Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1878-08-24

/ HOW line FARMER IS AAlectcO
In his speech at st. Louis. September
"a. 1875, Carl Schurz TINS showed the eff
fects of imitation OIL the farmers:
The farmer produces but few staple
articles for sale, and he has considera-
be variety of articles to buy. A portion
of some OF the most important staple pro-
duets is exported, and the price of the
whole crop is regulated by the foreign
market. The farmer receives price
paid at Liverpool, less the cost of trans
portation and the profits of the interme.
,llate operators, with the premium on
gold added. But the price of those Sta
pies in the foreign market are measured
| by the spec lie standard prevailing there
and not driven UP by any paper imitation;
and they are also depressed by the com
petition 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. Why is this
so The value of an irredeemable paper
currency constantly fluctuates. The m.
porter of goods. the merchant, the manll-
facturer, when Offering their articles for
sale. first add to the price, at which they
would sell under specie payments. the
premium of gold. But they know also
that they run the risk of the fluctuation
and possible depreciation of the paper
money they get for their goods, so that, if
they sell on time, the sum of paper money
receive in payment. when the pu rchaser
pays his note. may not represent the same
gold value which the same nominal sum
represented when the sale was made.
The merchant or manufacturer protects
himself against his risk of loss by making
another addition TO the price of the goods
he sells. Usually the goods pass through
several hands; those of the jobber. the
western or southern wholesale dealer,
and the retailer, before they reach the
customer. Each one of these intermedi-
aries runs the same risk of the deprecia-
ton of the paper currency, AMI protects
himself by making another addition to
the price on his part. And who has to
| pay the three or four additions to the
price made by the traders for their own
protection against the fluctuations of the
paper money? Of course the consumer.
i'm this case the farmer. The price of
everything he has to by, therefore, lAs
been run up not only by the premium
of gold. but far beyond that, by the ad-
ditional percentage covering the risk of
three or four intermediate traders. All
this is owing to the nature of our curren-
cy.
But does not the risk of currency f1uc-
tuation affect also the price of the gro
ducts the farmer has to sell? Yes. il
does, but in the opposite way. The
tradesman who buys the farmers wheat
and ships it to st. Louis or Chicago, the
grain merchant who ships it to New
York. runs the same risk of currency
fluctu alton also, and try to protect them
selves, But they can not put it on the
price of wheat they have bought, for the
price of that wheat at New York and
Liverpool is determined by the market
: there, which market is controlled by the
competition of all the agricultural cOun-
tries i'm the civilized world. How do
these traders then protect themselves?
BY deduc:ing the percentage necessary
to cover their risk from the price they
paid the farmer, The farmer fiatters
himself that if gold goes up he gets for
his products the benefit of the higher
premium of gold. But the risk of trades
man who buys from him being deducted.
he gets a considerable percentage less
than the full premium; while on the
price of goods he buys the risk of the
tradesnan is added to the premium and
the farmer has TO pay a considerable of a
percentage over and above that premium.
Thus the farmers candle burns mt both
ends. The character of our paper eur
rency, in consequence of its initiation.
blows up the price of everything the
farmer has to buy and the same thing
runs down the price OF everything e
has to sell. When he buys a thing Il e
risk of currency initiation is against him
and he has to pay for it. When he sells
his products the risk of currency intla-
ton is against him, for it is deducted
from the price he gets. Even under fa-
vorable circumstances, the farmer does
not make much over and above his eX
peDses. But under such system
currency he makes still less, if anything
No wonder, therefore, the farmer does
not flourish.
Now it is evident, the more such cur
rency is inflated the more it will fiuctu-
ate. the greater the risks to cover, and
the heavier the burden on the farmer, 1t
is, indeed, pretended that farmers Who
are i'm debt. who have mort cages on
their land, would be benefited by infla
ton, in so far as initiation would de-
preciate the currency and the debtor
would be enabled to pay i'm dollars of
less value. Leaving the morality of this
argument out of the question, it is easy
to show that this would i'm the long run
not benefit the farmer at all.