New-York tribune., 1879-08-26
GREEYB4CK SOPHISTRTFS


Maine, that the country ought to have more
money. Not in unlimited quantity, for Mr..
Chase, unlike many GreeDback statesmen
does not believe that if legal-tender bills were
as plenty as sand on the sea-shOre, or leaves
in the forest, they would still have value
His idea is that the general average or prices
is % per cent lower than 1t was In lS6O ana
! that this ought to be rcmedied, III the
| interest of the debtor class and can
be remedled only by M additional issue
! of legal-tender notes. 1t does not seem
TO him that this would be reputation
| it would only restore property TO what he
| considers It's normal value. That he may
! be mistaken as to what Is the normal ana
] proper value of property does not seem to hlm
possible, nor has he ever considered, appa-
rently. that the normal and proper value OF
/ property of many kinds has greatly changed
! since 1S60j in consequence OF Inventions
which have cheapened the production Of many
! articles; in consequence of the cultivation OF
! new lands and the reduction in the cost OF
! transportation, which have reduced the sum
necessary to repay the farmer for the produc-
| ton of each bushel of wheat or corn; or in
consequence of the great changes in price
which have occurred in other countries.
Like many enthusiasts, Mr.. Chase is care
less as to his facts The average Of prices has
at no time been reduced, since 1861, to a
point % per cent below the average OF 1850,
a year of great prosperity. The lowest level
was reached about October 1, 1873, when the
average was about $50, against 800 III 1860.
a decline of Is per cent. But an advance in
average prices began in 1873, and has
continued all this year, with little inter-
mission. The level was hardly 10 per
! cent lower than that of 1860 IN January
! last, and there is not a single economist
! of repute, probably, who will contend that
| the average Of prices now is more than q or
z per cent below that of 1870. This is GER
tam, at least that the most elaborate tables OF
prices. embracing several hundred articles,
show that the decrease has not been, at any
! time since the war, more than about 10 per
| cent from the level of 1860, and that there
/ has been a material advance since Jan
uary 1.
What reason has Mr.. Chase, or anybody
else, to claim that prices should be artifclally
nut back to the level of 1902 Why is that
year selected, instead Of 1857, when the av-
erage was much higherl Why is it selected
! instead Of 1s43, when prices were very much
lower than in 1850 or in 1877 Has it been
revealed that the prices which happened TO
prevail in the year before the war were
exactly at the proper and normal leye7 The
| truth is that the prices of 1860 have often
been taken as a standard, merely because
men were looking for assurance that the
| country had got back to the neighborhoOd Of
| specie values but there is no reason known to
] Il. oil Ilpts hlli I9f ba
/ lations of industry were more natural, or that
prices were more healthy then than in otheryears
! preceding There had been a great imitation
which eliminated in 1857, and a great col
| lapse which passed away in 1853, but it is not
/ for any man to say at what point prices after
wards reached natural and proper level"
1t is the idea Of Mr.. Chase and his friends,
apparently, that this world and this country
have no business to improve in condition or
! in development of industry. Obviously, if the
world does grow at all, it should cost less of
human labor to buy things now, and there
fore less of any money which fairly CORE
spends in buying power with human labor,
than it cost twenty years ago. LabOr-Saving
machinery has been vastly multiplied and I'M
proved. Enormous tracts of fertile land, pre-
viOuSly untouched, have been reduced to cul
tivation. Millions of slaves or serfs have
been emancipated, here or in Russia, and
have proved that the free man can pro-
duce at lower cost than the slave. Railroads
by the hundred thousand miles have been
! built, vastly reducing the cost Of moving pro-
ducts from the distant producer TO the con-
sumer. All these things have necessarily
changed prices very much The tendency of
them all-the tendency of all important and
enduring improvements in the condition Of
mankind-has been to lower prices in tins
country and to lessen the number of days
labor needed to procure a certain supply of
! wants. Are we to say that this change alone
does not warrant a decrease of 6 or per
cent in prices
But If prices are too low now. what sense
is there in robbing each other in order TO
make them higher? The theories of Mr..
Chase, reduced to their simplest terms, i'll
volve a great wrong to all consumers and to
all creditors in this country. They mean that
the workman shall have TO pay more for his
food and clothing, and shall lose part of the
value of his money deposited IN a savings
bank They mean that the great Improvement
in industry, which specie resumption has
| brought, shall be reversed, and that trade and
commerce shall be put back to the condition
Of uncertainty and stagnation which existed
so long, and flied the land with the cries
of the unemployed. natural and just ar
rangement of prices will come-has nearly
come already. we believe-through the ex-
change of goods and of gold between this aud
other counties. The specie comes. because