will come. Let a great war break out and note the result. Instead of one-sixth of all the railroads of the country being in the hands of receivers, as is the case now, five-sixths of them will be in that condition. This would destroy public and private credit. It would do more harm than to pay our debts in silver for a century. The business world cannot pay its debts in gold; and that country which adopts both metals as the basis of its monetary system will, in the long run, have more money, better money, and will do more business at home and a safer business abroad than under a single standard. If foreign wars or foreign trade take the gold out of the country, silver will remain; if silver goes, gold will remain.

If asked to suggest a remedy for present conditions, three present themselves. Neither one may fully meet expectations. They are:

1. The full and unlimited coinage of silver.

2. The free coinage of silver produced in the United States.

3. The equal coinage of both gold and silver.

No one man ever invented a perfect financial system; it can not be created alone by legislative enactment; it is a growth; it comes with the varied teachings of success and failure.

The position of the United States on the Western Continent and in the financial world, demands that it should have a distinctive financial policy. We cannot imitate the English principles of revenue and finance unless we do so at the expense of our own people. The United States produce gold and silver in large quantities. We produce more raw material than any other people, and if we protect our home markets and con

sume at home to the extent of our needs what we produce at home, our exports will exceed our imports and gold will not leave the country.

The principle of protection and the free coinage of silver are both necessary to the fullest and highest industrial development of America.

In conclusion, there is a selfish side to the money question. The people who have gold want to make it more valuable; the people who have silver want to make it more valuable. The gold people want to demonetize silver because it is cheap, and to do this they would drive out of the world's money circulation $4,000,000,000 of silver. But the great masses of the enterprising people, the producers of wealth, those who have their fortunes yet to make, want both money metals, because this will create more metallic and cheaper money and thus encourage and promote private enterprises.

Hitherto the American producers have been numbered among the voiceless millions, but they will be heard at the next presidential election. It is a happy omen for the future of American politics that new issues are being submitted to the people. As a result past dissensions will be forgotten, different sectional lines will be drawn as new principles are evolved, parties will divide on the money question, and that party which either evades the free coinage of silver or is opposed to the same, will fail.

In the United States, as elsewhere, money is power, and every year the rich are becoming more powerful. Those who have little are naturally jealous of those who have much. The responsibility resting upon the rich is becoming greater. Money cannot safely corner

the industrial pursuits of a great nation. A free people may be deceived and misled for a time, but in the end they will do the right thing. While the influence of Wall street is great, as a factor in American politics. its very name is a source of weakness, and in the near future American finance will figure in American politics.

Morris Ul Estée