Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1893-10-05
SILVER AND PRICES.

AS the Atlanta Journal says it,
is a common thing for the free silver
ties to claim that the decline in the
prices of farm products is due to
nnfavprable legislation in reference
to silver. This is their fayorite ar
gurlent for the farmers, though a
more specious one could hardly be
offered.
In the first place the assumption
that high prices are blessing is
contrary to reason and experience.
We in the South had prices high
enough during the latter days of the
confederacy, and it will hardly be
contended that we we're then happy.
and prosperous people.
1t would be very well for the
farmer if he could get high prices
for all be produces and buy all he
needs at low prices, but then that
would not be a favorable condition
for those who have to buy what the
farmer raises. At least ten persons
in this country consume wheat where
one raises it. The nigh price Of
wheat, therefore, hurts ten persons
where it helps one, And it is so with
other farm products.
But it is not true that the decline
of prices has injured the farmer
The decline has been general, and il
most of the things the farmer buys
it has been greater than in what he
sells. He gets less money, it is true,
for his crops now than he got
twenty years ago, but his crops will
buy more now than they would
then.
Silver legislation has had nothing
whatever to do With the case. Prices
began to decline long before the de-
montization Of silver in this country
in 1878, and for reasons in no way
connected with financial egisla-
| tion.
Mr.. Walker, Of Massachusetts,, put
the subject in a very clear light in a
speech on the Tepta al Of the Sherman
act which he delivered in the house
of representatives a few weeks ago.
| He said:
"Why should not farm products
In the production of which machin
cry has masle each days labor twice
as efficient as formerly, producing
two bushels or pounds where it pro
duced one before, go down in gold
prices as we'll as the products of th'
shop and factory? The labor in farm
| products, because of machinery, il
reduced one half. Take set screws
one half inch wide, two inches long
for illustration. They cost $40 pc
hundred in 1870; they now cos
l$1.2O.
] A few years ago the same set o
screws were made in a lathe and cos
i $4,000 per hundred. Take nut
/ that were formerly made in black
! smith shops and are now made b
ingeniously constructed machines
1 It would cost to make the two inc,
square nut $1,000 per hundre
pounds; made by machinery they &c!
for $2.90. One inch square nut
made by hand would cost 500 pc
one hundred poands; they now Sc
at 1870 a hundred pounds. One
| half inch square nuts, hand-mad
would cost $50 per hundred pound
machine made, they now sell fe
II $3.50 per 100 pounds. Do the adve
Gates of free coinage claeim that th
act Of 1878 caused the price of tt
farmers pillow to go on down frol
$3.50 in 1878 to $2.75 in 1890,
? gold to go up to that rate, the tw
horse plow from $13 in 1873 to s
, in 1890; moving machine fEom So
:, to $50. a reaper from $120 TO 81
: shovels from $1,000 per dozen
1873 to $3.50 in 1890, and SO G
through the whole list of supplies:
u This is clearly unanswerab lie. 3
l one who thinks for nome at WI
be deceived by the Plea that fir
> silver coinage would boom the pri'
of farm products, or anything els