The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1875-03-27
GRErNRACK DELUSIONS.

and theories which the worlds experience
has over and over demonstrated to be delusivt
and fallacious, controversy with them or
such theme would be as profitless as an at
| tempt to convince a crazy Inventor Of the
preposterousncsS of perpetual motion As
the last number Of the Age, however, devotes
. column or two to controverting an article
iu previous number of the FREE TRADER
it would be hardly courteous to pass it over
wihou, some notice.
The notion that has taken possession of the
Age is, that greenbacks are the standard of
value, and that the only huctuating currency
is gold and silver Possessed of this notion,
it u,trrs such prcternatural nonsense as the
following;
If the farmer loses anything Ia consequence
of the fuctuation Of the gold premium, then
the gold price of grain must govern It's cur.
rency price, because 1t Is plain that II the
currency price has no governing power, but.
is itself the real and actual sO-called measure
of value, then the farmer can lose nothing.
In our schoolboy days We were able, occa-
.lonally, to constrre some pretty tough Latin
sentences; but if there IS any sense in the
above, it defes our powers to extract 1t,
However, we gather from the context that
what the 4qe is crying to get through it, is,
tina, the price CT grain is never affected one
way or the other by the fluctuation of the gold
premium, but is wholly regulated by the
grecnback as a fixed standard oil value. To
prove this prcposterous assumption, the Age
processes to have complied "a table of the
daily prices of gold and grain nom the week
before the panic in 1873 TO The present time
and this wonderful table shows that in that
time gold advanced and wheat fell 20 times;
gold fell and wheat advanced 80 times; gold
fell and wheat remained the same IA times"
and so Oh. Now what ncffabe nonsense this
is! Who pretcnds that wheat ought to 60 up
whenever gold advances; or to fall with gold,
or remain stationery with goldy The price Of
wheat is governed by the law of supply and
demand so that i, often happens when gold
is lowest the demand for wheat is greatest
and the price highest, or rtce gerso, The
Ages laborious columns of figures are Who'll
ly impertnent to the issue,
But the Age has some more figures. The
are Intended to demonstrate, by
OF the prices of wheat at Chicago
and Liverpool, that the farmer loses nothing
in consequence Of tiuctuaion in the value of
greenbacks;
Average price No 2 spring wheat at
Chicago, 1872, currency ..........$ .22.G
Average price No. 2 spring wheat at
Liverpool, 1879, gold. ...,.....,.... 1863
Difference between prices, currency. CAB
Cost of transportation including trans
fer and insurance (steamy currency 53.7
Difference between prices in excess Of
transportation currency ............ 10G
Per cent Of net profit on the Chicago
currency price. ................... 50
Average gold premium in 1872, about
per cent .........,..... 1915
Profit reduced to gold minus. ....... 30
This table is a fraud If the average gold
price of wheat at Liverpool in 1872 was ST.
800, then the currency price, with gold at
1916, was $20Gl5, and the difference between
he Chicago and Liverpool prices was SAC, in
stead of G43c, and deducting from SIC the
iqe'S j3.7c for freight, handling, Insurance,
&c, leaves a tritle over 80 cts. for profit in
stead Of 2 cts. minus, rs the Age figures it out.
Allowing 10 cts. Il bushel as reasonable
margin for profit then the farmer got 90 cts
/ bushel less for his wheat at Chicago than he
would have got had the transaction at both
ends been in gold,
That is what the Ige'S own figures demon
,trate, properly Interpreted; and happily they
ire more than borne out by other figures that
nay be found on opening any daJy paper OF
he present week. Videlicet;
lice of No spring wheat at Chicago
March 20, 1873, currency ........... 1904
Price same wheat same day in Liverpool
Ss.4d. gold, or in currency ...-.-...... 216
Difference between Chicago and Liver.
pool, in currency Observation-Disclosures. 122
rom which deduct
Freight Ia New York ........24
Ocean freight ........ .......-lS
handling, insurance, Nc...-.-lO -
Leaving for Chicago dealers profit. 20
Does any one imagine there would be
margin like that in favor of the middlemen
the transaction at both ends was in gold
was not so formerly In Nov. 1860 No. .
pnng wheat was quoted Ole in Chicago,
i % IN New York and 6s.9d. in Liverpool,