The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1894-11-21

q crop 1OUr nu0QreQ lnOuSauO Ddles
larger than any previously raised the
price rose to S 1-2 cents and continued
to rise until it reached u 1-2 cents,
which price it held with slight varia-
tons for the next ten years, III the
face of an increasing production that
doubled itself in 1859 and 1860. 1t Is
the causes that produced this rise and
sustained it for the next ten years: in
the face of an increasing volume, that
soon doubled itself, which l now pro-
pose to consider.
AS the crises with which I have SO
far dealt resulted, principally, from
changes in the paper circulation, |
have not hitherto alluded to the more
imperceptible influences ofthe volume
of the precious metals But as they
will hereafter become the most impor-
tant factors in guessing the price OF
cotton. l deem it necessary now to re
trace my steps, and consider their eff
feet upon prices.
Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations,
page 1913, says: From the high or
low money price Of goods in general,
or of corn in particular. we can infer
only that the mines which at that
time happened to supply the CONNER
cial world with gold and silver were
fertile or barren. That is, the output
from the mines governed the supply,
and the supply regulated the price.
Mr.. Jevons tells US that from 1879 to
1909 gold fell IS per cent. This de-
cline in its purchasing power was
caused by large augmentation OF its
volume, by an increased production
from the mines. But in 1905 Bona
parte invaded Spain and as the moth
er country was overrun, the Spanish
American colonies, from whence this
increase had been desired, began to
assert their independence. The con
sequent turmoil and unsafety of in
vestment banished capital from the
mining industry and the output being
diminished by one half, gold rose rap
idly in value.
Speaking of this dearth of the pre-
cious metals aggravated by the paper
contraction of 1919, R. II. Patterson in
his New Golden Age" volume 2,
page 211, says: Perhaps the most
impressive testimony to the strange
widespread distress which then lay
like a nightmare upon Europe, or in
deed upon the whole civilized world,
is that borne contcmporaneously by
the calm-minded philosophic historian
Sismondi, who wrote as follows in
1927, of what he justly called this
great European calamity a cry OF
distress is raised from all the manu-
featuring towns Of the Old World:
and all the fields of the New World
re-echo it. Everywhere commerce is
struck with the same languor; every
where it encounters the same difficult
ty of selling this period OF dis
tress went on, tightening merely for
passing moments, until suddenly in
1s4s, the apprehension OF Sismondi
was suddenly realized. All society
was shaken to it's foundations; gov
ernments were overthrown by a wild
impulse, a grasping after some better
order of things; and wars and revo!u-
tons rolled over Europe, from the
Baltic to the Adriatic, and from the
Bay Of Biscay to the Euxine. F"
It was of this epoch, 1S4S, that Mr..
Shepperson spoke in his interview
with the New York Tribune, repub-
hshed a few days ago in the News
and Courier, when he said: In Octo-
ber, 1S4S, underth influences ofpolltl-
cal disturbances on the continent, and
financial panic in England, the price
of middling upland cotton, in Liver
pool, was forced to 3-S pence. That
was the lowest quotation in the Liver
pool market until now, when the price
is down to 3-32 pence.
This low price in 1913, as we have
seen, was not due to overproduction,
for its volume had remained nearly
stationary for the ten preceding years
it took place. however, after forty
years dearth of the precious metals
which had reduced the price of COM
modities, cotton included, to nearly
one-third of their former value.
Professor W. s. Jevons, in his
Money and Mechanism of Exchange,
page 325 says: From 1909 to 1S49 it
[gold) rose again in the extraordinary
ratio of 100 to 245 or by 145 per cent,
doing what2-rendering government
annuities and all fixed payment ex-
tending over this period almost two
and a half times as valuable as they
were in 1909"
Cotton is now lower by 5-32 of a
penny than it was it 1S4S. Why is it
so low? From the same cause that re-
duced the price in 1S44S-a dearth of
the money metals. How was this
dearth occasioned? By discarding sill
yer from the mintS, and thus cutting
off ne-half, or over, of the natural
supply from the mines. Why was
this done2 To make the dollar unit
twice as valuable and to double the
value of all credits. How does this
double the value of the money unit2
1t reduces by one-half the metallic
basis of money and proportionately
controls it's volume, and as did the
contraction occasioned by the panics
of 1919 and 1887, reduces by one-half
the value ofall commodities.
Whom does this benefit2 All those
who live upon the labor of others-the
creditor and income classes. Those
who receive salaries and annuities,
and whose charges are fixed by law or
custom.
How does it benefit them? 1t ena-
bles them to command twice as much
labor and twice as much commodities
for the same money.
Whom does it injure2 AL debtors
and producers. How7 By doubling
the burdens of all debts, taxes and
fixed charges and diminishing by one
half their power to pay them-a condi-
ton Of affairs which all standard writ
ers agree does more injury to a coun-
try than war, famine or pestilence. Is
the low price ofcotton due to this state
of affairs The comparative shrink
age in the volume of money and con-
seauent depression Of the price of all
commodities affects cotton to a great