The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-06-12
WHAT KILLED BUSINESS.

A committee of Philadelphia jobbers
| and importers find that adverse silver
| legislation has disorganized trade and
ruined values.
The fact that the great cities of the
country are dominated by wealth and
are therefore set down in the single
| standard column is no indication that
| the live business men do not under
! stand that the fight on silver has de-
| Stroyed trade. The GrocarS' and I'M
porter's Exchange of Philadelphia, has
! announced to the world that The trou-
| bile with the trade of this country IS
| traceable, directly, to the fact of the
destruction Of one-half of its redemp-
ton money. That organization of
i wholesalers and importers at a late
meeting appointed a committee Of
seven of their prominent members with
| InStuctrions to go into an exhaustive
inquiry as to the cause or causes for
the marked depression of trade and to
export their findings in writing. The
conclusions of the committee are pub
lished in full in the Interstate Grocer
of st. Louis The committee reports
that there is but one cause and that
the one mentioned.
One wonderful exhibit is a table Civ
ing the aggregated fall in prices Of
forty-five principal commodities of the
United States, together with the de-
cline in silver for each year since 1874,
the year following the decentralization
of silver. These forty-five principal
commodities Of the country fell steadily
with silver. The committee say in
this connection that it is absurd to try
TO show the value Of anything by mea-
surfing it by itself, as people do when
they say that a gold dollar is never
more or less than dollar, and that
unquestionably that the disorganiza-
ton of trade resulting from the long
continued fall of prices is owing to
the rise in the value Of gold, for which
ton of silver in such a way as that the
two metals can resume business at the
old stand in the same way as before
1873; that in the final analysis labor
is the measure of values, and that I'M
der the gold standard it takes twice as
much produce, therefore twice as much
labor to pay a debt as it did before
1873.
But this committee of prominent
Philadelphia importers do not stop with
the conditions existing since 1873. They
go back to the action of England on
silver and its results, and to the period
between 1916 and 1910, the year of the
California discovery. Not only that |
but in declaring that silver had always !
been the standard to which everything
including gold were adjusted they offer |
in proof a United States treasury table, |
compiled under Daniel Manning, which |
shows upon its face that what they as
sert is incOntestibly true.
There are many people, the commit
tees say, who think that when we sell |
a thing for half price, but get money
Of double value, the thing is squared |
So it would be if there were no debts /
the new measure that has double value. |
They find that a hundred years would |
not be too long for everything to find |
the new level. The committee quotes |
Adam Smith as declaring that after the |
discovery Of America and its precious
metals that prices Of the worlds COM
modities advanced for 200 years, add
ing comfort everywhere and dispelling
the cloud Of poverty and woe which
gave the preceding centuries the name
Of ''the dark ages" So we may well
question the wisdom of legislation that
reverses this picture by attempting to
make the addition to our precious
metals a curse instead of a blessing.
The committee farther declares that
kings and governments did not es-
tablish the first minis, but that the
merchants of the world did. and that
their only function was to assay, weigh
and stamp the metals with such value
Is trade had found them to have.
This committee Of business men, in
he fall of the Cleveland administra-
ions ultimatum and the demand of
Wall street and Lombard street and
heir Morgans, Belmonts and Roth
'childs, declare that the trouble with
he trade and values of this country.
oday, is a scarcity of money of final
that credit money, such
Is our silver currency is now, and
PAPER money Of whatever source, can
,ring no relief because Of its subiec-
ion to the caprice Of specializing syn
iicates, liable to be presented for pay
nent at any time thereby aggravating
he evil.
The committee concludes its ex-
report with these words: I'VE
recommend that silver be added to its
gold as money of final re-
lemption, convinced that the chief
ause of the diSorganiZed condition of
rade and consequently falling prices .
will be removed"
KANSAS GOLDBUG NEWSPAPERS.
y number of single standard Republi- ,