Knoxville Whig and chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1875-1882, 1875-10-13
How Initiation Affects the Farmers.

How Initiation Affects the Farmers.
The following is alt extract from a
speech delivered by Hon. Carl Schurz
at Mansfield, Ohio:
Iu presenting the effects OF Initiation
upon the various industrial interests
General Schurz said the farmers are
persistently told Ivy the iuflatiOnists
! that an expansion of the currency
would benefit aud the resumption of
specie payments injure them, and yet
nothing can be clearer than that of
all economy interests the agricultural
/ suffers most severely from an uusOund
! currency, such as we have. The far
mer produces but few staple articles
for sale, and he has a considerable va
Giety of articles to buy. A portion OF
some of the most important staple pro-
ducts is exported, and the price Of the
whole crop il regulated by the foreign
market. The farmer receives the price
! paid at Liverpool, less the cost of trans
| portatinn, and the profits of the inter
mediate operators, with the premium
! on gold added: but the prices of their
staple in the foreign market are mea-
sured by the specie standard prevailing
| there, and not driven up by any paper
! mutations, aud they are also depressed
by the competition Of the products of
other agricultural countries. While
! thus receiving comparatively low
prices for what he sells, he has, under
our currency system, comparatively
high prices to pay for everything he
buys in clothing, shoes, groceries,
| household and farming utensils, and
| SO on.
And why is this so? The value OF
an irredeemable paper currency con-
stantly fluctuates The importer of
goods, the merchant, the manufaclur
er, when offering their articles for sale,
first add to the price which they would
ksell under specie payments the prem
ium on gold, hut they know also thai
they run the risk of tie fluctuatinn
and possible depreciation of the paper
money they get for their goods, 80 that
if they sell on time, the sum of money
which they receive in payment when
the purchaser pays the note may not
represent the same gold value which
the same nominal value represented
when the sale was made The mer-
chant or manufacturer protects him.
self against his risk of loss by making
another addition to the price of goods
he sells. Usually the goods pass
through several hands-these of the
jObbers, the Western wholesale dealer
and the retailer-before they reach the
consumer. Each one of these interme-
diaries runs the same risk of the de-
probation of the paper currency, and
protects himself by making another
addition to the price on his part. And
who has to pay the three or four addi-
tons to the price made by the traders
for their own protection against the
fluctuations of paper money? OF
course the consumer. In this case the
farmer. The price of everything be
has to buy, therefore, has been run up,
not only by the premium on gold, but
far beyond that by the additional per-
centage covering the risk Of three or
four intermediate traders. All this is
owing to the nature of our currency.
But does not the risk of currency
fluctuations affect, also, The prica of The
products the farmer has To sell? Yes,
il does but i'm the opposite way. The
tradesman who buys the farmers
wheat and ships il, the merchant who
ships 1t to New York, run the same
risk of currency tluctuatiou, also, and
try to protect themselves. But they
can not put it on the price of the wheat
they have bought, for the rea-Ou that
the price of that wheat ut New York
aud Liverpool is determined 10y the
market there, which market is con
trolled by the competition of all the
agricultural countries of the civilized
world. How, then, do these traders
protect themselves? By deducting the
percentage necessary To pay their risk
from the price they pay the farmer.
The farmer flatters himself that if gold
goes up, he gels for hIs products the
benefit of the high premium on gold
but the risk of the tradpsmuu who
buys from him being deducted, he gets
"A considerable percentage less than the
full premium while on the price Of the
goods he buys the risk of the trades
man il added to the premium, and the
farmer has To pay "A considerable per-
ceniage over and above that premium.
Thus the farmers candle burns at both
ends.
The character of our paper currency
IN consequences of its initiation blows
up the prices of everything, the
farmer has to buy, and the same thing
runs down the prices of all he has tC
sell. When he buys thing, the risk
of currency initiation is against HIM
and he has b. pay for it. When he
, sells his products, the risk of currency
initiation is against him, and he has tC
paw for IT, When he sells his products
the risk Of currency initiation is against
him, for il is deducted from the price
he gets. Even under favorable circum.
stances the farmer does not make
much over and above his expenses
but under such currency he makes
still less. [Great applause