Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-04
CHECK TO OvER.PRODUCTiON.
The Collapse Of the Free Coinage Crazc-
Failure OF Legislation to Mako or Un-
mako vaiues - Matthew MarshalPs


as follows:
The diaronis which made last Monday
of the future of silver has been confirmed by
events. SO fur, ut least. as relate to the &C.
tion of the present Congress. The attempt
to retrieve the defeat Of the free colnage
bill in the House of Representatives has
been abandoned, and q canvass of the
Senate indicqtes that the measure will fail
there, too, whenever 1t is brought to a vote.
What the people supposed to be most i'm
rnediately interested in it think OF its pros
poets is shown by the news which came on
Saturday from Colorado. that number OF
silver mines which have been worked hith-
erto ut a loss in the expectation that a free
coinage act would be passed, have been
shut down, and that large quantity OF in
got silver, which had been held back in the
same expectation, will now be offered for
sale
Many advocates of free silver coinage as
sert that its adoption by this country alone
would restore silver to its former relative
would be sure to do so II, the other civilized
nations would join with us in adopting it.
Undoubtedly. if the whole commercial
world SHOULD accept u. l6. 20 or any other other
of one ounce OF gold, that would be sufficient
to establish the ratio. All values are fixed
by common consent, and the current prices
OF the market merely record that consent as
ascertained by actual transactions.
The Failure of Law to Make Values.
1t is surprising that faith in the power of
legislation to control the relative values of
the face of the repeated failures OF attempts
to regulate thus the values of other COM
modities. Not long ago wealthy and power
tul combination of European capitalists set
about buying all the copper III the world
and selling it again at higher price. For
time tsX std eeS ana SoPpeG so a
its production and diminish its consumption.
until it accumulated upon their hands to ar
amount beyond their ability to mold it. Then
came the inevitable reaction. and the COM
bination broke to pieces. The result would
have been the same If the operation had
been conducted by Government instead of
by private persons, though 1t might have
been longer in coming about.
That the fall in the value of silver as
measured in gold has been due to an in
creased production Of silver rs compared to
that of gold does not to my mind, admit OF
a reasonable doubt. Putting the proposition
in q reversed form and saying chat the sup
ply of gold has been diminishing while that
invalidate its truth. The fact remains that,
Whereas Is years ago one ounce of gold
would buy only 10 or 16 ounces of silver, 1t
will now buy "a ounces, and the cotem-
poraneous fact, that the annual production
of silver has increased from about leo, 0C0, coo
ounces to 10000 coo ounces while that of
gold has remained stationary. may reason
ably be accepted as the explanation Of it.
Our Government, by buying and storing sill
yer away to the extent of 81 o00,000 ounces
year, and to that extent diminishing the
supply, has hitherto kept the price Of 1t
above its natural level, but 1t has not sue
ceeded in preventing its decline altogether.
Must Submit to the Inevitable.
It follows from this that the exchange
able value of silver has to submit to the in
evitable, and that the sooner all efforts to
bolster It up by legislation or by any other
artificial interference are abandoned, and
the metal left to it's fate, the sooner Will 1t
cease to be q disturbing factor in finance.
The cotton planters OF the South are suffer-
ing this year equally with the silver miners
from overproduction. The statisticians at
Washington estimate that the crop is 2,00O,-
900 bales larger than the world demands ana
the price OF the staple in consequence de-
clined to the lowest point 1t has touched ior
long time Very properly. the planters, IN,
for their relief, propose to help themselves:
Next year, they say, those who cannot anord
to raise cotton at its present price will raise
something else Those who have raised
it by the aid of fertilizers will dispense with
fertilizers, and only those will try for a full
crop who are so favorably situated that they
the Diminished price will somewhat increase
consumption and create market for por-
tion which would otherwise be useless and
tions backward and forward, the supply Of
cotton will adjust itself to the demand and
the demand to the supply; and the tempor-
airy over, production will disappear
hood of a point of stability goes on.
unless it is interfered with, all the
while in every department of human
industry. When houses are wanted
rents arise and that stimulates the
building of more houses to meet the demand
When, Oh the other hand, houses stand
empty because there are not enough tenants
to fill them the building of them ceases until
the population grows up to them.
Production Cut Down by Many.
The iron masters of the country, when
thcy find that their production has for the
moment outrur consumption, shut down all
the furnaces that cannot be operated profit
ably and wait for better times before start
ing them up again. How closely tradesmen
who deal in milk, butter, eggs, groceries and
other articles OF daily and general use learn
to regulate their purchases by the demands
of their customers has often been made
subject of remark by writers upon political
economy, and very Justly. That a great city
like New York, for instance, should daily get
Just so much rs it needs, and no more. of
food, drink and fuel, without waste and
without scarcity is indeed marvellous il
lustration of the perfection with which hu-
man beings learn to adapt themselves to cir
cumstances. We scarcely ever think OF 1t
of circumstances, like the riots of 1858 or the
blizzard of 1885, the machinery is deranged
and our comfort interfered with.
In this process of adjustment of supply to
demand, and of the natural cure OF over
production by looping off the least profit
able part of it until residue eq uals consump-
ton, silver miners must suffer like the rest
OF the world. There are always some pro
ducers who get caught on the turn and have
to pay FOR their want of skill in forecasting
the future. Nota year has passed in my
business life that I have not heard com
plants from one more of my friends OF
dull trade and q want of sufficient demand
for their goods to make meal for all OF
them It is impossible that 1t should be
otherwise
Some People Bound to Got Stuck.
Even in the case of the necessities of life,
which have mentioned as an example of
the most perfect working Of the natural law
on the subject, some dealers every day get
"stuck" more or less with unsold goods, and
have to give them away or let them spoil on
their hands. and when it comes to COM
modities, the demand for which, as, for
instance, that for clothing, is governed by
fashion or by the weather, or like
that for wines and cigars by the
pecuniary condition of their purchasers, the
peril OF such mishaps Is greater am told
that this year the sales OF costly pictures
are very much less than they we're before
the Barring collapse Of year before last, and
it is attributed to the decline in the number
of new fortunes, the possession of which is
a potent stimulus to the acquisition of works
of art. The complaint of these fluctuations
is as silly as the complaint that the weather of
one year is not exactly like that of
another year, or that the temperature and |
the sunshine or rain of every day or every
month do not correspond to those of the |
day and month of the year |