The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1893-06-17
Gold and Wheat.


! Gold and Wheat.
The combination which has been
operating to bull the price of gold,
says the St. Louis Republic, is meet
ing with success that is indicated
by the decline in wheat, in securi-
ties, in all values measured by gold
and by the contraction of credit on
the basis of final settlement in gold.
An increase in the price of gold
means q decrease in the price of
grains as we'll as all other specula
tive securities, if these commodities
are measured as they are now, in
gold.
It is. easy to see the connection
between the increase in the price of
gold and the decrease in the price
of other commodities incident to it.
It may not always be apparent in
the averages for single year, but
in a decade it forces itself on atten-
ton.
| With a famine in Europe the de-
mand for wheat may be so great as
to overcome the effect of the con-
traction of the money supply, but
as soon as this cause for high prices
is removed wheat falls at once to
the price fixed by contraction. Of
course there are many other causes
which enter into grain prices, but
in a period of ten years it can be
seen that as gold is forced up wheat
} is forced down. We can get at this
by comparing both gold and wheat
with silver since 1880, taking
the figures from the Statistical Alb
stract issued by the Treasury.
In 1880, when an ounce of gold
, could be bought for 1905 ounces of
silver (average annual price,, wheat
was worth 81 26 a bushel as the
, average for the year. In 1881 the
price of gold had been bulled to
1915 in silver, but wheat neverthe-
! less increased in price 5 cents a
bushel on the average for the year,
and it was not until the next year
that wheat showed as distinctly as
!: it had been showing it ever since
. 1873 that "bulling" gold is "bear-
ing" the prices of our agricultural
staples.
, In 1884 the price of an ounce OF
gold had increased from 1906 oun-
r ces of silver to 1857, while wheat
: had fallen to 81 II cents a bushel
The next year the gold manipula.
tors gave a sudden twist to the
markets and sent that metal up to
: 19.41 in silver-a gain of over an
, ounce in the price of gold in five
: years as measured by silver. In the
t same time wheat had fallen from
81 26 to 96 cents. With various
, fluctuations this increase in the
r price of gold has continued until
present, and with related fluctua-
, tons wheat has gone down as gold
5 has been forced up. In 1892 the
bushel of wheat had lost over sc
3 cents as compared with the price
> for 1880, while the ounce Of gold
had been bulled to price amount
) ing to over five ounces in silver more
than could be got for it in 1880.
!. 1t will be said that though wheat
e goes down as gold goes up, the ad-
8 vance of gold in recent years has
e been m ore rapid than the decline
!, in wheat. This is because extreme
J. pressure is being brought to bear
!. through Government policies here
J. and in Europe to increase the price
of gold, and that this pressure af-
f fects silver more than it does any
!. other article, though all are affected
f by it. Silver is first to show the
, success of the attempt to bull gold,
1 but everything else necessarily
!: shows it in a greater or less degree
! as the supply of the commodity in
3 question is greater or less than the
J demand.
In general way, the causes
which have governed prices in this
3 country since 1873 may be stated
> as supply and demand, the ef
: feet Of the protective tariff and
the movement to bull gold by de-
q m onetizing silver. The effect o.
!, the protective tariff is to increase
? the demand for gold, and thus tt
/ increase its price as measured bJ
j our wheat and other agricultural
! exports, and this effect is compile
t mented by the financial policy O
9 demonetizing silver and making
gold the sole money of final &C
t. count in settlements which call fol
e coin. This policy completes wha
e has been begun by the protective
d tariff in its effects on our agricul
tural exports, while on such com
modities as speculative securities i
is most marked at times when those
a who control the gold supply make
l. a sudden bull movement, as they
:. have been doing this year. Thi'
i contracts credit with great violence
8 and the result is the demonstration
# of the entire inadequacy Of the golt
e supply to resist the manipulation
J. which suddenly forces vast amounts