Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1894-07-26

be given for an increase Of our currency.
When the farmer is contented, happy,
and thriving, the era of prosperity Is at
hand. The farmer cannot flourish with
out contributing to the success of all
others.
The city cannot flourish without con-
tributing to the welfare of the farmer.
In this community we are all mutually de-
pendent. If all we're farmers, civilization
could not advance with the rapid strides
which have marked the last century. All
are valuable members of society when en-
gagged in any honorable avocation.
Probably there will always be drones
should be to make human effort SO remu-
nerative that no man could furnish an eI-
cuse for belonging to either class.
Civilization will never reach its highest
stage until every family owns home or
the means of procuring one.
But we are told that we do not need
any more money; that owing to Increased
banking facilities, 90 per cent. of the bust
ness of to-day is done with checks and
substitutes for money. Can any man In
this audience name any device that mas
come into use a. a substitute for money
within the past twenty years? If we nave
no new facilities for doing business, is the
demand for money the same it was 20
years agoS Have our increase in popula-
ton, the increase in business, due to in
vention, made no demands for an increase
in the money supply? Can the business
of 20 millions be conducted safely upon
the money supply needed by 40 millionsf
Do not new inventions, new discoveries,
new occupations, require an increase OF
the money supply? Have not the electri-
cal inventions of the past 20 years almost
doubled the demand for money! More
than S80O,0OO.000 are to-day employed in
electrical pursuits. Yet electricity, as
servant of man, is in its infancy.
If there is such an abundant supply of
money, why coin any more goldf Why
are national banks urging Congress to
grant them permission to issue 10 per
cent. more of currency upon their bonds
depositedY Why this strained effort on
the part of our government to save the
gold reserve? Do the occurrences of the
day Justify the claim that We have money
enoughf
The piling up of money in New York
banks is no more evidence of an abun-
dance of money, than the piling up of
wheat in the elevators when grain Dam
blers have it cornered is evidence Of an
abundance of wheat. Money is pilinS up
in New York banks because those who
own it dare not risk it in any business en-
terprise, and they are holding it for the
day when the present administration SHALL
make a new issue of interest bearing
bonds. When conditions are such al to
Justify confidence that money let out will
get back, its owners will cease to hoard 1t.
IL is not so much anxiety as to the chafac-
ter of money that deters capitalists ftom
making Investments, as it is the fear that
no kind of money will return from in
vestments.
What is our condition when the supply
of money is only per cent of the bust
ness needs, if the creditor class takes
notion to collect outstanding obligations,
and check credit operations temporarily
Every man who is in debt is Obliged to
sell what he has at any sacrifice and pay
his debts, or fail. The consequence is
that all prices are depressed, and men
who one day consider themselves in good
financial condition discover in a short
time that they are bankrupt.
January l, 1894, there were 42,417 miles
of railroad in the hands of receivers, and
the funded debt of these lines was more
than one billion dollars. In addition to
their funded debt, there we're hundreds Of
millions of dollars in the shape of de-
faulted interest, floating debt, and receiv-
ers' certificates. If you will deduct from
the amount of currency in circulation,
according to the most liberal estimate, the
amount of money which the banks are
required to hold as reserve, then there
is not money enough left in the United
States to pay the debts of these lines that
are in the hands of receivers.
Giffen, one of the ablest advocates of
bimetallism, admits that at present 1.-THE
demand for gold for nonmonetary pur-
poses appears almost equal to the entire
annual production"
If this be true, without the free coinage
of silver, where is the money to come from
with which to pay the debts of this nation.
The farm and city mortgage indebted
ness of the United States is four times the
total amount of money in circulation in
the United States. These debts have to
be paid or the mortgaged property must
change hands. How are the farmers to
nav the debts on their homes IL these fall
ing prices continueY In 1884, the wheat
crop of the United States was 1888 million
bushels. 1t brought the producers $685.
100000. In 1892, the wheat crop was 5l5
million bushels, and brought $322,OOO,-
OOO-132 million bushels more, realizing
1874, 0O0, 900 less.
There is another feature of this ques-
ton of falling prices that does not usually
receive proper attention. Whatever we
buy from foreign countries we pay for IN
our own products. In the last 20 years
there have only been three years during
which the United States imported more
than it exported. We have, therefore, got
beyond the period when 1t is matter OF
any importance whether foreign coun'
tries use the same money metal that we
do or not. Whatever may be the material
of which our money is composed, We Will
not be required to use one dollar OF 1t to
buy anything we may purchase from for
eign nations. Moreover, there is not 9
foreign country that has the gold stand
ard that produces a single article which
nature has denied to this country. Every
nation on the face of the globe which pro
duces a single article we cannot produce
has the silver standard.
in 1892 we exported 1901, 100000 worth
more of goods than We imported. Does
it occur to you that it made any diner
enoe to the foreign nations which tool
-hathar had n nOld