The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1895-07-15
The Bubble Collapsps.


The great boom of prosperity which
we have been reading about recently
was all based on the rise in wheat from
30 to 81 cents bushel and the rise OF
about cents pound in cotton
But now we learn from the very au-
thorities that tried to crush out the sill
yer movement, by pointing to the rise In
wheat, that it is all mistalSe-a gigan-
tic speculative fraud originated by and
carried out in Chicago. 1t Is fraud,
Of course. IA rise entirely speculative. as
The Constitution pointed out when 1t
began; but it is idle to abuse Chicago
about it. All the Wall street organs
were busly engaged in printing rumorS,
reports and fake dispatches about the
condition of the wheat crop, and great
many lambs were tollcd into the pen to
! be SHARED Within fortnight these
helpless lambs placed their money be-
hind the market and wheat made a
great jump. 1t was announced that q
great business boom was at hand; that
trade, traffic and commerce We're pre-
pairing TO rip the old conditions up the
back. More lambs went in.
The trade journals We're roped into
the scheme. Bradstreet's saw great
eXpanse of blue sky. Dun'S proved to
the satisfaction of everybody who didn't
know anything about the situation that
the trade millennium had come. Wheat
went higher and more lambs were tOlled
into the pit at Chicago. and into the
shambles Of Wall street. When the ex-
pericnced ones saw that their bubble of
prosperity under the single gold standard
had been diStended to the utmost, they
got out of the way and allowed 1t to
collapse. In two days the price Of
wheat was reduced Il cents a bushcl.
In two weeks it has declined from 50
cents II bushel to "a cents.
1t is the same old stOry-the tolling
In of the lambs. Fools We're stripped
Of their money, and they are none the
wiser for their experience With no
basis whatever for a general and an eX
tended business and trade revival the
innocentS will continue to believe the
stuff that spectators with access to
wires send out over the country. There
is never time when fools cannot be
caught by reports sent out from the
market centers. Speculation can send
up the prices Of commodities, and Gln
send them down for brief periods, but
these speculative spurtS play no part
whatever in the general range Of prices
and have only disastrous effects on the
general progress and prosperity of the
country.
In the United States we can have no
general prosperity and no substantial
progress until silver is restored to its
old place as a part Of the standard mon
ey of the country. If its restoration
were 10 result in restoring to commodi-
ties the values they commanded in 1873,
before the decentralization act had been
STreptitiously passed, no harm would
be done, but great good. The goldbuS
organs are now trying TO convince the
people that Il dollar that would buy no
mere cotton and wheat than the gold
dollar Of 1873 would be 4 tifty-cent dol
lar, but not one of the whole crew has
ever dared to contend that the gold dol
lar of 1878 was a tifty-cent dollar.
We have now Northumberland dol
lar as compared with that of 1873, and
the only way that prices can he Kept
down and the value of the products of
labor deprecated is to Keep the minis
closed to silver.
That can be accomplished only II the
people are fools enough 10 be taken in
by the talk about a fifty-cent dollar, and
fail to remember that what the shylocks
call Sound" dollar is dollar that
will command twenty pounds OF cotton
and two bushels of wheat.