People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1893-06-23
Light for a Savannah GOldbug.

Atlanta Constitution.
In addressing ourselves seriously
to the merchants and business men of
Georgia we took occasion to set forth
the disadvantages under which the
farmers Of the South were placed by
the demonstration of silver. We
called attention to the fact that the
decentralization of silver here, com
PEELED the cotton producers and
wheat-growers of this country to pay
a bounty to the Indian farmers equal
to the difference between the coinage
value of the rupee in India and the
market price of silver here. We set
the facts specifically, and they have
drawn this comment from The Su-
vu1nab N6lc8, to which we invite the
attention of our readers:
Perhaps the reason business men are
not aroused by The Constitutions state
ments in respect to silver is that they are
not yet satisfied that those statements are
altogether correct particularly those re-
latIng to the Indian rupee. 1t must seem
strange to them that the Indian mer-
chants, who are about the sharpe5t traders
in the world, do not buy silver at its
present low price, have it coined into Tu
PEGS, which, The Constitution says, have
not deprecated, and thus grow enorm-
ously rich,
From the best information we can OBJ
tain, and it is excellent, the face value Of
a rupee in our money is about As cents
70
to pay debts is between 80 and SO cents.
This is very different from The Constitu-
ton S statement. II we are wrong, The
Constitution will, of course, set US right
by presenting unQuestionable authority
for its statement. There is another state
ment of The Constitution that is worth
noticing. 1t is that English traders can
get 81 worth of Indian cotton for "a cents
worth of silver. Does The Constitution
mean cotton worth 81 in deprecated ru-
PEGS, or in gold ? The inference is that
1t means gold. If it does not mean that,
there is no point in its statement. But is
The Constitution sure that Ga cents in
silver will buy gold dollars worth of
cotton in India? Perhaps on second
thought, it will not be quite sure.
The truth Is, taking mo account the
grades and qualities Of the Indian pro-
duct the same prices are paid for Indian
cotton as for cotton grown in this coun-
try. The prices are made in Europe on a
gold basis. Silver cuts very little, if any,
figure in the transaction. The COnstitu-
ton says that " the South is paying
bounty to Indian producers. If that is
so, it can be shown to be so. It would
be interesting to have it shown,
We propose to make the fact SO
clear that The Savannah No2c8 will
not permit its excellent authority to
come from behind the scenes. The
first authority we shall quote is Daniel
Manning, Mr.. Cleveland's first Secre-
tary Of the Treasury, who, in his
second annual report, G886) made
this statement:
It is direct consequence of the none
tary dislocation that wheat of India,
which there fetched rupees per Quintal
fourteen years ago, and there fetches 3
rupees per Qulntal to-day, can be sold in
London for as little as the gold price Of 8
rupees to-day, fall Of 25 per cent, This
lowered price of wheat in London has
had to be met by lowered price Of wheat
IN India. The price OF our sur
plus wheat determines the price of the
whole wheat crop of the United States,
so that The monetary Gisl0cation has al
ready cost our farming population, who
number nearly one-half the total popu-
-lation Of the United States, an almost in.
computable sum, loss of millions upon
millions of dollars every year.
Monetary dislocation was Mr..
Manning's phrase for demonstration
of silver. The losses he deplored
have grown greater and greater as
the gold price of silver has fallen,
and the loss of our farmers in both
wheat and cotton has swelled into
billions of dollars.
In one of Beerbohm's trade list
issues of last year is to be found a
confirmation. Beerbohm is lately
dead, but any gram merchant of Sa-
vannah will tell Tie NeacS that he
was the accepted authority and sta
tistician of the British grain trade.
In the trade list referred to he said {:
The material decline in the price of
silver, and in the rupee exchange (in Lon
don) has naturally facilitated shipments
considerably. Indian wheat
can be sent to this country for about 2
shillings per quarter less than at this
time last year, leaving the Indian pro-
Queer the same net result.
The Savannah Neors will observe
that this is evidence not only of the
effect Of demonetizatlon on the Amer
lean farmer, but of the unchanged
value of the rupee. A decrease Of s
cents bushel in the price of wheat
in London, says Beerbohm, "leayes
the Indian producer the same net re-
salt" The result is precisely the
same with respect to cotton. Sir
Robert n. Fowler, NJ. P, the London
banker and ex-lord mayor of London,
is on record as boasting that " the
effect of the depreciation of silver
must finally be the ruin of the wheat
and cotton industries of America, ard
be the development of India as the
chief wheat and cotton exporter of
the world"
This is the reason, if our oontem-
porary will pardon the momentary