtain gold which it could get only by selling its silver all those possessed of silver either as money or savings says the sub commit tees statement or in other words 0 oce 1 e halt half the population of the world were put on notice that their money and savings were about to be destroyed chinese and indian capitalists immediately began to protect their capital by buying gold or gold exchanges and holding the gold in reserve but the ordinary inhabitant of those countries neer accumulates enough to make gold investments the savings ravings of the people of india are almost entirely in the form of precious metals and owing to custom and tradition as well as to the lowly status of the average individual silver is their principal hoard the average hindu has little or no banking facilities so he has continued to take depreciated silver and has faced a steadily lowering individual purchasing power there Is strong ground for the conclusion that the nationalist movement india inda a revolt ara against llast british rule Is i large part due to this depreciation of sll iver ver and the corresponding reduction the already low e economic status of the while average hindu while it has been stated in the hearings at washington that the depressed china exchanges arising from this same cause the cheapening of silver because of the cessation of its use as money on equal terms with gold has had a serious effect upon the economic life of japan the principal nation with which china trades and that therefore the threatened war between japan and china may be said to have its roots in silver the device of turning public attention from domestic troubles by starting a foreign war Is an ancient one which has been resorted to many times in history another complication in the silver situation is that several nations have debased their fractional currency that Is they have cut down the proportion of silver to base metals in their minor coins and this has had the effect in mexico and elsewhere of further stimulating the hoarding of gold all of this has had an important effect I 1 upon international trade and the united states has suffered along with the rest of the world from the decline in purchasing power of the nations in which the common people use only silver in trade and whose buying power has been reduced by the tall fall of the price of silver from tile the average of 58 cents an ounce from 1900 to 1914 to the present price of about 30 or 31 cents the hon winston spencer churchill w who ho was chancellor of the exchequer of great britain when the gold standard w was 1 I s as established for india was so convinced by arguments brought out before the congressional subcommittee committee sub that lie he stated before sailing railing tor for england a few days ago that he would immediately take steps to induce his country to take part in the proposed international conference on silver while the united states has stood alone in maintaining the silver content of its fractional currency no one nation today can control the economic relations of tile the I 1 whole world there is every reason why this country should take part with the other nations in a conference on silver especially as the United States Is the largest producer of that metal and the silver question of 1932 Is not a political question as it was in 1896 |