The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-03-21

dence of any people.
How shall such prices be realized to
the producers in this country9
It has become a self-evident truism
that the volume of money controls the
general prices of commodities. Special
and temporary causes, such as unusual
fluctuations in demand and supply,
temporarily affect particular commOd,
tiles, but when those transient causes
disappear the general condition again
prevails. The vast combined stocks of
| cold and silver in the world, which are
the slow aggregations of many cen
turtles, no amounting to about 81, 500,
OOO 600. of which about one half is gold
and n half silver, have become the
| general measure Of values, and the
basis upon which all values and credits
rest. It is beyond question that the
| characterization of silver during recent
wears by various nations has so a
rowed the basis as to greatly reduce
prices.
By operations that are plainly ap-
parent, and which are set forth in the
preceding article, this result has par
ticularly accrued to cotton and wheat,
which have been affected by the com
petition of like products from silver
using countries; and by more subtle
! but not less sure methods, the effect
has been felt upon the general list of
commodities.
It has been proposed by some to fill
the void produced by the obliteration
of silver by huge additional issues of
paper money. Can prices be restored
and maintained by such means9 Let
us consider this question in its bearing
upon wheat and cotton.
It is true that if there should be vast
additional issues of paper money,
whether by the government or by
banks, such as existed during the late
civil war, prices of wheat. cotton and
| all commodities would sympathizo and
advance; but this process would O 0
| cease to operate on all articles that are
largely exported (and sympathetically
on other articles) for, as with wheat
| and cotton, there is always produced
more than the country can consume,
and a large surplus has to be disposed
of in foreign countries; and it is we'll
known that the price that a be OBJ
tanned for that surplus in foreign lands
is the main factor in determining the
price ut home, and the value of the
whole crop.
If, therefore, values here we're large
ly advanced through causes not com
mon to other nations, as by the great
expansion Of paper money, prices
abroad would not materially sympa-
thize with the advance in prices here;
the disparity in prices would cause the
foreign needs to be largely supplied
elsewhere, or partially met by the sub
stitution of other articles; and thus the
foreign market would be contracted,
and exports checked. This would react
upon and again reduce domestic values.
1t is, therefore, not through paper
money initiation that r~emunerative
I p14CSG COll No OSUdOL1HlON C6IIO 4oN
permanent, but it is alone through a
restoration of silver and the upholding
of it's value with gold throughout the
world.
The lower the price of silver bullion
the cheaper the price at which wheat
and cotton can be had in India and
other silver-using countries; and the
higher the price of silver bullion the
higher the cost of those commodities
in those countries, and the less disas-
trous their competition with American
wheat and cotton, and consequently
the higher the value of our productions.
Whatever, therefore, tends to sustain
the value of silver, also tends to sustain
the values of wheat and cotton, and
whatever tends to reduce the value of
silver also tends to a further deprecia-
ton Of wheat and cotton.
The practical operation of this cause
was forcibly stated by Secretary Rusk
in his report of 1890, which has been
quoted from in the preceding article.
While this is especially true of wheat
and cotton, it is also true of all com
modities. A reasonably liberal supply
of paper money issued by the govern
ment, or under government control, is
very important, but not a vast, unlim-
tied issue. Permanently remunerative
prices can only be secured to the pro
ducers of the country by an ample
stock of metallic money, and this stock
must continually increase in due pro
portionto meet the growing population
and commerce of the country.