The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-02-28

the statistical society Of London as authority
taking 100 as his index number to indicate the
general range of prices from 1857 to 1887, finds
that In 1873 the index rose to III. and in 1878 fell
| to S. Then it rose to So Then fell again to II
| in 1884 and 81 in 1883
In his diagram OF prices based upon William
M Grosvenor's tables Of prices for 30 leading
commodities, taking 1850 at 100, Mr.. Stark
shows like results, only prices on this side, as
might be expected from the small volume OF
money and the boarding Of gold for resumption,
went somewhat lower in 1878 than indicated by
Mr.. Sauerbeck's tables for England, showing a
fall from 1873 to 1873 of "a per cent or rise OF
IS per cent. in the purchasing power of gold. In
1885 prices had fallen per cent. below the level
Of 1873 or 30 per cent. below the level Of 1880,
and at present are more than 80 per cent. be-
low the level of 1850, which means that gold has
increased in purchase power 80 per cent since
1850
ticies as given by the Bureau Of Statistics, TAX
ing 1860 at 100. are:
for lSoi S9
For 1850 l23
For 1873. NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. So
And for 1889 the range is at least 10 per cent
lower than for 1873
Tables published by the London Economist
show that si,70o in gold would buy as much Of
seventeen leading articles stated in 1850 as So 55
would in 1875 but that the same quantity could
be bought in 1885 with 81, SCI and even less would
be required now.
Tables given by the royal commission for 1888
show substantially the same results.
According to Mr.. Sauerbeck prices for 1888
are lower than for 100 years. and English wheat
as Mr.. Frewen points out Is a per cent. below
the average and lower than since 1851.
Mr. Frewen significantly asks if the world
with its thousands of millions of debt is going
back to the prices of the fifteenth century,
But the effect of silver decentralization on the
price of wheat and cotton is of special impor-
lance from the relation of these products to the
price of the same products in India. The
mints Of India being open to the free coinage
of silver, silver bullion is, of course, there sub
stantially at par with silver coin. The money
unit in India, the silver rupee, is equal TO about
2shillings English money, or little less than
so cents our money.
Discarding fractions in converting rupees into
sovereigns and counting the shillings at .
cents, we have the following equivalents in
prices in India and the United States, silver
bullion being at par with coin, at the india
ratio Of 10 tol.
Rupees $3.50.
10 Rupees=el - 500.
Assuming wheat to be worth in India 8 shil
Iings bushel. and freight to Liverpool to be
shilling, we have:
Wheat six Rupee-S.a.
Cost Of India wheat in Liverpool So
Rupees - 81.
A pound sterling therefore, with silver at par
with coin as above, would lay down in Liver
pool only five bushels Of India wheat. But
with silver bullion at its present price, pound
sterling will exchange for bullion enough to
make, say, Is rupees. Consequently the Liver
pool buyer can get six and one-half bushels of
India wheat for his sovereign by first exchang
g. .,r,
mints Of India, and unless he can get as many
bushels for the same amount Of gold in the
United States he will buy in India. Hence, to
the extent of India's ability to supply wheat
and cotton, every fall in silver is attended with
fall in wheat and cotton. On the other hand
with silver bullion at par with gold at our ratio,
wheat will rise to the former India rate of five
bushels to the pound sterling or in other words
be dollar wheat" here.
The loss to the wheat and cotton growers
from this cause since 1873 must be counted by
hundreds of millions and the loss TO the coun-
try on the wheat and cotton exported by tens
of millions annually. ION this head see valua-
BILE statistics by Ivan C. Nichels.l As on no
class has the loss from silver decentralization
fallen more heavily than on the cotton planter
and the wheat grower, SO no class would be
more directly more Immediately benefited
than this class and these industries.
The exports OF wheat and wheat -four from
the United States fell in value from &9s3 100
for the five years from 1878 to 1888 to 1894 0OO,
600 for the five years from 1883 to 1888, showing
q shrinkage in five years of Ss9, 100000.
1t Is common to say that only silver pro-
ducers agitate the restoration Of silvermetal
to its immemorial place. They need it less
than any other class Of producers. II the
farmers and planters will make estimates Of
what they have lost during the past seventeen
years through the decentralization Of silver
for the fall in price can be rightfully ascribed
to nothing else-they will see how much more
they have lost than the silver producers, and
how much more they will gain by its restoration
than the silver producers.
But their loss has not stopped. The India
Government, backed by Great Britain, has
stretched 1900 miles Of military railroads
through the wheat ami cotton lands Of India,
and 50 10000 acres have been brought under
the pillow.
England strikes with a double-edged sword
at both India and the United States. By her
gold standard and India's silver standard. she
is able to reverse natural law-to obtain
products from India cheaper than from the
United States-and thus force American work
ers, who feed, clothe and educate their chill
dren, into unequal competition with the wretch
es OF tkc Orient. Said Sir r. n Fowler, in an
argument at a meeting of the British and colo
ing bimetallic policy by England:
IF We continue this policy Q few years
longer we can ruin the wheat and cotton indus
try Of the United States and build up India as
the chief exporter OF those staples"
The burden of the testimony before the royal
English commission that sat for months on
the question Of the effect OF the recent changes
in the pr ecious metals, was that the continued
demonstration OF silver would be ruin to the
acriculturistS of the limited States
The condition of the great agricultural in
terests OF our country was characterized by the
president Of the National Farmers congress
two years ago in his address before that body
as most deplorable and il is even worse .o-iay
for prices OF the great staple products of Amer
lean farms have declined to a point which
leaves no increment of profit TO the producers
of the food and Of the raw material for the
clothing of all the people.
No wonder notices like the following I'LL the
public journals:
HARD TIMES FOR KENTUCKY FARMERS.
NIcHoLAsvHLE, KY, Jan. 20 1s90-lSpe-
cial THE farms and houses Of $50 persons
were sold by the sheriff to-day for taxes. Most
of them were bought in by the sheric for the
State.
Or as Western writer says:
Prices go lower and lower year by year and
the cry Of complaint from the great circle OF
producers is fast becoming wall Of despair"
Mortgages on the farms over all the old North
ern States have doubled. Thousands OF those
farms have gone to sale through foreclosures
OF mortgages. Hundreds Of others have been
abandoned because there was left no profit in
working them. This, too, has been going on
while the population has been increasing fifty
per cent.
This great interest, at .he base Of al our
National prosperity, has in all ages engaged
the solicitude of wise statesmen, and no coun-
try can long prosper when through neglect or
unwise legislation it is permitted to decay.
VOLUME OF MONEY.
The following table is given TO show the
change in the relations of money volume to
population using it for the years given:
Volume Of Money Population