The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-05-04
American Treatment of Silver.

First of all. is it true that We have suf-
fered such incalculable woes since ls'5'
! leave out of this discussion the past two
years. SO far as our own country Is con-
c-rusd these two years, with new aq-
r1liuiStratICn and a changed economic
policy involve different conditions and
questions But Is IL true that prior TO that
change We were in such an unhappy state:
How was il FOR twenty years before 1915
and twenty years afrera From $50 to $50
We advanced in national wealth from
81 10000 TO s3D.rc,Vtt,V.o. an Increase
Of 81. Gee COO 900 From 1870 70 1850 We ai
yaaceI from $50 80. l00000 to $4,000, ,cOOco,
an increase OF 500. 10000. Was that
growth Of more than double so great a
hardship? ProtectiorLsts have constantly
asserted that the twenty years preceding
1929 constituted the most prosperous Pc
rod in the history OF our country. Are
come Of them prepared 10 recant and deny
that truth for the sake Of bolstering up
6. misdirected argument for free and un-
limited silver?
Il is not to be disputed that there has
been a decline of prices since lsI3. Nor
can we resist the conclusion that the
worlds restricted use Of silver has oper-
ated TO reduce the worlds general range
Of prices. The just and rational view is
that the fall Is due in part to the inter-
national limitation Of the monetary basis
and in part TO cheapened cost Of produc-
tiOn and chsapened interchange. It has
been partly benehcent and partly baneful.
The producer has seen falling values; the
labOrer has seen rising wages. The pur
chasing power Of wages is fifty per cent.
greater than 1t was in 1873. II the prOduc-
tive force Of the country has suffered
come astrfngency or failed OF its full de-
velopnent, the rewards Of labor meas
ure1 In the cost Of living have never been
so high. The farmer has seen the prices
Of his wheat dropping and dropping. But
IN Pennsylvania II is the competition OF
Dakota, and In Dakota It IL the cOmpeti-
tion Of India and Argentina. Twenty years
ago II cost % cents a bushel to transport
wheat from Chicago to New York. To-
'.iay IL costs 10 cents to carry ID from Chi
cavo to Liverpool. Twenty years ago the
wheat crop Of Minnesota, Kansas and tho
Dakotfs was only 2O,0O0.0c0 bushels, and
india anf Argentina. were not factors In
the worlds poarkets. To-day the average
crop Of these tour western states. to say
nothing Of 9th >rs, has increased eight
fold, ard India and Argentina are supply
ing from half to two cards as much wheat
TO the market Of the v Grid as we are. "
Is cheap land, cheap trsusportatlon ana
cheap labor In competitor Whlch nave
brought down the farmers pr 'ces, ana ne
would find no remedy In the free coihhse
Of silver which would enhance the C'ost OF
everything he buys and leave him tx
posed to the Same deadly competition n
the markets Of the world. His interest
Hes not in going down to the silver level
/ hold In my hand a table showing the
decline OF prices upon farm products since
1873. This table shows the prices paid for
farm products from 1879 TO 1881, and also
presents the prices Of articles which farm
ers buy, such az sugar. cotton, nails, iron
coffee, tea, sheeting, shifting. standard
prints, cloth, glass, glnghams, carpets and
everything that n needed In the use of
life. and the summary Of this official table
IS that the average reduction in the farm
products taking them altogether, wheat
corn lard, butter and everything else is
2G lilo per cent. and that the reduction
on the articles which the farmer buys In
all that enters into his household exist
ence and life is 55 40 per cent. So that
while the farmer suffers this decline Of g
per cent. in what he sells he has an ad-
vantage of 50 per cent. In what he buys
Granting for the sake Of the argument
that we have suffered all the Ills 10 darkly
pictured by the free coinage advocate. IL
IT true that they are due to our proscrlp-
tion OF silver? Is II true that since 1873
we have outlawed and rejected silver. as
we did not do before? What are the facts?
The whole number Of silver dollars coined
IN the United States from the organization
OF the mint In 1892 down TO 1879 was only
S,Ol5,S3S, and for more than twenty-five
years preceding 1873 they had not been in
circulation OF all. do not stop to give
the explanation, which Is well understood
by all students OF the subject. But be-
tween 1878 and 1890, under the Bland ALL
son act. we coined 42i, ZIG. 40S silver dollars.
and under the Sherman act of 1890 we
purchased 1GS,GIi.G .GS2 ounces of silver bull
Hon represented by $I55, 1891, ,O02 In silver GER
tifcates, making altogether s577, ,707 40 of
silver coinage or purchase In fifteen years.
In other words, In single year since
1873 the government of the United States
has done six times as much for the silver
dollar as in all the eighty odd years before
that dividing line, and altogether within
this period during which silver is repre-
sented as prescribed the government has
coined or provided for 72 times as many
silver dollars as In its entire previous his
tory! And yet the free coinage advocates
first draw on their imagination for evils
which are largely spectral and then draw
on their misinformation for an explana-
tion by charging them to the alleged de-
monetizatlon Of silver under which silver
has been nursed and coddled so immeas-
urably beyond what 1t experienced when
they themselves declare the law treated 1t
= full legal tender money.