The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-08-15
Cotton

1870 ................. DO ~ 10
1884 NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. go 49,. so
Several years ago shrewd men in Great
Britain foresaw what would be the effect
on the agricultural industries of the United
States Of a fall in the gold prices of silver
bullion. They saw that in the situation CT
India the price of silver bullion would die
tate the prices of wheat and cotton. AT a
meeting of the British and Colonial Cham
bers of Commerce, held in London in 1886,
Sir Robert Fowler, member of parliament,
banker and ex-mayor of London, said that
1.-The effect of the
DEPRECIATION OF SILVER
must finally be the ruin of the wheat and
cotton Industries of America, and be the
development of India the chief wheat
and cotton exporter of the world Mr..
Moreton FreWen, another well informed
attended the second national
silver convention held in Washington two
years ago, and made the following felici-
tous remarks upon the silver question. He
said: This is a question to which, when
in India, gave very close study, and |
should like to make this general sta tement,
which l am convinced the experience of
the past and the future will amply con-
firm. Let me put it briefly in this way:
The price of wheat in this country (mean-
ing the United States is it's price in Lon
don and Liverpool less the cost of carriage
from here there, and the London price of
wheat is, under ordinary conditions
ounce of silver per bushel of wheat. Your
farmers will always have to sell bushel
of wheat, say in Chicago, for an ounce Of
silver, less freight charges to London. If
then, silver is worth 1.29 per ounce, the
London price of American wheat is S1.29.
If silver is worth 80 cents, then your wheat
will realize only 80 cents. Admitting then,
what all students of prices do admit, name
ly, that the purchase power of the rupee in
India is we'll maintained, the fact that
the price of wheat and cotton falls with
the price OF silver exchanges between Eu-
rope and Asia is not for a moment open
TO doubt And yet we had some very
noted men in this country who were going
to have the price of wheat so up last fall,
so soon as the Sherman law could be repeal
ca. The law supported the market value
of silver and the day its repeal was as
sured by the passage Of the repeal bill
through the senate, wheat
DECLINED TWO CENTS
per bushel in the markets of this country.
If the farmers expect wheat TO rise again
they must vote with a party which insists
on having a plank in their platform de-
inandin& the free and unlimited coinage of
both gold and silver at the ratio of l to IS.
After silver is restored to coinage its COM
nercial value will. of course. rise, so that
cur 50-cent silver dollar of today will not
be such after the metal is restored to coin
age. Should the price of silver bullion fail
TO reach its coinage value of $1.29 per ounce
~ tHt CoIttilleIclal world what would be lE6
harm of then changing ratios to prevent
the operation of the Gresham law. which,
the governor seems to fear, will drive all
the gold out of the country. If congress
had to change the ratio between the prec-
ious metals every three weeks in order to
keep both metals on a parity, it would
fulfill a far higher mission than our Fifty
third congress boast.
This great silver producing nation has
shown very little respect in the last 20
years and especially in the last year to
the white metal. The way to get other ma
tons to respect silver is to show some re-
spect for it ourselves in the way of enact
ing laws which look to a free use of it as
standard redeemer money. OF what great
er use to us is 90 cent silver dollar than
a sreenback paper dollar? Either of them
is inter-convertible into a hundred-cent gold
dollar, and in sustaining these relations
we divide the actual coin money of the ma
ton by not having a hundred-cent silver
dollar, as we'll as "a hundred-cent gold dol
lar, either of which coin dollars is the
lawful redeemer of all contracts and of pa
per currency. This kind of an nter-con-
vertble coin dollar l find the Republican
party does not want and it is solely for
this reason that | shall vote with a party
which does want it. Political parties are
nothing to me- if their financial policy pro-
duces so much unrest among the people
and compels large per cent of them to
subsist on soup. This condition reminds
Us too much of free trade England.
Would Gov. Nelson have us infer that
the Populist party are in any way respon-
sible for present conditions? Can he find
where one of them ever voted for a con-
traction of our currency? Senator Jones,
of Nevada. in his great speech last fall
against repeal
WARMED THE PEOPLE
that the evils and the miseries resulting
from contracting the currency which can
be done by eXalting one precious metal
at the expense of the other, are only
equalled by war. by famine and by pesti-
lence. And when against such warnings
every Republican and Democratic mem
Der of congress from Minnesota vote for
the contraction and in the fullneSs of time
these foretold miseres come to the people
What a flood of sympathy is extended to
them by a certain class of politicians in
the old parties, whom for want of bet
ter name. will call Snobocracy. They
behold our poor people starving, stripped
of their rament wounded and half dead,
and like the "Levte' they come and look
at them and pass by on the other side.
The good Samartans, it seems to me, are
congregatng with the Populists and are
putting out in their platform of principles
many plank which, in my opinion, the
immortal rail splitter would stand upon
today if he were in the flesh. To such
Republicans as believe in a freer and larg-
er use of silver as money was CON
templated by the Republican platform of
1892, there can be no justification or ex-
cuse for remaining longer with party
which has turned out to be the friend of
the London Jew, in monetary science;
whose record in the F'ifty-third congress
in yielding up willing obedience to the be-
hests of Grover Cleveland in establishing
his purely gold standard of values here in
the United States embraces % per cent of
its members in congress. l want to tell
Gov. Nelson that there thousands and
thousands of Republicans in this debt rid
den state of Minnesota who will absolutely
refuse to ratify this shameful record of
the G. Q. p and such taunts as crank
anarchist" and ''strike sympathizer' will
not suffice as furnishing any argument why
we should not fight the gold standard
which every intelligent man has to admit
is a cruel, senSeless,
DISHONEST AND DANGEROUS
policy for Uncle Sans government to
longer pursue. The longer we puruse it
the lower will be the price of all commodi-
ties in this country, including labor and
the more difficult it will become for honest
people to pay their honest debts.
Gov. Nelson gives the 1898 and 1894 st.
Paul prices on fifteen articles of farm
products. Eleven of these bear a lower
price, according to his figures, than last
year. The other four-barey oats, flax
and cattle-which show higher price
will, of course, lose that advance before
the year closes. Such comparisons will set
the people to thinking about the gold
standard. These pet names many Re-
publican-Populst is used to. In the early
sixties we were known as "black Renuh-
leans, 'nigger lovers and upholders of
the doctrine of miscegenation.
The governor makes good clear point
against the Populists about the profits in
exporting wheat. Through some erroneous
ideas they received from the Pioneer Press
in this matter they were led to believe