Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-10-24

But it may be contended that the
farmers can sell their produts while
on deposit and receive the benefits of
the high prices which will temporarily
prevail on account of the imitation of
the currency. II the volume of the
currency were to be permanently in
creased so as to make prices perman-
emily high, there would be some force
in this suggestion, though even in that
case the price Of everything the far
mers were compelled to buy or use
would be increased in the same pro-
portion and they would gain nothing
substantial in the end. But the vol
ume Of the currency in circulation isl
not to be permanently increased in
this plan, for, as already stated, each
imitation must be almost Immediately
followed by corresponding contraction.
In view of this inevitable contraction
and consequent fall in prices, of course.
while the currency is inflated, the prices
are so high no actual consumer will
purchase storage products except IN
such small quantities as he is COM
PEELED to use from time to time. The
regular legitimate market which the
farmer has heretofore enjoyed will BIZ
in . great majority of cases destroyed,
and the trade will necessarily fall
principally into the hand of combina-
tions, syndicates of spectators who
are able by reason of their large capl-
tai to monopoltze the stored products
and keep the prices up for their own
exclusive benefit after they have pur-
chased from the farmers. The farmers
cannot combine to keep the prices up
because in the first place they are too
widely scattered to act in concert and
in the second place they are not in the
pecuniary condition to carry their
products beyond the end of the year
when they must be redeemed from the
warehouses or sold at auction by the
government.
/ presume no one will seriously con-
tend that the prices can be increased
by initiating the currency at home.
During the war, the prices were very
high in every case and it was high not
because we had abundant and depreci-
ated currency, but because our crops
could not reach the European markets.
The law Of supply and demand" reg
Iulated the price then and it Will con.
/ lime n II hereafter. No
matter how large the volume Of
circulation may be at particular times
in this country, as long as the world
produces sufficient supply and the
markets Of the world are open to 1t,
the natural laws Of trade will regulate
its price and no artificial arrangements
here will effect it except to the extent
of the demand for home consumption.
This home demand may be destroyed
altogether by such periodical mutations
and contractions of the currency as will
make the business of manufacturing
too hazardous to be carried on and in
that event, unless production is greatly
diminished, the foreign market would
be over supplied and the prices would
fall even below what they now are.
have thus given you as briefly as
the nature of thesubject would permit,
some OF the reasons why 1 think the
proposed plan for the relief of the
farmers would be injurious instead Of
beneficial not only to them, but to all
the other people Of the country. But
it would be uncandid not to say dis
tinctly before closing this communi-
cation that even If it could be conclus-
lively shown that this or any other
similar scheme would be peculiarly
beneficial to any particular class of our
people, I would still be unalterably
opposed to its adoption, because in my
opinlon it would be but another wide
and dangerous departure from the
principles upon which our political in
situations are founded. 1t would be,
in effect, the longest step yet taken in
time Of peace toward consolidation Of
power in the hands of the federal gov
ernment and the subsection of the
private affairs of the people to the SUI
pervision and control of a central and
responsible authority.
You and 1 are democrats, and as
such we believe that the government
should scrupulously abstain from all
unnecessary interference with the per-
sonal ard domestic concerns of its citi-
zens and confne itself strictly to the
administration OF purely public affairs.
1t is cardinal principle of our politi.
cal faith that the people are best gov.
erned when they are least governed.
1 Sincerely yours,
I [sIGNED. ]. G. CARLIsL E.