The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-06-20
Fnct. Ahnnt Mhnn1

W nile the sllFerites are not having
much 70 say at present about the fan IN
I the prices Of farm products, stin. in the
I resolutions which they adopt at their con
veniion. they make the decline in prices
the chief reason why the coinage OF sill
yer 10 an unlimited extent should be IN
dertakcn by this country alone. The
reason why they avoid any discussion cf
their assertion that prices have fallen Is
because the prices Of the two articles
they always cite have advanced greatly
within the last month or two. and the ad-
vance mas taken place without any apprc,
ciable advance in the price OF silver. thus
showing that silver has nothing whatever
TO do with prices.
II is true that the price Of wheat was
remarkably low last year. and is low yet.
still it is easy to find a satisfactory rea-
son for its being low without any refer
ence 10 silver. The May report Of The
Statistician." which is issued by the gov
eminent. makes it very clear why the
price OF wheat has been low and why it l.
stil1 sufficiently low TO make wheat grow
ers dissatisfied. The Statistician says
that during the last few years there has
been an extraordinary increase in the
production Of wheat, not only in this
country, but also in the Argentine repuo-
lie. The increase has been due to the
cultivation in wheat Of vast areas Of
new and cheap land in the west and in
the Argentine republic, and to the cheaper
methods for cultivating, harvesting and
marketing the crop. There is no need
TO give the increase in the production by
bushels. That more has been produced
than the market could comfortably ab-
serb is beyond question. 1t has been push
ed on the market with the result Of con-
stantly forcing down the price. The re-
cent rise in the price of wheat was due
to reports that the wheat crop was great
~ damaged by the unreasonable wealth
er. showing how sensitive the price is to
supply and demand.
But the wheat growers in some sections
are not finding they are worse off on ac-
count of the low price of wheat. They
make as great profit now as they did
when wheat was selling at much more
than a dollar bushel. The cost of pro-
ducing a bushel of wheat has fallen Off
amazingly. and the wheat growers, there
fore, are about as well off as when .hc
price of wheat was a great deal higher
than 1t is now. If the wheat crop this
year should be a short one it is pretty
certain that wheat would command more
than StO0 per bushel.
In this connection it might be as well
TO mention that overproduction is the
cause of the low price Of cotton. When
cotton was selling at cents a pound it
as in the face of a 100000 bale crop.
The extraordinary increase III the crop
was due TO the planting of a great area
Of cheap Texas land in cotton. The Texas
crop last year was enormous, but nos
withstanding the low price of cotton the
cotton growers in Texas did very we'll
Another proof that silver has nothing
to do with the price of cotton or any
other staple product is found in the fact
that cotton has advanced about SO bale
since the report got abroad that the
growing crop would be a short one Sup
ply and demand regulate the prices of
piouutts' Ifltes are no way dependent
upon silver. If prices were dependent up
on silver the prices of wheat and cotton
would not have been the only crops that
fell in consequence of the stopping Of The
coinage of silver dollars in 1873. As a
matter of fact, the prices of wheat anG
cotton are about the only prices of farm
products that have fallen. Corn is sell
ing for a higher price than it did in 1873
ord SO are other farm products. If farm
ers were furnished the facts from reliable
sources relative to prices of farm prod
uts very few of them would be silverites