“ THE DOLLAR OF OUR FATHERS.” 
 
 MOVEMENT OF SILVER. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OP 
 
 SAMUEL B. RUGGLES, 
 
 Chairman of the Committee of the New-York Chamber of Commerce 
 on International Coinage, 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 s 
 
 HELD IN THE CITY OF NEW-YORK, 
 
 SEPTEMBER, 13, 1877. 
 
 PUBLISHED FOR THE INFORMATION OF THE CHAMBER, 
 
 ■WITH SUPPLEMENTARY HISTORICAL NOTES. 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 
 PRESS OP THE CHAMBER OP COMMERCE. 
 
 1877. 
 
>* 
 
 HENRY BESSEY, PRINTER, 
 No. « Cedar Street, N. Y. 
 
 C* 
 
 5 f' L\ a /y\ WYt 
 
“THE DOLLAR OF OUR FATHERS.” 
 
 MOVEMENT OF SILVER. 
 
 The debate in the Convention within mentioned, on the 
 “ Silver Question,” was opened September 13th, 1877, by 
 the Hon. William S. Geoesbeck, of Cincinnati, Ohio, a 
 member of the Monetary Commission instituted by the 
 Congress of the United States, in which he expatiated at 
 large on the great importance of the product of silver, and 
 the necessity of using it in the coinage of the United States. 
 
 Mr. Samuel B. Ruggles, Chairman of the Committee 
 of the Chamber of Commerce of New-York on Interna¬ 
 tional Coinage, who had been invited to attend the meeting, 
 spoke as follows: 
 
 ADDRESS OF MR. SAMUEL B. RUGGLES. 
 
 Mr. President: I congratulate the meeting and the coun¬ 
 try on the splendid speech we have just heard from the 
 eminent orator and statesman, the acknowledged chieftain, 
 both physical and intellectual, of the Democracy of Ohio, 
 and especially on his clear and vigorous condemnation of 
 “an irredeemable legal tender paper currency,” as “the 
 common resort and desperate expedient of nations in 
 peril; one that no sensible people should permanently 
 adopt in time of peace,” and one which he predicted that 
 this country would not adopt “ by any further legislation 
 while we are at peace or during the present century.” 
 
 Mr. Ruggles said, that he had also listened with careful 
 
4 
 
 attention to tlie definition, from a source so authentic, of 
 the constitutional powers of the National Government over 
 the coinage. “ The Government,” says he, “ subject only 
 to the limitation to make coin alone a legal tender, can mo¬ 
 dify and alter its laws of coinage and legal tender as it may 
 from time to time find to be necessary, and all contracts 
 must conform themselves to such legislation.” 
 
 To make his meaning still more definite and unmistaka¬ 
 ble, and in the words of his speech as printed, he says, 
 “ contracts are to be executed, not in what was legal tender 
 when they were made, but in what is legal tender when 
 they mature.” He admits, however, that it would “not be 
 wise or just to make changes in the law of l^gal tender, 
 unless they become absolutely necessary ;” and that “the 
 best and fairest policy is that which preserves for the matu¬ 
 rity of the contract the same tender which may be in force 
 when it was entered into.” 
 
 With this supreme and transcendent power of the Gov¬ 
 ernment, thus admitted and announced, Mr. Ruggles con¬ 
 tended that an equally supreme necessity for its exercise 
 had arisen, in the very serious and unexampled fall in the 
 market value of silver, rendering it wholly unjust to pre¬ 
 scribe rates of weight for its coinage as heretofore estab¬ 
 lished, now differing so widely from its present market 
 value. In this connection, Mr. Ruggles said that he wished 
 to inquire of Mr. Geoesbeck in respect to the estimate in 
 his speech which he had quoted from the statement of Sir 
 Hectoe Hay, a bullion broker, made to the British Com¬ 
 mission on the “ Depreciation of Silver,” in July, 1876, 
 in which the production of silver was stated to be 
 $1,209,000,000. Mr. Ruggles said, that a reference to their 
 report would show that Mr. Eenest Seyd, a financier of 
 high standing in London, after a full scrutiny by the Com¬ 
 mission of all the items of his estimate, stated the total 
 existing product of silver to be $3,250,000,000. 
 
 Mi. Geoesbeck then explained that in the estimate of 
 $1,209,000,000, quoted by him, he was giving the produc¬ 
 tion only of the last twenty years. 
 
 Mi. Ruggles replied, that it was one of the very striking 
 
5 
 
 features of the present important subject now agitating the 
 world, that the product of gold and silver within the 
 “ narrow inch of time,” little more than thirty years, oc¬ 
 cupied by the existing generation, had actually exceeded 
 all the pre-existing product of gold and silver throughout 
 the world since the discovery of America, reaching back 
 through nearly four centuries to the conquests of Cortez 
 and PizAERo and their followers. This great and start¬ 
 ling truth, said Mr. Ruggles, had imposed upon us of 
 the present generation vastly increased responsibilities. 
 Such an enormous change in the facts surely required 
 a most careful examination of the just rates of weight 
 to be fixed for our silver coinage which may be so 
 greatly increased in volume. One cardinal fact of present 
 interest at any rate is certain. The old silver dollar, con¬ 
 taining but 412^ grains, is greatly overvalued, and for the 
 simple reason that it represents silver at nearly 59 pence 
 per ounce, when, in point of fact, it is daily sold at not more 
 than 54 pence ; the last quotation was 54-J. During the 
 alarming fluctuations of last year it was actually sold in 
 July, 1876, at 48£ pence, showing a depreciation of about 
 25 per cent. It was in that dark hour, after a bill remone¬ 
 tizing silver had passed the House of Representatives in 
 Congress, and had nearly passed the Senate, that the New- 
 York Chamber of Commerce transmitted their remonstrance 
 to the Finance Committee of the Senate, earnestly expostu¬ 
 lating against the proposed remonetization, which would 
 have deprived our securities of all kinds, existing in the 
 United States to the amount of at least $8,000,000,000, of 
 one-fourth of the whole amount. Silver has since regained 
 somewhat of its former value, but the proposed remone¬ 
 tization at the present time would inflict upon the holders 
 of those securities a loss of about 7 or 8 per cent., or, in round 
 numbers, $640,000,000. With consequences so formidable 
 staring us in the face, can it be possible that the Government 
 of the United States can be induced to go blindly forward and 
 purchase silver for coinage at 59 or 60 pence per ounce, while 
 it can be bought in London and brought here in thirty days 
 at 56 pence ? The path of duty for the Government is plain 
 
as the sun in heaven. It must add to the weight of the silver 
 dollar a sufficient number of grains to make it a fair equiva¬ 
 lent to the gold dollar in London. It cannot be kept in cir¬ 
 culation in the United States for a single hour at 60 pence, 
 or even for 56 pence, when it can be bought in London at 
 54 pence. 
 
 In asserting, perhaps with too much earnestness, the duty 
 of Government to adjust its coin from time to time, accord¬ 
 ing to the various exigencies of our advancing civilization, 
 I take the ground that it is only the Government which has 
 any right to interfere with the regulation of the coin, and 
 that any intermeddling in the matter by the owners of silver 
 mines, or any individuals who may have private interests to 
 subserve, is in the highest degree improper and dangerous. 
 The fact is very noticeable, that there was never any agita¬ 
 tion of the question while silver was dear, and that the whole 
 struggle now pending is to induce the Government to coin 
 silver at a rate beyond its real value. In the International 
 Monetary Conference at Paris in 1867, no question whatever 
 was raised as to the product or value of silver. There was 
 no private object to be promoted while silver was dear. 
 During the four years ending in 1867, silver was so dear 
 that the mint of the United States coined it very sparingly. 
 Of this strangely venerated “dollar of our fathers,” the 
 United States mint coined, in the year 1868, disregarding 
 fractions of a thousand, only $54,000 ; in 1867, only $57,000 ; 
 in 1866, $58,000 ; in 1865, $82,000 ; and in 1864, only $28,000. 
 During that time the silver dollar bore a premium of three 
 per cent., and no patriots were then found to clamor loudly 
 and rend the skies, in lauding the ancient historical dollar. 
 The game would not pay. In the Conference at Paris, when 
 it was stated that the United States had a double standard, 
 it fell to my lot as the delegate of the United States to dis¬ 
 prove the statement at once, by showing that of the total 
 silver coinage by the United States mint of $136,851,512 of 
 silver, only $4,366,340 consisted of the full dollar of 412£ 
 grains, while $131,985,472 consisted of its subdivisions re¬ 
 duced seven per cent, in weight, and not a legal tender be¬ 
 yond five dollars. 
 
7 
 
 Nor was there any clamor whatever over our demonetized 
 silver at the date of the passage of the law of 1873, nor for 
 some time afterwards, until the cupidity of our silver miners 
 • began to be excited by its general decline in price through¬ 
 out the world. In this connection I now claim to state of 
 my own personal knowledge, that the law of f873 was not 
 passed with any purpose whatever of lowering the price of 
 silver or increasing that of gold. The precise facts are 
 these : The Chamber of Commerce in New-York had taken 
 a deep interest in the general unification of the gold coin 
 which had been proposed at the Paris Conference in 1867, 
 but which had never been very warmly advocated or favored 
 by the leading bankers and money-changers of Europe. 
 In 1868 the British Government instituted a Royal Com¬ 
 mission, embracing Yiscount Halifax, (who had for¬ 
 merly been Chancellor of the Exchequer,) with thirteen 
 eminent associates, including Mr. Baking, Mr. Goschen, 
 the Astronomer Royal, Mr. Airy, and others well known in 
 the financial and scientific world. After a laborious ex¬ 
 amination, this Commission reached the singular result of 
 recommending the postponement of the unification of gold 
 until the various nations could be assembled in conference 
 to make a simultaneous assimilation of silver. When we 
 consider the enormous labor required for adjusting all the 
 heterogeneous mass of silver coins scattered broadcast from 
 the Baltic to the Mediterranean, and from Cadiz to Moscow, 
 we see at once that this recommendation of the Royal Com¬ 
 mission was only a polite manner of postponing the whole 
 matter. This evident unwillingness served to increase the 
 hesitation which had begun to be felt in the Department of 
 State at Washington in acceding to the proposition of the 
 Paris Conference, which was still farther augmented by the 
 active resistance of some of our men of science, who 
 opposed the assimilation of our half-eagle with the twenty- 
 five franc coin of France, upon the ground that it would 
 not contain an even number of metrical grammes. 
 
 In 1870 the Department of State endeavored to reconcile 
 these conflicting opinions by issuing a circular to all the 
 principal nations of Europe, proposing, among other things, 
 
an even number of decigrammes of pure gold as an approxi¬ 
 mate mode of reaching the desired result, but the circular, 
 after adverting to the magnitude of the dealings between 
 the United States and England, practically announced that # 
 the United States would not accede to the Paris plan of 
 gold unification, “without assurance that the assent of her 
 Majesty’s G-overnment can be relied upon.” After this step 
 was taken, the only hope remaining for the unification of 
 gold was in securing from the various nations a preliminary 
 unification of silver. 
 
 It was in this state of the effort, that a bill was introduced 
 into the Congress of the United States in 1872, to amend 
 the coinage, by reducing the silver dollar in weight to 384 
 grains, which would be double the weight of the half 
 dollar as previously reduced. The Chamber of Commerce 
 at once sent their petition to Washington, requesting that 
 the proposed, weight of 384 grains for the dollar might be 
 increased one grain and eight-tenths, which would make it 
 precisely the weight of the five franc coin of Europe. The 
 proposal was favorably received by Congress so far, that 
 the bill was amended fixing the weight of the half-dollar at 
 12^ grammes, or one-half of the twenty-five grhmmes 
 weight of the five franc silver coin, with similar changes in 
 the minor coins. The bill was laid over for further considera¬ 
 tion till the year 1873, when it finally passed, after much 
 debate, but in which no allusion whatever was made to any 
 change in the relative values of gold and silver. The 
 proposal to make the dollar equivalent to the five franc 
 coin was not, however, adopted, Congress deeming it better 
 to abolish altogether the old dollar of 412^ grains. The 
 weights of the subdivisions of the dollar were all made 
 metrical, but the dollar was not made metrical. When the 
 law was passed, and for some time afterwards, the silver 
 dollar bore a premium of three per cent. Owing to dis¬ 
 turbances in India, and other causes, it underwent the 
 great depreciation in market value, carrying it down in 
 London to 48|- pence per ounce. It is needless to add, 
 what the whole country now knows, how greatly this 
 immense fall in price stimulated the cupidity of individuals 
 
9 
 
 seeking to impose their silver upon the Government at its 
 former rate of 59 or 60 pence per ounce. 
 
 It is hardly consistent with the dignity of the subject and 
 the extreme gravity of the pecuniary consequences which 
 must result from any great over-valuation of silver, to 
 descant much, at large, on the battle-cry resounding 
 through the great interior to restore “ the dollar of our 
 fathers.” Suffice it to say, in a word, that our fathers had 
 no dollars, certainly none worth speaking of. As I have 
 already shown to you, there were only 4,366,340 silver 
 dollars ever coined in the United States previous to 1867. 
 Assuming our venerable army of fathers to have been ten 
 millions strong, the four millions so coined would not have 
 gone far with each of them. From my own personal ex¬ 
 perience as one of those “fathers,” in the twenty years 
 from 1831 to 1851, during which I expended nearly a 
 million of dollars in improving lands and erecting build¬ 
 ings in New-York and Brooklyn, I am quite sure that I 
 never had at any one time five of those dollars in my 
 possession, and I do not believe there are ten men in this 
 crowded meeting who ever had, at any one time, fifty of 
 those dollars in their possession. Gentlemen of this 
 assembly, the whole of this miserable sham of the “ dollar 
 of our fathers” is an idle and silly fabrication. 
 
 Movement or Silver. 
 
 At the conclusion of the preceding remarks, an able 
 paper was read to the meeting by Prof. Perry, of 
 Williams College, who forcibly maintained the impos¬ 
 sibility of establishing a permanent ratio of value between 
 silver and gold, and in which he referred to the great 
 product of silver, as stated by Mr. Ruggles. In answer 
 to which, Mr. Ruggles again addressed the meeting, as 
 follows: 
 
 Mr. Ruggles : Mr. Chairman, I must ask the learned 
 and able speaker to correct a misapprehension in the very 
 
10 
 
 interesting paper which we have just heard, in quoting 
 him, Mr. R., as stating the existing product of silver in the 
 world at $3,250,000,000. Mr. Ruggles stated that fact as 
 taken from the testimony of Mr. Eexest Seyd, an 
 eminent financier and financial writer in London, and re¬ 
 ported by Mr., Goschex, the particulars of which amount 
 had been examined in detail by Mr. Goschex’ s Commission. 
 Individually he might deem the amount exaggerated or 
 incredible, but he was now willing to accept it, at least for 
 a time, in his sincere anxiety not to understate or under¬ 
 value the importance of silver as a necessary auxiliary in 
 our coinage, but to be always kept at a just and fair valua¬ 
 tion of its market price, and to be issued only in amounts 
 carefully limited. 
 
 Mr. Rtjggles further referred to the allegation of Mr. 
 Perry, that the great inundation of gold, commencing in 
 1848, was a phenomenon that could not be repeated. Mr. 
 Ruggles would only say, that it could hardly be wise to 
 predict too confidently the possible monetary phenomena 
 in this modern and rapidly changing world of ours, with 
 its new and numerous superadded forces, discoveries and 
 inventions, constantly working out changes and transforma¬ 
 tions so unexpected and marvellous. In respect to this 
 prodigious amount of gold with which we have been 
 obliged to deal, and which has now gone into history, we 
 do certainly know T that the general alarm produced in 
 Europe by its wonderful production in both continents, 
 rapidly running up to $900,000,000, causing even steady 
 old Holland to lose its balance and change its monetary 
 standard from gold to silver, (recently changed back again 
 to gold,) was effectually tranquillized by the sagacity and 
 vigor of the statesmen and financiers of France, who, 
 seeing the danger, opened and emptied their vaults, which 
 had been glutted for years with a large portion of the five- 
 franc silver pieces which had been coined previously to 1851, 
 to the immense amount of $891,519,169. They filled the 
 vacuum from this new product of $900,000,000 of gold, 
 which, passing into circulation, not only animated every 
 branch of French industry, but preserved the monetary 
 
11 
 
 equilibrium of the globe. The world saw this gigantic 
 accumulation of silver, divided in enormous sums, passing 
 up the Mediterranean and down the Red Sea, and thence 
 into India, that vast and mysterious receptacle and 
 absorbent of silver, of which the almost incredible amount 
 of $1,000,000,000 was actually exported by Europe to India 
 and China during the short period of twenty-four years, 
 ending in 1875, as shown by a table annexed to Mr. 
 G-oschen’s report. If the statesmen and financiers of the 
 British Empire shall be induced, by the recent distressing 
 monetary perturbations which have not yet fully subsided, 
 ,to arise in their intellectual might, and solve the great 
 problem of monetary unity between the Atlantic and the 
 Oriental portions of the Empire, it is not impossible that 
 we may yet behold some monetary phenomena in the reflux 
 of silver from India, which may well need the careful 
 attention of the civilized world. The time must soon come 
 when those who direct the public affairs of the English- 
 speaking nations will feel the necessity at least of con¬ 
 ference, if not of co-operation, in dealing with these great 
 and increasing masses of silver, which must so largely 
 and inevitably affect the general commerce of the globe. 
 
 Supplemental, 
 
 The undersigned individually begs leave to add, that 
 since the delivery of the preceding speech, interesting mone¬ 
 tary intelligence has reached our commercial community 
 through a letter published in the New- York Evening Post 
 of the 4th October, instant, from Mr. J. S. Moore, the well 
 known advocate of gold, as the only safe and permanent 
 monetary standard. It states the leading features of an 
 active movement just initiated in England by the combined 
 efforts of the friends at once of humanity and of a sound 
 currency, which is likely to aid largely in lessening the 
 difficulties of the silver problem now perplexing so many 
 of the civilized nations. 
 
 It is a proposition to construct, with all practicable 
 despatch, with British capital, the immense works nnd 
 
12 
 
 systems of irrigation needed in India to secure the constant 
 fertility of its widespread territory, and wholly prevent 
 the recurrence of the frequent famines, which have deso¬ 
 lated great districts in that portion of the British Empire 
 within the last few years. 
 
 The cost of these works, needed for carrying adequate 
 supplies of water from the elevated surfaces and snow¬ 
 capped summits of Northern India, down to the densely 
 populated and overheated plains and valleys of the Central 
 and Southern Provinces, is estimated at £25,000,000, which 
 sum is to be expended at once, with such sums as may be 
 necessary hereafter, estimated by hundreds of millions ster¬ 
 ling, to be reimbursed with a moderate rate of interest from 
 the ample revenues of the works. It is a cardinal feature 
 in this noble project, that nearly all the cost will be expen¬ 
 ded in paying the starving millions which it is to feed, 
 mainly for their unskilled labor on extensive but compara¬ 
 tively inexpensive excavations and embankments, while 
 very little will be paid for imported material of any kind. 
 The project has found the true secret of all well directed 
 enterprises, in providing means adequate to ends; in a word, 
 in furnishing strength fully equal to the stress. 
 
 It is truly a grand and philanthropic effort, well worthy 
 of the wisdom, energy and statesmanship of our ancestral 
 land. Without estimating too highly at present its ultimate 
 effects within the United States, we can hardly fail to see 
 that the vast eventual increase of the agricultural industry 
 and pecuniary means of India, affording large facilities, in 
 many coming years, for obtaining adequate supplies of 
 silver in exchange for the labor of the constantly increasing 
 population, must, in due time, by legitimately creating this 
 increased demand, largely restore the silver of the United 
 States and of the world to the market price which it com¬ 
 manded in former years. 
 
 How far this new demand from India may be counter¬ 
 balanced by new supplies of silver from sources not now ex¬ 
 isting, is not yet ascertainable. Recent accounts from Peru 
 give the particulars of a remarkable railway successfully 
 climbing the rugged and broken surface of the Pacific slope 
 
IB 
 
 of the Andes, and which, when extended, is expected to 
 afford easy access to the ocean from the long known but 
 hitherto inaccessible silver bed of Cerro de Pasco, stated to 
 be able “ to produce more silver than all the mines in the 
 world.” 
 
 This silver bed is distant about four hundred miles 
 northwardly from the ancient mines of Potosi, in the same 
 elevated ridge of the Andes, which yielded in silver alone, 
 exclusive of gold, under all the defects of Spanish monar¬ 
 chical rule, up to the year 180B, the enormous amount of 
 £237,358,334 sterling, or $1,186,791,660. It certainly is not 
 impossible that the mines in our own Sierra Nevada, a por¬ 
 tion of the natural prolongation of the Cordilleras of South 
 America, with all the appliances of modern science and 
 under republican rule, will eventually yield, including 
 gold, at least a like amount. 
 
 We cannot close our eyes upon the great continental fact, 
 now clearly discernible, that the silver and gold of the two 
 Americas are to form, for ages to come, very important, if not 
 the principal, factors in the immense commerce of the Pacific, 
 as yet in the early dawn of its existence. It certainly in¬ 
 volves the high duty, equally clear, to deal fairly with these 
 two great elements of our national wealth, in view always 
 of the truth shown by experience, that the serious and 
 frequent fluctuations in the relative market values of the 
 two metals must always render silver less fit than gold for 
 the common metallic monetary standard of the world. It 
 is believed, however, that silver, to be coined only as 
 auxiliary to “ legal money,” if wisely issued from time to 
 time, only on Government account, in limited amounts, and 
 carefully kept, at least approximately equal to gold, will 
 practically circulate as money for nearly all commercial 
 purposes, and certainly at par with the silver of other 
 countries. 
 
 Whether our great product, present and future, of silver 
 is to be dealt with as “ legal money,” or only as “ merchan¬ 
 dise,” is the grave and difficult question of the hour. 
 But in either event, the timely forecast of our Coinage Act 
 of 1873, in making all the subdivisions of the silver dollar 
 
14 
 
 metrical in weight, is now sufficiently evident. The world¬ 
 wide importance of that provision, as a decisive step in the 
 general unification of silver, is specially manifest in view of 
 the existing exigency in India. If our British brethren (in 
 the pungent words used in Parliament by the Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer in 1869) will now “ give up a little of their 
 crotchets”—if they will now incline just a little to the 
 metrical system, so long denounced in England as “the 
 Jacobinical offspring of the French Revolution”—they 
 may, by a trifling variation of weight, make the Indian 
 rupee exactly equivalent to the metrical silver half dollar 
 of the United States, which will then pass, without recoin¬ 
 age, brokerage or other impediment, throughout the whole 
 extent of British India. 
 
 It is not unimportant to add, that in the presence of such 
 a splendid concord in the movement of silver in the two 
 hemispheres, the civilized world would no longer endure 
 the present multifarious, expensive, discordant and barba¬ 
 rous diversities in the coinages of gold. 
 
 In truth, the whole subject, in all its varied aspects and 
 bearings, now imperatively demands the comprehensive 
 and careful circumspection and examination of the Govern¬ 
 ment and of the people of the United States. Our com¬ 
 mercial classes will, at any rate, indulge the hope that, with 
 the wide-spread pecuniary interests to be affected, Congress, 
 in its sober second thought, may refrain from any ill-advised 
 or hasty legislation, practically expelling gold from our cir¬ 
 culation, which would agitate so seriously and needlessly 
 our industrial world, now healthfully recovering from the 
 long and deep depression, the natural and logical result of 
 the insane overaction of former years. 
 
 Samuel B. Ruggles. 
 
 New-York, October 9, 1877. 
 
15 
 
 The Future of Silver in India. 
 
 [Extract from the Letter published in the New-York Evening Post of Oct A, 1877.] 
 
 A great change is coming upon silver in the future, and that change is destined 
 to be brought about by the fearful Indian famine. Since 1872, there have been 
 three great famines in India, all proceeding from the same cause—drought, or 
 want of water. The history of India is really little studied by the people in gene¬ 
 ral in England, and of course much less in this country, and a very few words as 
 to Indian agriculture may not be uninteresting. 
 
 When India was divided among the very numerous native kingdoms, each 
 native kingdom paternally looked after the irrigation of the land. This was 
 natural enough. As the maharajahs squeezed the agricultural population it was 
 essential that they should raise crops, and the despotic rulers actually compelled 
 the natives to have artificial water-works on their lands, while very extensive 
 works were often built by the ruling power. Colonel E. Rayksford Jackson, a 
 man who is an authority on Indian affairs, at a public meeting at Blackburn in 
 England, said: 
 
 “ Water was the great need of India, and the ancient rulers of India knew that, 
 and provided works upon a magnificent scale, and so set us an example which we 
 had not adequately followed. He had the authority of a leading native manu¬ 
 facturer and merchant for the statement, that such was the opinion of the people 
 of India themselves, that it would be for their advantage, that large public works 
 should be undertaken by the government to increase the resources, and to devel- 
 ope the wealth of India, that, much as they disliked an income tax, an income tax 
 would be popular in India, if the receipts derived from it were devoted to the 
 construction of irrigation works and railways.” 
 
 Now, droughts were pretty'common in India from time immemorial, and famines 
 in some native kingdoms often occurred, owing to inroads by one native kingdom 
 on another, which, of course, either destroyed or impeded the irrigation. But as 
 a general rule, before the conquest of India by Lord Clive, more than one hundred 
 years ago, famines on such extensive scales as those during the last five years, 
 were the exceptions. 
 
 W 7 hen England became master of India, the great object of the rulers was se¬ 
 curity of life and property, and liberty to the people. All coercion by the general 
 government ceased. Hence the irrigation system and works, which were a de¬ 
 spotic coercion on the part of the native rulers, ended, and India ever since, more 
 or less, has depended on the waterfall during the rainy season for its crops. 
 
 The time now has come when England must feel the responsibility of her rule 
 in India. She cannot despotically enforce irrigation works, as did the maha¬ 
 rajahs, guikwars, and other rulers in India of old; but she has to provide the 
 means on the most gigantic scale to erect works which will in future defy the sun 
 spots, which, as philosophers and astronomers declare, are either the cause or the 
 sign of drought in India. 
 
 It must, however, not be supposed that no beginning in irrigation works has 
 
16 
 
 been made in India. On the contrary, England has thus far spent over 
 £17,000,000, or $85,000,000, in irrigation ; and to show how profitable and bene¬ 
 ficial is this investment, I quote the statistics furnished by Colonel Jackson on 
 the subject. He says : 
 
 “ The £17,000,000 already spent in irrigation works in India had returned at 
 least 7 per cent. Such was the statement of Mr. Thornton, the Secretary to 
 the Public Works Department for India. This would also return indirectly a 
 large amount to the Indian Treasury ; and it was a fact, that in the Pimjab and 
 other places which had the benefit of irrigation works, and which before those 
 irrigation works were in existence were among the poorest parts of India, had re¬ 
 cently become most populous, most prosperous, large exporting districts, and had 
 added a much larger proportion than could be expected either from their area or 
 population to the Exchequer of India.” 
 
 It is therefore no wonder that the eyes of investors in England will be turned 
 toward the great irrigation works in India. And if you add to this the fact, that 
 the pity and philanthropic sentiment of the English people are now aroused in 
 this direction, we may soon see the most marvellous works commenced that ever 
 were seen in the world, which abundant capital, the best engineering skill and 
 the unlimited supply of labor alone can bring forth. 
 
 It is rather strange that the great movers of this scheme, as if by common con¬ 
 sent, set the cost of irrigating works in India down to £25,000,000, or $125,000,000. 
 This modest sum is named in order not to frighten the nation, as, of course, the 
 India Council will have to borrow the money, which is only another name for 
 what we here would call a subsidy, by merely borrowing Uncle Sam’s name on 
 the back of railway bonds. The fact is, it may take several hundred millions of 
 pounds sterling, before England gets through with the work of thoroughly irri¬ 
 gating India. Any how, these are some facts which will have an influence on 
 silver: 
 
 First. The whole cost of the work will be simply for labor, digging, ditching 
 and mason works. 
 
 Second. The millions of natives at work must be paid in silver money. 
 
 Third. As soon as the works have commenced, there will be a steady outflow 
 of silver from Europe and America to India, to carry on the work. The present 
 large shipments of silver to India, and the temporary reduction in the number of 
 bills drawn on India by the Council are more of a relief measure, which the 
 necessities of the famine have called forth.