Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 76.djvu/294

290 western world yet has for small coin, and for silver in the arts, it will probably be safe to say that if the progress of civilization is not stayed, if it advances only at the rate that has obtained during the nineteenth century, there could be created a demand for the metal to the extent of the full output of the mines of the world at the present time, for probably the next two hundred years.

The question is, how to inaugurate and encourage this demand, how to introduce among the black and yellow men the coin of the white man, and interest them in its acquisition. Each in its way, the great commercial nations of the day are unconsciously engaged in the task. The English shilling is working northward from the Cape of Good Hope, has already come in touch with the German Mark and the Portuguese peseta which have been introduced on both the east and west sides of the continent, and will in due time meet the French franc and Italian lira coming south from the shores of the Mediterranean. In Asia, the Indian rupee, the Russian rouble, the Japanese yen and the American-Philippine coins are already competing for the patronage of the Malay and the Chinaman. In South America neither American nor European coins have any foothold, the Latin-American nations being well supplied by systems of their own, all related more or less closely to the coinage of Mexico or Portugal. Thus the plainly evolutionary task of pushing civilization into the uneducated parts of the world through commerce is as badly hampered by the different coins offered to the barbarian, as are the efforts of the evangelists to introduce Christianity by the existence of the various denominations and creeds. The church is beginning to appreciate the wastage in its efforts, and is trying to minimize it by combinations among the denominations having for their object to standardize Christianity, so to speak, by reducing tenet and dogma to the lowest possible terms. Commerce must do the same. The white man's coins must be standardized and simplified. If this can be accomplished, not only will the western nations be able to push their commercial influence much faster than now, but a new and immense field will be opened to the producers of silver, which should not only stay the decline in values, but restore it for a century or two to the position it held fifty years ago. This achievement in its turn should have the effect of checking the present flood of gold, which is already a menace to commerce, and which in another decade will certainly culminate in disaster to the world's financial system. For if silver mining should become as profitable as of old, by reason of a return of value to $1.30 per ounce, many who are now reluctantly engaged in the extra-hazardous business of gold mining will abandon it in favor of the much less hazardous one of silver production.

In looking over the field to devise ways and means to secure an