The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1892-09-30
PRODUCE AND SILVER.
Eugene BlOOdgOOd Beebe, Financial
Editor to the New York Sun on
Silver and Farm Products.
CHEAP SILVER MAKES CHEAP WHEAT.
The Farmers OF the United States Have
Lost Millions of Dollars by the
''Crime of 49,"

"That little tin god, Napoleon Nc
Kinley, now finds that the silver ques
tion, like BanquO, will not down, and he
must begin to regret that he conjured
up what he thought to be ghost aS
much as DR.. Faustus when he summon
ell Mephisto. Finding that the people Of
Ohio, with their strong horse sense,
will not stomach his tin tax of $14,.
100000 q year when hardly dollars
worth of tin is made in this country,
he now raises the howl of "dishonest
money" The little tin god on wheels
already has premonitions of his Water
loo, for the farmer is after him. Now
the farmers are no fools, and they
have the brains to comprehend the
currency question much better than
the masses Of the great cities, who
have little or no time for research.
The farmer knows why he has been
selling his wheat at rs cents a bushel
and his corn at 20 cents during the
past seventeen years, AID he firmly
believes there is money monopoly OF
gold trust, which is the power behind
the throne, and that the question OF
free silver is of far greater Importance
to the farm producer than the tariff
question, so that John Sherman, in
jumping from the tariff question to the
currency problem, has really jumped
from the frying pan into the fire.
lit is an undisputed fact that the
average price of cereals and cotton
from 1853 to 1851, with silver as a
standard of value and the money OF
the realm as well as gold, was higher
than after the outlawing OF silver in
1873. Take the wheat crop of MINI
esota for example. The average
wheat crop is about thirty-eight mil
lion bushels, and a loss of rs cents a
bushel by the decline of 25 cents pei
ounce in the price of silver, is ninety
five million dollars in ten years. The
average wheat crop for the past nine
years has been about four hundred
and fifty million bushels per year. Al
one dollar and ten cents per bushel,
which statistics prove its average
value would be with silver selling at
par with gold, its value is four hun.
dred and ninety-tive millions per year
Or nearly five billions in ten years.
Twenty-Five cents per bushel less
would be one hundred and twelve mil
lions per year, or over thousand mil
lions in ten years.
THE cotton planter in the south does
not find much comfort in selling cotton
at the lowest price of the century. and
he, too, has slight suspicion that he
is victim of the gold trust conspira-
tors who demonetized silver in 1873
and thus increased the purchasing
power of gold by making it the sole
standard and money of ultimate re-
demption of many billions of credits.
"Our average cotton crop for the
past six years has been about three
billion pounds per year. At 10 cents
pound, which tables show was the
average price of New York and Liver
pool from 1858 to 1878 Excluding the
high abnormal prices of cotton from
1860 to 1870, caused by the war; its
normal value would be with silver
selling at par with gold, $4,000, OOO,-
900 in ten years. A loss of 4 cents
per pound is $12O,OOO,OOO per year or
81 200, 900, 900 in ten years.
"Our average corn crop for the past
six years has been about l, 300, 900, 900
bushels, At so cents a bushel (Which
comparisons in the chief markets of
this country and the world prove to be
| about its normal value in the farmers
hands, when silver is selling at par
with gold,) its value would be $712,-
100000 year, $7,120.000,O 900 in ten
years. The loss to the farmer of Is
cents per bushel amounts to $267, OOO-,
900 per year or 5000, 100000 in ten
years.
1.-The average value of oats and
dairy products are now estimated at
about $8OO.000,000 per year, or 49,
900, 100000 in ten years. The same
comparisons as with corn prove that
these crops have declined Is per cent
for nearly every decline of 25 cents in
silver since it was demonetized in
1873. showing loss of $12O,0OO,O0 a
year, or l 200, 100000 in ten years on
these crops.
"It these figures are correct, and
they are pronounced accurate by some
of the most expert students of finance
in this country, the farmer certainly
has a grievance which he will not
easily condone No wonder that he
retaliates on the money monopolists
and gold trust who confiscate his prop
erty, and that he seeks revenge in
granger Legislation and the cutting of
rail rates. The farmer has learned to
look upon John Sherman as the high
priest of the golden calf, and no won
der the feeling is so bitter against him
in Ohio that the republicans are i'm
ploring Mr.. Blaine to come to them TO
win back the farmer by his native elo-
quence on reciprocity.
"The howl Of the Shermanites and
McKinleyites (who have deluged the