People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1893-07-07
SILVER AND WHEAT.
Farmers, Do You Want to Know why
Wheat has Beeu Low when the
CrOpis Short Everywhere
If SO, Read This.

III 30, ,Kead lhiS.
On Saturday, June 10, cash wheat
touched sixty-three cents on the Chi
cago board, the lowest point reached
since Chicago has been the grain
market. 1t has since recovered
slightly, but is now lowering close
about the sixty-fye cent mark, not
WlthStanding the unfavOrable croI
reports at home and abroad. The
Chicago Price Courant says: "There
Is nothing of the staple products OF
the earth so cheap as wheat today
Compare it with gold, with animal
products, with the market price OF
labor and the relative position OF
wheat is found to be abnormally low >
Below will be found an exhaustive
reason for this low price, given, not
by a POpuliSt, but by a Republican
This was published as an editorial in
the Kansas City Journal of June H.
Is from the pen of Col. Van Horn. one
OF the editors of that paper who is
not IN sympathy with the extreme
gOldbug ideas of that paper. but who
seems to have a pull" on the man
agement in some way by which he
occasionally gets in his work. The
article is as follows and every farmer
should read it carefully:
In late issue of the Topeka Can.
ital the following appeared:
''The Wichita Beacon laws the low
price Of wheat to the demOnetizatior
OF silver, but silver was even more
'dem0netized" in 1876 than it is to-
day, and wheat then sold in Chicago
as high as Sl.76t; and the lowest price
OF the year was Sl.0l!. or in 1889 OF
1890, when it sold for Sl.OS. We had
Tree silver coinage in 1861 when wheat
sold IN Chicago as low as fifty-ive
cents, and in 1852, when the average
price the year through was only fifty
five cents, the average price for spring
wheat that year being only 43! cents.
The trouble with wheat is not the
financial system, but the fact that in
spite of the low price 7O,OOO.OO0 bush.
els OF the last crop are still uncalled
. Tor by consumers. There is more
wheat produced than the people OF
the world demand for food; and it is
hardly suppOSable that their demand
would be larger if the price were
higher"
In this matter the Wichita BeacoT
is right, and the Capital wrong. II
is admitted by the highest author
tiles the world over that since silver
was demOnetized, gold has largely ad
yanced in value, as compared wit!
commodities generally, but there arr
special and particular reasons WHY
this has been so with respect t.
wheat and cotton, and why the de
monetizatiOn of silver has diSaStrously
affected and must continue to disas
trOuSly affect the values of these twt
great American staples. These rea
sons have been so often stated that ;
repetition of them would seem un
necessary. twill, however, be neces
Sary to restate them so long as tn,
facts continue to be denied.
1t is well known that both whea
and cotton are largely imported int,
Europe from India and other silver
using countries. The cost of sucl
importatiOnS from those countrie
largely determines the values of thes,
staples in England and on the CONT
nent, and the prices for American
wheat in those markets, and as th
value of our entire American crop i
mainly determined by the value O
our exported surplus, it follows tina
the cost of wheat and cotton from
India aud other silver-using coun
tries, laid down in Europe, deter
mines in general way, the pric
which every wheat-raiSer in the ives
tern states and every cottOn-plante
in the south receives for his product
Every business man will readily an
preciate the truth of these proposi
tiOnS.
Now, how does the price of silve
enter into the question? 1t is in thi
simple way. All impCrtationS from
silver-using countries are paid for il
silver. If silver costs 81. 30 an ounce
which was the old value in this coun
try before demOnetizatiOn. and it re
QuireS an ounce of silver to buy
bushel of wheat in India, it is plail
that the importation into Europ
from that country costs sl.29 pc
buShel plus the freight; but if tha
ounce of silver can be bought as a
present at 50 cents, it is equally plail
that the buShel of wheat in Europ
costs but 50 cents plus the freight
1t, therefore, plainly follows that tn
reduced cost of silver of say,46 cent
below its old par value is so much O
a reduction in the cost of India
wheat in the markets of Europe: an
against this reduced price the Amer
ican producer has to compete.
II the Capital, or anyone else, as
serts that the, deprecated silver buy