The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1895-12-19
a CASE IN POINT.

spocuiators, Not the Producers. Prot,tad ty
the Late Temporary Rise in the Prioe I,s
Cotton. va
a little while ago the gold-burs
were boasting about 9-cent cotton and
asking the free coinage men what
they proposed to do about it. The
idea was that the rise in the price of
cotton put stop to the arguments
OF those who were in favor of the free
coinage of silver; but, as a matter of
TACT, the situation gave u peculiar DO
tency to the facts, statistics and records
which the silver men have ready to
their hands.
Eastern and British estimates of the
present crop place the number of bales
anywhere from 1000, 600 to 1890 0OO
The probability is that the yield will
not go beyond $500, 600. In the SOS
while prices were falling, but before
they had reached their present low
level, such a crop of cotton would have
sold for more than 10 cents a pound.
AS matter of fact, even larger crops
sold Tor 10 cents a pound in the SOS.
Why is the present crop selling for less
than ~ cents with prospect of aver
aging 6h2
The farmers may be long-suffering.
but they are not fools They have al
ready had an opportunity to see that
the 9-cent cotton, which the gold mono
metallists were boasting about while
ago, was the result Of desperate piece
of speculation in the cotton centers.
The cotton that sold for o cents or
thereabouts had already been mar
iseted and the high prices realized
benefited the spectators who were
holding the cotton. When the farm
ors, IN response to better prices, began
to bury their cotton to market the
corner was broken and prices tumbled.
What is the response of the free coin
age men to the senseless chatter of the
gold-bugs in regard to the recent rise
IN cotton? 1t is this, that If the mints
were now open to silver on the same
terms with gold the farmers instead of
getting $35 or $40 bale for their cot
ton would be getting $50 or S75 bale.
Instead of getting ~ or cents for a
short crop they would be getting from
10 to IS cents. They would have got
10 cents for last years crop.
But" the gold-bug will reply, ''the
money they received for their cotton
would have been ''unsound money!"
Not by any means. 1t would be as
sound" as the gold dollar was in
1873, when it was at premium over
eenbacks 1t would be ''sounder"
than the greenbacks were in 1878, and
we never heard any body but bankers
and bondholders complain because of
the premium on gold. The farmers
got along very well with the green
backs. With the free coinage of silver.
the dollar would be as sound as the
gold dollar in the payment of debts
and taxes and the producers of this
country would have two for this pur-
. pose where they now have one.
1t is q common saying that when
people take the products of their labor
to market they do so for the purpose of
selling them But this common say
ing, like many others, only touches
the surface of things. Producers go
to market for the purpose of buying
money with which to pay their debts
and taxes. The surplus they have left
they invest in the thousand and one
articles that make home comfortab BILE
and life worth living.
When there is plenty of money in
the country the producers get fair
prices for their commodities. When
all the currency in the country is based
on small and ly-disappearing
stock of gold, prices are low and pro-
ducers do not get enough even to pay
their debts That has been the eXpe-
rienco of the farmers since 1898, since
Mr.. Carlisle ruled that silver dollars
are redeemable in gold.
We should be glad to see the farmers
get good prices for their crops even
under the single gold standard, but we
know perfectly well that this can
never be. The fluctuations in the
price of cotton that the markets have
lately witnessed are of no benefit to
the farmers Not one producer in ten
thousand profits by them. Cotton that
was supposed to be worth cents a
few days ago is now barely worth ~.
The farmers, not being fools, will re-
member that much larger crops than
the present crop promises to be, in
1883 and 1885 averaged more than 10
cents a pound. That was when the
Bland.Allison act was adding 1874, OOO,-
900 year to the circulation.
When cotton goes to z, 8 or o cents, as
a result of short crop, farmers know
very we'll that the same crop with the
mints open to the free and unlimited
coinage Of silver would fetch 10, 12 and
Is cents pound in money as sound as
gold WAS in 1873 Atlanta Constitution.