People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1893-07-07

favored years of the white metal.
The Englishman buys his silver in
the New York or London market at
SO cents per ounce. He sends it to
India and coins it into rupees at the
same ratio as of old, and with these
rupees he buys wheat and cotton.
which he ships to England and sells
for gold. He buys American silver
at going commercial prices, and uses
it in India at par. If his silver bull
lion costs him 81 per ounce, or $1.29,
his Indian wheat will cost him lust
so much more, and it follows that
the American product in the Euro
pean market will be Of an equally
greater value.
From the cold logic of this Situa-
tiOn there is and can be no escape for
the American wheat and cotton rails
er but in the restoration of silver.
The price of these staples will fiuctu-
ate more or less from year to year
with the varying crop conditions here
and elsewhere, but generally they are
doomed to the low and improbable
ranges of value which have charac-
terized recent years so long as silver
remains dethrOned from its ancient DO
SltiOn OF money metal, where, with
gold, it had fixed coinage value, and
so long as it is treated as a mere COM
modify, to be deprecated by specta-
tors for the enhancement of their
profits in such transactions as we
have described.
In one Of his annual reports, Secre-
tary Rusk, Of the agricultural depart.
ment, fully recognized this state of
affairs in the following words, which
were written at time when legisla-
tion had temporarily advanced the
price of silver:
The same cause has advanced the
price Of wheat in Russia and India.
and in the same degree reduced their
power of competition. English gold
was formerly exchanged for cheap
silver, and wheat purchased with the
cheaper metal was sold in Great Brit
ian for gold. Much of this advantage
is lost by the appreciation OF silver in
those countries.
The points which the Capital at
temptS to make against this propo-
SitiOn have no merit in them. In
1876, silver had but lately been de-
mOnetized. 1t had not then greatly
deprecated, and the movement of
wheat from India had not then been
developed. The great margin of
profit TO the EngliShman had but lust
begun to appear, and itreQuired years
in which to build railroads and'estab.
liSh conditions for extensive corpor.
atiOns. In 1890, when wheat sold al
Sl.OS, silver was Sl.2l per ounce. 1t
was this temporary rise in silver, pro.
duced by the passage of the Sherman
bill, and to which Secretary Rusk in
the words quoted above re
ferred, that put wheat up to sl.OS, a,
the Capital states, and at the same
time cotton stood at 12i cents pei
pound.
With the decline in silver, wheat
and cotton also declined, until, al
the end of the year, silver stood at
Sl.O5, wheat at Sc cents and cotton al
9t cents. Nothing could more dis
tinctly illustrate the truth of what
we have been stating about the asso
clated movements of silver, wheat
and cotton than the sympatheti,
fluctuations of these three article!
during the year 1890, to which tht
Capital refers.
In 1861, when for a brief time whear
sold so low, everything was in a panic
caused by the breaking out of tn,
war, but prices speedily arose to high
er figures. Greater freight rates t
the seabOard also reduced western
values then. In 1852, it is true
wheat was low. So was everythins
else. Those persons whose memory
extends back to that and precedin.
years will remember the hard condi
tlOnS that everywhere prevailed. Fo
years the products of the mines of th,
earth had been declining, and tn,
volume of the metallic money of tn,
growing world had become totally in
adequate. Prices everywhere haC
fallen and the times eyerywher,
were hard. But when the effect O
the vast OutpOuring from the mine.
OF California and Australia was real
lied prices advanced and a re
newed prosperity blessed the world
The enormous production of whear
which the Capital speaks of, result.
from the stimulus which demonetiz
alton has given to wheat and cottor
growing in India and other silver-us
ing countries, and the inducement.
that exist for impOrtations from
those countries, because of the silveI
situation. 1t is almost certain thai
if silver bullion cost ST. as it diC