Birmingham age-herald., 1895-05-21


 it to the people. The plain, everyday. common-sense view of this subject is the only correct one. If prices are in creased solely on account of an increase in the volume of circulation, or on ac- count of depreciation of the currency, without any change in the relation be- f tween the supply and demand of the commodities to be exchanged the in crease in prices will necessarily affect all things alike. If, therefore, the farmer -or planter receives a greater number of dollars for his crop of cotton wheat he will be compelled to pay correspond- ingly greater number of dollars for his agricultural implements, for his gro ceries, for his clothing and, In short, for everything he purchases. Consequently his profit if he has any, will bear about the same relation to his expenditures that it bears now-that is to say if he now makes a profit of 10 per cent he will make a profit of no more than 10 per cent then. Now, it is out of the clear profits of his business that he must pay his debts and 1t therefore remains to be seen how much benefit he would ul- timately derive from nominal increase in the prices of commodities. He cannot control the prices of the commodities produced by him to the same extent that other producers can control the prices of theirs, and 1t may be that the prices of the things he is compelled to buy will be increased in much greater proportion than the prices of the things he has to sell, and if so, he will be a loser instead of q gainer by the change
 It is contended however, that prices of commodities have fallen since 1S73,and that this reduction of prices has made
 it more difficult to pay debts now than 1t was then. It is true that the prices
 of some things have fallen, but it is equally true that the prices of some things have increased. It is not true,
 however, that our people owe any debts contracted as far back as 1873, but it may be that some of our great corpora tions which issued bonds before that date still owe them. but they have all been refunded at a low rate of interest, so that our free coinage friends may not be disturbed ou their account. The fundamental proposition of the advo- cates of free coinage is that all values are measured and all prices are fixed and regulated by the amount of redemp- tion money in the country, and that the amount of paper money, or credit money, as it is sometimes called, such as bank notes, government notes, and other cir culating media, exert no influence on the values or prices of commodities. Having dogmaticaly asserted this prin- ciple, they proceed without further ar gument t0 the conclusion that the legal demonstration of silver in 1873 and the legal establishment of the gold standard of value at that time are the causes of the alleged decline in the prices of com modities in this country, and then, upon the theory that high prices for the nec- essaries of life would be a blessing to the people, they appeal to the consumers Of agricultural and manufactured pro- ducts to unite with them in the effort to secure the free and unlimited coinage of all the silver that the owners of bullion may see proper to present at the hints. Even if we should admit the truth of their first proposition, their conclusion that the demonstration of silver reduced prices is founded upon the assumption
 of a fact which cannot be established. They have wholly failed to allege, much
 less to prove, that silver actually con stituted any pari lof the redemption money in use or in existence in this country before on at the time of that leg islation. If it did not, then it is clear that it's legal demonstration did not and could not in fact reduce the amount of such money in the country, and there fore could not have reduced prices. It is well known personally to every gen <> tleman in this audience who was old enough to know what was transpiring in 1873 that there was not a dollar of sil-
 yer in circulation at that date. The as-
 sumption upon which the argument is
 based is diametrically- opposed to the historical and official fact The only me- tallic or redemption money in use here at that time was gold, which amounted
 to only $135, ,O00, 900, including what the government was using, whereas We now have about S625,000, GOO in gold and S397, 652,S73 in full legal tender silver, be- sides about $77 GOO in subsidiary sil- yer coin. If. therefore prices have fall en since 1873 the decline has taken place in spite of the fact that our full legal tender metallic money has been increased until now it amounts to more than seven times as much asi it did at that date and consequently the alleged decline in prices must be attributable to some other cause than the demonstration of silver
 These facts prove not only that the de- monetization of silver did not reduce the amount of redemption money in this country, but they prove also that the fundamental proposition of the advo- cates of free coinage is erroneous and that prices are not fixed or regulated by the amount of redemption money alone, for, if so, prices should have increased since 1873.
 Substantially, the whole argument for free coinage, so far as it is addressed to
 the honest people of the country, is based
 upon this f1imSy foundation, upon an er-
 roneous principle and a false~ ~assump-
 tion of facts. That the amount of money
 in circulation, or available for circula-
 tion, has more or less influence upon the prices of commodities is not disputed by
 anybody, but it is not the amount of me-
 tallic or redemption money alone that ex-
 erts this influence If all other condi-
 tions remain the same, if the relations
 between supply and-demand are un- changed, if the cost of production, trans
 portation, and financial exchanges are stable, an increase or decrease of the cur rency in circulation, or available for cir cuation, will, to a certain extent, in- crease or decrease prices. as the case
 may be; but by the terms money" and Currency in this connection mean ev- cry element that enters into and is util- ized in the com4s2icated processes of buy
 ing and selling in the markets for pro- ducts and in the mercantile exchanges,