Evening journal., 1894-05-09
Let us weep.

die.
Let us weep.
A DELUSlON, PERHAPS A SNARE.
We admit we cannot understand what
the sllverltes want. They flourish under
various disguises, as bimetallsts, double
standard advocates, free silver coinage
cranks and Populists In all of these
masks they are equally unintelligible and
incoherent
But, no matter in what styles they
prefer to enter the ring, we are COM
PEELED TO wrestle with them, catch as
catch can in all cases, with little hope
Of downing them except by exhaustion,
because we can rarely catch them.
At present the fallacy they affect Is
the double standard impossibility on the
argument that. If silver could be re-
stored to its former value, by an inter
national agreement, then land and wheat
would appreciate By that potent III"
they would overturn the worlds entire
commercial fabric.
The price Of silver has fallen with the
advance Of civilization. Like all other
commodities In common use, silver is
cheaper because given amount Of labor
will produce more silver than ever before,
as a given amount Of labor will produce
more iron and more steel.
Labor is the only safe unit for the
measure OF value; money is merely a
relative unit, a substitute; for often
money does not represent any intrinsic
value. The sllverites frequently commit
the error Of placing gold on moving
platform so as to claim that as it moves
away on their hypothetic slider-appre-
ciates In value-all other commodities
decline Ia value.
That is begging the question. Gold
is not on a sliding scale; it does not ap-
preolate Compared with labor, the
unit, IL has deprecated, like all other
commodities, because it buys less labor
now than ever before in the history of
the world.
Other commodities show the same
tendencies We take few illustrations
from an article by David w. Wells on
thi subject The most notable is that
Of aluminium, which in 1856 was 500 a
pound aud sells now for so cents, "Win
any one pretend" demands Mr. Wells.
"that change in the relative prices or
monetary uses of gold and silver have
had any influence in ocoasioning such
resultsl Yet the agencies which have
been operative in the case Of aluminium
differ only in degree and not in kind
from those which have occasioned de.
cline IN the prices Of great number Of
other commodities.
Copper tea kettles which sold in 1860
for 81 so, sell now for 70 cents; copper
has fallen from % cents in 1850 to o
cents pound in 1894
The four great commodities. the basic
products Of the worlds trade and com
meroe, iron, wheat, cotton and wool
have fallen in prices for similar reasons
less labor aud cheaper methods Of dis.
tribution. In 1873 pig iron sold for $50
ton as ,good a grade may be bought
now for Sl3 Wheat has declined con-
tinuously since 1885; It is cheaper now
than ever before. Wool has fallen less
IN price, but the number Of sheep in the
greatest wool producing country,
Australia, has increased 90 per cent.
Cotton, which in 1878 sold for 90 cents,
sells now for and 81 cents a pound.
Popular opinion" says Mr.. Wells,
especially among Southern producers In.
clines to attribute this great reduction in
price to monetary changes. or to some
thing that has happened in India, and to
overlook the fact that the supply Of cot
ton, for many years has tended to exceed
the worlds requirements" While In the
years Of 1890 and 1891, when the United
States alone produced eighteen million
bales, the worlds demand was for fifteen
million bales only.
These declines must be due to the
great reductions in the cost Of produc.
tion aud distribution. The redue-
tion In the cost Of the trans
portation Of wheat from Chicago.to New
York since 1870 has been about 90 cents
q bushel- With these facts well con.
sidered, no thoughtful man should have
any more difficulty in determining
whether the boat in which he sails
is moving or whether the trees and
houses on the shore are moving than in
determining that gold has not appre-
ciated. The optical illusion In the one
case is no greater than the financial de.
lusion in the other case.
A rise In the price Of silver cannot be
attained by International agreement
but even IL that were possible, the prices
of wheat aud land would not increase
at least not from that cause. That i.
the delusion Of a crank, II not a snare Of
the silver bullion seller.
Ebba Borjeson book Of local historl,
interest, describing life in aud around
Wilmington in the days of Penn.
I - -, NyfIr.Fr..s...