The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1894-03-01

. .
best ultimate standard Of value.
(5). The price Of land, il we
take the country as whole, has i'm.
mensely increased in value. This
increase has not been less rapid dur
ing the past 90 years than during
the proceeding 90, as any farmer
or rent payer can testify.
(6). The rate of interest on mon.
ey-whether gold, silver, bank notes
or greenbacks-has greatly decreas.
ed during the past 20 years. THIS
would tend to show that there has
not been an appreciation in money
to cause the depreciation in price of
commodities.
(7). Since 1870 the volume Of
our currency has increased from
$6s7,0Oo,ooo to $2,200,ooo,ooo, or
more than trebled. g..
If we assume, therefore, that the
decline of prices of commodities is
due to the appreciation of money,
we have these obstacles to remove
from the path of our assumption.
The volume of money has increased
and the price or interest rate has
fallen; some commodities, notably
those in the production OF which
machinery cuts little figure, have
increased in value; while the price
of both land and labor have aug
mented. Another stumbling block
in the way of the theory that hos
tile legislation has caused the de-
cline in price of both silver and
staple commodities is that other
causes present themselves to explain
this decline in price, namely, the
heavily increased volume of produc-
ton and decreased cost of produc'
ton, brought both by invention and
machinery and by the
and development of our
vast Western resources.
In twenty years the price of silver
bullion has fallen from $l.30 per
ounce to IS cents. But the price of
pig iron has dropped from s4s in
1872 to sl2 at the present time. No
one will venture to contend that
this decline in price of pig iron is
due to the monetary legislation. De
crease in cost OF production and IN
crease in volume of production ex-
plain the fall in the price of pig iron.
Why should not the price of pig
silver be effected by similar causes?
How can we expect silver T. retain
its anti-bellum price of $l.30 per
ounce, when the product, at coming
value, has increased from 100000
per annum in the ffties to $75,000,-
900 in 1891 and 1892, and when the
cost of productions in rich Western
mines has fallen as low as from col
to so cents per ounce?
Wheat and cotton are about one
half the 1873 price; but steel rails
are less than one fourth the 1873
price. From $3.50 per ton in 1878,
steel rails have dropped to 1924. In
crease in production, discovery of
new methods, competition among
producers, have caused the steel
rail producers to drop so per cent
Of the 1873 price. The opening up
Of the new states in the West and
Northwest, and the application of
self-binders, sulky plows and drills,
and steam threshers on large scale |
to the wheat industry in our new
wheat regions, have had on wheat
prices similar effect to which that
new iron mine discoveries and i'm
proved methods have had on iron
and steel.
Since 1880, the price of the self
binder has dropped from $500 to
1926 and of the steel beam walking
plow from 1913 to $l2. But it is not
charged that silver legislation &C.
complished these changes. During
the same dozen years granulated
sugar has fallen from l24 cents to
5 cents, and salt from 1926 to $l.00
per barrel; while kerosene has drop
ped from rs cents to 10 cents, and
wire nails from 6 to 8 cents. On
manufactured products in general
prices have declined in half a CEN