We do not know that the bimetallist agitation increases in
strength, but we perceive signs that its advocates are in- creasing in fanaticism. It is believed that there is a majority of 4 in the American Senate for the coinage of all silver offered, and its circulation for all purposes at a ratio of 16 to I of gold,—that is, at a value nearly one-half equal to twice its price as silver. Nothing will be done in this Session, but the Silver men hope to be as strong in the next. The German Bimetallist Association, which is supported by the whole Agrarian party, is now in session, and listens complacently to speeches of the most violent character. Herr von Kardoff, for example, described gold as the enemy at once of agri- culture and manufactures, and Herr Wiilfing stigmatised it as "that cancer in our commercial life." Dr. Arendt also denied that the over-production of silver had produced the, depreciation of the white metal, tracing it wholly to legisla- tion. Even in England we can see that bimetallists believe they could cure the India Treasury by making silver by legis- lation worth one-sixteenth of gold, and we notice with a certain dismay that a great many influential advocates of the change, both in Germany and America, are becoming mono- metallists, with silver for the metal of their affections. They do not fear, they say, to become like the Asiatic States silver- using nations.
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