Evening journal., 1894-05-10
PRODUCTION ANo DISTRIBUTION.

PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION.
An examination Of the fluctuations Of
the price of wheat for twenty FIVE years
after the passage Of the corn law in En-.
gland furnishes an excellent proof that
the intrinsic value Of metals used in ex-
change do not govern the price Of wheat.
Those fluctuations were caused by many
other forces
In fact, the influence Of silver and
gold was not apparent after that from
that time on when free trade was es-
tabllshed In grain, the price began to
decline.
The decline was such decline as can
be charged directly TO improved methods
Of culture and cheaper methods Of distri-
button. 1t is a very pretty theory Of
the bimetallists, that, as the prices Of
silver and gold fuctuate so the prices Of
wheat fuctuate, but the facts do not
support such theory. In asserting
that theory the blmetallists begged the
question. They give no proof that the
price Of wheat has fallen simultaneously
and equally with the fall In the price Of
silver. They did not give that proof be-
cause the proof is the other way. They
beg the question in order to make their
argument for the enhancement Of the
price of silver on the hypothesis that
wheat will advance.
Between 1S4s and 1868. the supply Of
gold and silver trebled itself According
to that, II the theory Of the silverites
were correct, the price of wheat should
have risen beyond the history record.
But the official figures of the English
Government show that the average price
Of wheat has steadily declined since 1910,
and that the decline went on, notwith-
standing the discoveries Of silver and
gold, and the immense increase in
the supply of those metals during the
twenty years following
Now, II the trebling Of the supply of
the worlds metallic money during that
period did not have the effect Of increas-
ing the price OF wheat but, on the con-
trary, had the reverse effect, and de.
creased On II had any inhuence) the price
OF wheat, how can the blmetallists urge
against history and against all philo-
sophie Interpretation Of political economy
that such phenomenon can take place
now2
The price OF wheat is not governed by
the price OF any ether commodity, but
by the price OF labor and the cost Of
carriage 1t is absolutely useless to
bring any other element into the esti.
mate OF the price of wheat than those
which properly belong to it, when those
are sufficient to explain its fluctuations.
Silver has mo more to do with it than
copper.
The price OF wheat. like the price Of
potatoes or shoes, or anything of COM
merciRl exchange, is subject to the costs
OF production, and the cost Of bringing
II into the market. All the sophistrie'
one may advance as to the simultane-
GUS and equal changes In the prlc'
OF other things, silver bullion, money
or what not. eau make no differenc,
in this law, which is absolute There may
be temporary and local causes which
make other commodities influence the
price Of wheat, but these two great
elements, production and distribution
represent the cost Of wheat as they rep
resent the cost of hats or reapers ol
any thing else that men make and use.
The arguments and assertions Of bi
metalllsts, however interesting or con
fusing to the contrary, are more or lesl
nonsense, according to the ability anC
learning Of the men who propose them.