The Russellville Democrat., 1890-02-27

was but sz57 l25.5a5, or at the rate of about ss2 000 06o n year instead of t520O00oo as given bj the Secrefary for tho whole period. Indeed, l proper allowances were made for loss of papei currency and loss of gold by people travelling abroad and in other ways, the actual increas, year, or less than per cent, while population increases at the rate Of 4per cent, and wealth and commerce much faster. Hence we hnve steady fall in the range Of prices from 1882 fs 1889, which still continues and will continue a, long as the money volume continues to con tract. From the abovt statement of facts Il appears misleading to compare the money vol ume of 1878 with that of 1889, and calculate ar even rate of increase for the whole period
 Ttis not contended that prices do not yary from other causes than variations in the vol ume Of money. Improved methods of produc tion multiplying commodities of various kinds produce changes In prices, and prices of giver commodities are constantly varying one with another, under the law Of supply and demand But there has been little change in fifteen years in the cost Of producing the great staples giyef in the above table Have landed properties SC increased, as compared with population, us te cause fall of one third in value since l873s Or is there less need for houses now than them The farmers acres have not grown smaller, but they will not sell for as much. No, prices oi single things may and do vary from many causes, but the general range of prices, the value of all things, change only with a change in the measure. There Is no other explanation. The measure has been changed. It has been changed from both gold and silver. supple mented by large issues of paper, to gold alone. It has been changed from Q volume of both metals and the annual supply of both to gold and the annual supply of gold only. which, as we shall see further on, Is very little more thnn required for the arts. Here Is csrd cousa, and 1t were idle to look for any other.
 n is quite true that, when money volume is lowest, idle money will accumulate in money cepters. with the appearance of plethora of money, and interest on good securities range very low. This has been the case in late years. The explanation, however, is not difflcuit The abundance or scarcity of money is not measured by the rate Of interest at which 1t can be bor- rowed on good security, but by the commodities required to purchase money. Money volume, prices profits and interest always bear certain relations to one another as cause and effect. The relations may be stated as follows:
 Shrinking volume of money-falling prices and uncertain profits, investments unsafe, in. terost low, idle money accumuates
 Stable money-prices stable except varia- tions under the law of supply and demand), profits fair and reasonably certain, investments safe, interest steady sharing in regular profits.
 There never is q time when there is not de
 
 The wealth of the world always stands as oS. fered against money. But demand for money for investment, to be returned with interest, is another thing. The demand for money for that purpose depends upon the conditions above stated.
 NATIONAL DEBTS.
 While the prices have fallen below the level of 1851, debts have not diminished. Mir. Ney- marck gives national debts Of the principal na- tions for 1889 as s23 20 0000O0, with annual in terest Si ,060, ,o0000o No estimate of other kinds of indebtedness approximating correctness can be made, but 1t is within safe bounds to say that the aggregated indebtedness of nations amounts to a larger percentage Of the entire landed property of the civilized world, to pay which requires, on the average, half more labor--or one-half more Of the products Of labor than when tho debts were created or, as one writer states it, .the spoliation of one-third Of the assessable value of all other property for the benefit Of money"
 The interest-bearing debt Of the United States when at it's highest point in 1885 was g. .SSl, 80 238 It has been reduced to SS59 5i3 ora, but it will take more corn more cotton. more nails, more wool to pay the remaining debt than would have been sufficient to pay it all in 1865, at the currency prices then prevail ing. In other words, it would require now, of the products of farm and plantation, of loom and forge, as much to pay the remnant as it would to have paid the whole sum seventeen years ago, when the spolation began.
 This shows the bounty our unfortunate coin age legislation gave to the creditor class who hold securities payable in gold, and the load of debt, with decreased values to pay with, which Is the inheritance of the rest of the people.
 As debts have increased as a burden, so have taxes and the cost of government Absorbing larger and larger share of industrial earnings
 Such Is the result of the deeL-laid plot to gather the wealth of the world ir Q few hands
 If the intention had been to make debts per petual and to paralyze industry by an act of unparalleled and never-ending spoliation, no more sinister scheme could have been devised
 The change in the measure of values by the demonetization of silver came, however, in such an impenetrable disguise that few foresaw it's But there were those who did see 1t and who predicted with unerring accu- racy the consequences that would flow from it. Among these were Wolowski, Laveieye and Disrael, whose predictions have been often quoted. A few in this country, also early saw and protested against the wrong of demoneti- zation. How long this great wrong shall go un- lighted let the people say.
 THE FALL IN THE PRICE OF SILVER.
 Thus far we have referred only to the fall of prices and the rise Of gold, which is really but the statement of one and the same economic fact. The fall in the price of silver, as ex- pressed in gold, is also but another statement of the same thing. Gold has risen with refer ence to silver and commodities. Silver and have fallen with reference to gold But on comparing silver with commodities we see that there has been no marked separation between them. Uncoined silver will buy as much food and more of merchandise now than in 1873. Gold will buy far more than them. An of any table of prices will show bat ftrs.fx al .x.f along at about the level of silver bullion. The relation Of wheat, cotton and other products of India remain substantially at the same level at which they stood before silver demonetization Silver, therefore, notwithstanding it's demonet zation by Western nations, has proved the nore stable of the two metals and the steadiest measure of the value of commodities.
 THE PURCHASE OF se,00o0o0 WORTH OF SILVER
 4 MONTH
 We hear constantly that the purchase of s2- OO0oO worth of silver month has not main aimed the price of silver, and often the claim is made that it has had no effect in maintaining he price Of silver. IL Is quite true that the purchase Of S2 900 600 of silver month has not Iept the prices up to the advancing level of gold, ut who will contend that the purchase of s350,- oo,o0o Of silver since 1878 has not operated to prevent further fallf Who shall say that had he maximum of s4,000,o0O a month been pur-
 
 old at the ratio of 16 to1S
 Of the production of 1888 the United States ook for coinage s32, 300, 900 India took sS5o00, co, other countries si500o,o0o. Did not the by the United States have the anne effect on the price of silver as the con umption of a like amount by India or any other ountryf And if the United States had not oined s32 0O0,0oo would the price have re- nained at the same levelf On the other hand, uppose the United States had coined S8i, ,OO0,. co instead Of S32 0000oO is it not clear that less you'd have been left for other countries and hat the price would have risen under the in. reased demands Is 1t not clear enough that he purchase of M.0O00D0 a month could not ong go on, production remaining as now, with ut carrying silver to par with goldf
 The St Louis convention has asked that this apartment, which the present law authorizes e tried An addition Of s5f, ,oOo000 to our mon } volume this year will no. be enough to nll he void caused by the cancellation Of bank otes and supply the needs Of an increasing population, and nothing short of this will stay be downward tendency of prices.
 THE FREE COINAGE or SILVER.
 The average advocate of gold monometallism ! hrinks in terror at Inc suggestion of restoring l rec coinage to silver and cries "cheap moneyi'' | eightycent dollars,' and declares that he | nows it will immediately expei gold and bring | n dire calamities This is what MT. Cleveland predicted in 1884 | ould take place if the coinage Of e2eScoo0