The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1893-06-21
What The Sherman Law Costs.

The. country would be better off il ev.
cry ounce OF silver bought under the
Sherman law had been thrown into the
Atlantic, instead of being stored, with
notes issued against it.
About one hundred and thirty million
dollars has been paid for bullion during
the period the law has been in operation
nearly three years-but the consequent
depreciation in the value of securities,
property and products runs into thous-
ands of millions.
We show by figures printed on another
page this morning that the shrinkage in
value OF securities listed OH the New York
Stock Exchange alone during the past
twelve months is more than five times as
much as the total cost of all the silver
bought under the operations of this crazy
law.
AS the Stock Exchange does not keep
any statistics and is ignorant of the
amount of securities on its own lists, men,
beers of that institution may be surprised
to learn from the Herald this morning
that the issues of railway and miscellan-
eous stocks and bonds in which they
trade aggregate in par value more than
seven billions Of dollars, This does not
include State, county and city bonds nor
the vast mass of unlisted" securities.
When one reflects upon the immense
quantity of other securities that are listed
upon the Boston and Philadelphia and
Chicago exchanges and the enormous in
vestments in street car lines, manufacture
ing establishments and local enterprises
of thousand and one varieties all over
the country which have suffered a cor
responding depreciation, the losses en-
tailed by the distrust, contraction and
depreciation resulting from the Sherman
law appears in stupendous proportions.
But this is not all The men who sue
ceeled in getting that measure upon the
statute book told their deluded constit-
uents in the West and South that the is
sue OF notes to buy the product OF their
mines would make money cheaper and
cotton and grain dearer. What is the
fact? As every one familiar with eco
nomic principles foresaw, the very re-
verse OF all this has come to pass. Luck
less farmers and other debtors in South
ern and estern communities find them
selves almost unable to borrow money on
any terms, while the value of their wheat
and other products has declined to the
lowest prices known for thirty years.
Wheat is twenty cents a bushel lower
than year ago, and this ON crop of five
hundred million bushels means loss of
hundred million dollars. Corn is ten
cents bushel lower, which on crop of
sixteen hundred million bushels means
loss of one hundred and sixty million
dollars The shrinkage in the values of
lands is even more striking, and this, of
course, aside from the collapse of fictitI
GUS prices of lots in mushroom "bOom"
towns. The suspension OF banks and the
failure of business houses throughout the
West are all part of the same story, and
communities which expected the Sher-
man law to make dollars plentiful as
blackberries are frantically trying to
stave off disaster with the aid of cur
rency which is being sent to them from
this centre at the rate OF million dollars
a day.
1t is a sad, humiliating and frlghtfully
expensive lesson that the country is TAX
ing, but there is comfort in the belief
that II is as thoroughly learned in the
South as well as in the West. 1t is graf
flying to hear from South Carolina, for
instance, that the Charleston Chamber OF
Commerce has not only unanimously lie
clared in favor OF the repeal Of the Sher-
man law, but is urging the Mayors and
commercial bodies of cities and towns
throughout the State to hold meetings
and take similar action. The fruits OF
this insane law are so bitterin the mouths
of those who heretofore foolishly favored
it that we may fairly hope for its speedy
and unconditional removal from the stat
ute book. Men who have until now
been blinded with the sophistries of the
silver kings are having their eyes opened
by their present personal expo rience, and
they must see that the only way out Of
the slough in which the country is plung-
oil Ia m ranaal tha Sherman law and ston
buying silver.-New York Herald.