The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-05-24

hence his prices VIII never increase IN
proportion to the actual depreciation or
the money in which they are paid. To
illustrate my meaning, when silver Is
worth go cents per ounce, the bullion con-
tained in a silver dollar Is worth 46.4 cents,
but IL the price of silver should advance
to 62 cents per ounce, the value OF the
bullion contained in a silver dollar would
be 4S ccnts-an increase OF nearly Az per
cent. Now, the price of cotton or wheat
will not rise in proportion to the deprecia-
ton of the dollar in which it is to be paid;
that is, the purchaser for export VIII not
pay for 1t at the rate of As cents for each
dollar when silver Is worth GO cents an
ounce, because he knows that silver may
rise to 6l or 62 cents per ounce before he
can sell the product abroad and get his
money for it, and he knows that If this
happens the gold he receives abroad can
not be exchanged for as many silver dol
lars as he paid the producer here. He
will not take all this risk upon himself,
but Will compel the producer to share 1t
by receiving u less price for his cotton or
wheat; and this argument applies with
equal force to all other articles. 1t Is
impossible to estimate accurately the
amount of loss which this would infiict
upon the American producers of export
able products, but 1t would undoubtedly
be very great, as the value of our exports
of domestic merchandise Is nearly $780,
900, 900 per annum, and small percentage
upon this large sum would very materially
affect the incomes of our producers.
Why Prices Have Declined.
1t Is argued that the existing standard
of value ought to be abandoned because
since 1873 prices of commodities have
fallen, and will continue to fall, If the
standard Is maintained. so that 1t has
been and will continue to be, more and
| more difficult each succeeding year to pay
debts: that this fall in the prices of all
commodities is attributable to the appre-
citation of gold, and that the appreciation
in the value of gold has been caused by the
alleged demonetiZation of silver In Ger
many in 1871 and 1873, the omission of the
standard silver dollar from the coinage of
the United States In 1873 and the suspen-
sion of the coinage of silver by France in
1876. 1t is true that the prices of many
things have fallen since 1873, but it is true,
also, that the prices of many things had
fallen long before that date. The asser-
ton that the fall in prices since 1873 Is
due TO the appreciation of gold alone is
based upon the assumption that the rela-
tions between supply and demand have not
changed, that there has been no diminu-
llOn Ol lne COSl OF anu
button. that the facilities for effecting
financial exchanges have not been i'm
proved, and, in brief, that the world has
made no progress in the conduct of its
industrial and commercial operations for
more than twenty years. This assumption
is so inconsistent with well-known eco
nomic and historical facts that 1t seems
scarcely worth while to give it Il serious
consideration. Reductions in the prices
of commodities are generally due to so
many different causes that it is scarcely
ever possible to ascertain the extent OF
their separate influences. / presume
however that even the most ardent advo-
cate of free coinage would be willing to
admit that the invention and use of labor
saving machinery, the extension of our
railroad systems, the Improvement of our
waterways and the great reductions in
the rates for carrying freight, the employ
ment of steamships, the use of the tele-
graph on the land and under the sea, the
application of electricity in the production
of light heat and power, the utilization
of by-products which were formerly
wasted, the introduction of more econom-
ical methods in the processes of produce
tion, the wonderful advance made by
our laborers in skill and efficiency, the
greatly reduced rates of interest paid for
the use Of capital, and many other things
which 1t would require much time to
enumerate and explain, have affected
prices in some measure, at least, and yet
they ignore all these great influences in
their argument upon the subject and at
tribute the low prices of commodities to
a single alleged and inadequate cause
the appreciation of gold. l presume also,
that our free-coinage friends will admit
that if the change in pricea has been caused
entirely by the appreciation of gold, the
reduction would have affected all things
alike. because it cannot be denied that,
in the absence of other influences, gold
must bear the same relation to the price
of one article that 1t bears to the price of
another. But we do not find that the
prices of all things have been reduced in
the same proportion, nor do We find that
the prices of all things have in fact been
reduced. 1t would require far more time
than could be devoted to the subject upon
such an occasion as this to discuss the
subject of prices in all its details; nor is
it necessary to do so for the purpose of
this argument because a very few Illus
tratlons will serve to show the weakness
of the contention that the decline is
due alone to the appreciation of gold.
In 1891, 1892 and part Of 1893 / had the
honor to serve on IL subcommittee
charged by the senate Of the United States
with the duty of ascertaining the course
of prices and wages OF labor for as long
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