St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-07-15

| Improvement and promote the sta
bility of present satisfactory condi-
| tions.'
| Ex-Congressmali and Capitalist Ed
| win Einstein, the Republican candidate
| for mayor of New York in 1890, said
| that the depression which is now termi-
| mated, and which began with the fail
ure of Barring Brothers, was probably
the greatest the commercial world had
| ever seen. at has now happily passed
away" remarked Mr.. Einstein, land if
| congress could be moved to take some
| action for the abatement of anxiety on
the money question, and so discourage.
agitation, this country would take an
other bound in the direction of pros
| perity that it has not known for years"
FAvoRs FREE SILVER.
William P. ST. John is one of the few
presidents of New York national
bank who favor the free coinage of
silver. Mr.. st. John, who is a Southern
gentleman, and president of the Mer-
camille National bank, is not only a
! conservative business man, but think
| er and student of finance. Here is what
| Mr.. st. John had to say:
ITO my thinking, the alleged era of
prosperity is not in sight. We have
had and are still having recoveries from
extreme depression with some advances
| in wages from figures that were below
| a living scale. But signs of exhausted
| recuperation appear already with a de-
cided lull in at least three important
! branches of our manufacturing indus
| tries. Cheap talk of higher prices for
! iron mentions also new trusts and pro-
! posed combinations among iron men
which are usually in restraint of trade
rather than harbingers of widening
! prosperity. The great staples of wheat
at cotto- having been depressed be-
! yond reason, and rebounding naturally
| have been advanced speculatively to
prices equally unreasonable, but at a
| time when the farmer and planter are
! not benefited.
| Both of these staples are now
| threatened with a new decentralization
| in market with consequently poor re-
| turns to the producers for the incoming
! crops. The present money market in
New York-2A per cent per annum for
| five months strictly prime commercial
| paper-is not the representation of an
| era of prosperity. On the contrary, it
is the seal upon the proof of a new
sacrifice of the little prosperity that
1ppSdiS II DclOheilS d lack OF DfOnC
to borrowers in any use of money and
presages such prices as discourage buy
ers Of merchandise for future market.
| Therefore, the silver lining is wanting
from the cloud, and is neither here nor
even in sight
CAS- grounds for my impression that
the reopening of the minis to silver is
essential to an era of even moderate
but continuing prosperity, 1 remark
as follows: The prices that are gov
erned by the volume of current money
are normal prices. Scarcity, on the
one hand, or sUperabundance on the
other hand of any commodity relative
to the demand for it will yield abnor-
! NAL prices for that commodity. Scar
city, Abnormal high price; superabund-
! ance, abnoFmally low price. Which is
to say that price means money. What
is its price means how much money
for it. Hence a normal quantity OF
/ any commodity relative to the demand
for it will afford high price or low
price for that commodity according to
the scarcity or the abundance of money
Our normal price of wheat-the price
upon which as a fulcrum our scale of
prices for wheat swings up or down.
is set absolutely by the volume of our
current money. Therefore, if we en-
large the volume of money as by a
reopening Of our minis to silver we
shall raise the normal price of all
commodities.
Hence, as we are conspicuously a
nation of producers, our national pros
perity is favored by charging the vol
ume OF money so as to increase the
prices of what we produce. To re-
open our minis to silver is thus to put
! n inv ~.
than upon consumption, and to be-
stow upon the producer a liberal share
Of the wealth for which our consumers
are thus debtors. When such is done
we may see an era of prosperity that
has come to stay"
| VIEWS OF A SOCIAL ECONOMIST.
EX-Assistant Secretary of the Treas
ury Ellis H. Roberts was just going
| out Of town when seen, but he re-
| ferred the reporter to President
| George Gunton, of the School of So
cial Economics, saying: He has
written two books on the subject, and
knows more about the principles upon
which these matters are based than
any half-dozen men in Wall street.
President Gunton kindly furnished
| the following carefully revised state
ment: ''The present revival of trade
| is the result of causes the opposite
of which created the depression which
| began early in 1892. Capital is very
heroic when it feels perfectly safe, but
it is the most cowardly thing on earth
with uncertainty or danger in sight
There are two important facts that
explain the changes of industrial con-
| fidence. One occurred in 1892, and the
other in 1894. In 1892 both legisla tive
and executive departments of the Fed
eral government passed into the hands
Of new party. This of itself would
not necessarily have exercised any
particular influence but for the fact
that the specific object of the new
administration was radically to
change the revenue system which
| everybody knew would disrupt exist
ing industrial and business relations.
! This certainty of Industrial disturb
ances created uncertainty in business
everywhere. The immediate effect,
therefore, was cancellation of orders:
closing CT factories, mines and fur
| naces; discharge of laborers and saw
age reduction of wages all along the
line until what was first a panic set
tied down into a sullen, widespread in
1884, no new industrial event had oc-
Cured to change the current and
break the monotony of solemn de-
preston. The election of 1894 was an
emphatic, unequivocal reversal of the
election of 1892, and, consequently. set
exactly opposite forces into opera
| tin.
For the same reason that the cleo
ton of 1892 destroyed business conf
dence by assuring anti-tariff, and, con-
sequently, business disrupting legisla-
! ton, the election of 1894 gave the as
surance that all such disturbing legis-
lation should stop, and at once created
confidence AS soon as this assurance
became settled conviction capitalists.
who had been afraid to invest dollar
In a new enterprise or in any way pro-
ject industry beyond the narrowest linn
Of