e, of which Senator Wolcott
was chairman.

A Commission was sent abroad by President McKinley, in pursuance
of the pledge of the Republican National platform, to endeavor
to effect an arrangement with the leading European nations
for an international bimetallic standard. Senator Wolcott
of Colorado, who was the head of this Commission, told me
he was emboldened to undertake it by the account I had given.
The Commission met with little success. I conjecture that
the English Administration, although a majority of the Government,
and probably a majority of the Conservative Party, were Bimetallists
and favored an international arrangement on principle, did
not like to disturb existing conditions at the risk of offending
the banking interests at London, especially those which had
charge of the enormous foreign investments, the value of
which would be constantly increasing so long as their debts
were payable, principal and interest, in gold, the value of
which, also, was steadily appreciating.

It has been the fashion of some quite zealous--I will not
say presumptuous, still less ignorant or shallow writers on
this subject--to charge bimetallists with catering to a mischievous,
popular delusion, for political purposes, or with shallowness
in thinking or investigating. I have had my share of such
criticism. All I have to say in reply to it is that I have
done my best to get at the truth, without, so far as I am
concerned, any desire except to get at and utter the truth.
In addition to the authority of our own early statesmen,
and to that of the eminent Englishmen to whom I have referred,
I wish to cite that of my pupil and dear friend, General Francis
A. Walker, who is declared by abundant European, as well as
American authority, to be the foremost writer on money of
modern times. He was a thorough believer in the doctrine
I have stated.

He pointed out the danger, indeed the ruin, of undertaking
to reestablish silver without the consent of foreign nations.
But he declared that the happiness and, perhaps, the safety
of the country rested on Bimetallism. He said:

"Indeed, every monometallist ought also to be a monoculist.
Polyphemus, the old Cyclops, would be his ideal. Unfortunately
our philosophers were not in the Garden of Eden at the time
when the Creator made the mistake of endowing men with eyes
in pairs. Perhaps it would not be too much to say that there
are probably few men whose eyes do not differ fro