The Meeker herald. [volume] (Meeker, Colo.) 1885-current, 1895-06-15

Increase OF population and property.
which it is not by over 1000 per cent
in the United States?
4. Has the increased demand 70,
gold, caused by the demonstration o.
more than one-half of the world's
money, increased it's value as me-
dunn Of exchange and decreased tho
price of commodities, including silver
Some gold papers have fired dyna.
mite from their dogmatic editorial guns
at some Of these questions and objected
to reply, and Prof. Laughlin has
tackled the last question and claims to
have demolished ;he contention of BIZ
metallists, in theoretical and substan-
tial facts, with comparison of prices
of silver and 232 commodities from 1860
to 1894 by statistician whose facts
were Incorporated in a senatorial re-
port. The senate certainly needed
some philosophical buttress to sustain
its bungling work of 1873, and sup
posed q will assumed that they had
found the Gibralter of their financial
longings for scientific Endorsement in
this report. Let us see what the condi.
tons were in 1860 from my report, as
an actual participant in the horrors OF
that time.
In 1857 and 1858 "stumptail' money
held undisputed sway in the United
states; of government money-gold
and silver-there was none in sight;
state banks-the best as well as the
poorest-had suspended specie pay
ments and universal bankruptcy was
Nhn dol, TO l. mr.,
there was no legal-tender money to be
mad except by barter? This smallpox
virus in trade made the prices of silver
and commodities: silver, of course,
commanded a premium over gold, but
what about pork, wheat, and corn
three of the farmers articles taken for
scientific comparison by our senatorial
committee? Corn was used for fuel as
cheaper than coal or wood, and pork
was hauled to eastern markets over 100
miles and sold for s1.5O a hundred
weight and wheat for 40 cents a bushel
Il did it myself a few years before).
The middle ages in prices had come
to America for the want of real money,
and this is the time that our senate
and their defenders in demoneuizing
silver have taken in comparing prices
of silver and commodities with those
of 1894.
In Allison's history of Europe we
learned that in the reign of Augustus
the value of the coined metals in the
Roman empire of gold was, in cur
money, 81 900,000,OOO, and that in the
reign of Justinian it diminished to
.I,n ~
Allison's opinion was that the fal, OF
hat empire was caused more by this
contraction of the currency than by all
other agencies.
Before the ninth century the value OF
the available stock of the precious
metals was reduced to $3.50, 900 900, and
at the close of the fifteenth century il
did not exceed 5000, O0O, 900, and Allison
in describing this period, paints the
condition of the working classes as SO
low that extrication seemed hopeless.
In 1545 the Potosi silver mines were
discovered and its effects noticed as fol-
lows: "The supply of precious metals
was trebled, the prices of the species OF
produce quadrupled, the weight of debt
and taxes wore off under the influence
of that prodigious increase; in the
renovations of industry the relations OF
society were changed, the weight of
feudalism was cast off, the rights of
man established" In 1916 England
against a strong petition portraying
wildly the effects of a contraction of
the currency, went to gold standard.
Allison gives the result in England OF
this action thus: "The effects of this
contraction of the currency were soon
apparent and they rendered the next
three years a period of ceaseless suf
fering in the British islands. Prices
declined in general within six months
to half their former amount. and re-
manned at that low level for three
years. Distress was universal in the
latter months of 1919. Mr.. Barring said
IN the house Of commons: What we
are now witnessing is the exact con-
verse of what occurred over the whole
world from the discovery of the mines
OF Mexico and Peru"
Passing on to the panic of 1887 (wben
| was boy Allison writes thus: with
the steady contraction of the currency
by the Bank of England. which began
in 1896. prices fell during the whole OF
the ensuing winter, but as prices of all
sorts of manufacturers produce had
previously sunk nearly half (when sill
yer was discarded), manufacturers were
under the necessity of lowering wages,
which induced strikes in nearly all
branches of industry"
The discovery of gold in California
and Australia now suddenly expanded
the currency and relieved the universal
distress, which Allison thus describes:
"trhe era of contracted currency and
consequent low prices and general mis-
cry, interrupted by occasional CLEANS
Of prosperity, was at an end, at the
same time decisive evidence was af-
forded that all this sudden burst of
prosperity was the result Of the ex-
banded currency"