The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1893-09-27
SENATOR DANIEL on PRICES.

comfort to the Populists in and out OF Vir'
| einia and has equally done harm TO the
Democratic party, cannot be doubted by
| any one who attends the meetings Of the
! Third party or reads their organ In Vir'
ginia-
1t is harsh criticism OF that distinguish
ed rhetorician. but the Chicago Tribune
| for September 10th contains an editorial
article on Senator Daniels speech In the
| Senate on the repeal bill which common
ces thus:
| Senator Daniel Of Virginia talked for
| four long hours day before yesterday
! against the passage of the repeal Dill.
| His speech was the worst mixture OF
MISREPRESENTATION and defective reasoning
| that has been heard yet on the floor OF
| the Senate, though many ignoramuses
| have spoken there"
Recalling the proper stand Of the Demo-
| cauc party on financial questions, when
in the brave days of old 1t stood for
| sound money against all corners, had we
heard the senior Democratic Senator
from Virginia, from his place in the
Senate. deliver his speeious argument
for rotten finance we would rather have
described his part in the debate In Mil
toms words-who said of Belial-
ION tn other side uprose
Belial in act more graceful and humane;
A fairer person lost not Heaven: he
seemed
For dignity composed and high exploit:
Though his tongue
Dropped mama, and could make the
worse appear
The better reason, to perplex and dash
Maturest counsels."
We shall not aim at reviewing all of
Senator Daniels speech, but we shall ex-
pose some Of the many faIlacies that his
speech contains. according to our view Of
II.
Senator Daniel said:
Mr. President, 1t is my purpose now
to demonstrate, as / confidently believe /
can, that the worldwide monetary convul-
sion which confronts us is due TO three
principal causations whatever may De its
phenomenal or provoking incidents-that
is;
First. To the enormous increase Of
debts:
cedented fall Of prices for over quarter
Of a century:
Third. TO the contemporaneous destruc-
ton OF the bimetalic base of credit at
the dictation Of European kings"
He then adds:
"Mulhall, the great English statistcan
and commercial expert, writing in 1885,
said, 1t may be said four pounds now
will buy as much as six pounds in 1866, the
fall of prices being about thirty per cent,
but as regards the United States in par
ticular we find a fan OF forty-six per
cent.-namely, from 40 to 81, which is
greater than has occurred In any other
country"
Now, TO us, this is the very strangest
doctrine that we have ever known to be
preached. We have always regarded It
as an elementary proposition IN political
economy that people is unhappy and
unfortunate just as it has to pay high
prices for what it buys, and happy and
fortunate just as it is able to buy what II
needs at low prices. In other words, high
prices mean the spread of wretchedness
and misery; low prices mean content and
ease to the masses. We therefore think
that the happiness Of the human race is
increased just as prices fall, and that
misery increases just as the prices rise.
Let us take wheat for example. 1t is
true that those who raise wheat want 10
see the price Of It high. but ten persons,
perhaps, in the United States have 10
eat wheat where one raises 1t. Is it for
the good Of the greatest number that the
price of wheat should be high? And even
the raiser OF wheat, while wanting wheat
to be high, wants all other things that
he has TO use 10 be low. He cannot rea-
sonably expect 20 keep his article up to
an abnormal price when everything else
is coming down in price. The economic
law of the case requires an equitable uni
formity in prices. If one article. like
wheat for instance. kept up TO an alb
normal figure when the prices Of all other
articles were falling under the influence
Of the law OF demand and supply, and the
modern methods Of production. all per
sons would cease producing other arti-
cles and all would produce wheat which
would, Of course, at once pull its price
down.
Ia the debate on the repeal bill in
the House OF Representatives. Mr.. Wal
ker, Of Massachusetts,, made most
sensible speech. from which we make
the following extracts:
"Why should not farm products I'm
the production OF which machinery has
made each days labor twice as efficient
as formerly. producing two bushels or
pounds when Il produced one before. go
down in gold prices as well as the pro-
ducts Of the shop and factory? The labor
In farm products. because of machinery,
Is reduced one half. Take set screws,
one half inch wide, two inches long. for
Illustration. They cost $40 per hun
drcd In 1910; they now cost 1920 A fec
years the same set screws were made
In lathe and cost 5000 per hundred.
Take nuts that were formerly made
In blacksmith shops and are now made
by ingeni0uSly constructed machines II
would cost 10 make the two inch square
nut $1,000 per hundred pounds: made bv
machinery they sell for $3.50 one
inch square nuts made by hand Womb
cost $50 per 100 pounds; they now soil
at $40 q hundred pounds. One half
inch square nuts, handmade. would cost
so per hundred pounds machine nnade
they now sell for $50 per 100 pounds
Do the advocates Of free coinage claim
that the act OF 1873 caused the price OF
the farmers pillow to 80 down from $3.50 in
1878 10 s2.75 In 1880. or gold to 20 I'D TO
that rataf the tvo bor~~ sSe. 49,