ABSTRACT
Unquestionably, the United States under President Roosevelt went further towards applying various monetary reform measures in practice than any other country has done at any time in history. Cheap money, an expansion of credit and of purchasing power, a public works policy, an elastic gold standard and devaluation were all tried in turn. Most of these devices, however, were applied not so much as permanent reform measures as merely for the purpose of raising the United States from the depth of depression into which she had sunk between 1929 and 1933. One of the few measures which was adopted with the declared object of providing a permanent reform was the restoration of bimetallism. As is well known, bimetallism lingered on in the United States for many years after it had been abandoned in most other parts of the world. A presidential election was fought over bimetallism in the ’nineties. Throughout the first three decades of the twentieth century, agitation for the restoration of bimetallism continued in the United States. While in Europe the question was regarded as of merely historical interest, it remained very much alive in the United States, where the silver-producing interests succeeded in keeping the problem before the eyes of the public. Apart from financial considerations, the question of remonetising silver commanded a certain sentimental interest in the United States.
