Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-06-09

producer would be compelled to pay fos the risk taken on account of the fuosua- tions by receiving less price for his cot ton, wheat, beef and other articles
 The farmers and planters do not expors their own products, but they sell them at home to somebody else who sends them abroad, and if the exchange Is steady and the money In which he is to pay for the products has fixed value relatively to tho money in use In the country where he ex- poets to sell them, the purchaser here can afford to pay the highest price that would leave him B reasonable margin of profit in view of the conditions existing in the mar ket abroad. In other words, he has to in- eur but one risk-tAe possible fall in the price of the products abroad-but If the our rency here is depreciated md fuetuating, if our money has no fixed and certain val ue relatively to the money In use abroad where he expects to sell the products, there is an additional riAk to be incurred which will have great i&luence in determining the price he can afford to pny tho producer,
 The Producer Must Pay.
 In addition tt the risk of fall in the price of tho products abroad he must incur the risk of a rise In tho price of silver between the time of his pur- chase and the timo when he receives tho proceeds of his sale, for If silver rises In tho meantime he may not get back as many dollars as he paid out The producer muss pay for both of these risks by receiving 6 smaller price for his commodities, ana hence his prices will never increase in pro- portion to the actual depreciation of the money in which they are paid.
 To illustrate my meaning, when silver is worth 60 cents per ounce, the bullion contained in silver dollar is worth 4B ( cents, but if the price of silver should ad- vance to G2 cents per ounce the value of the bullion contained in silver dollar would be 48 cents, an increase of over per cent. Now, the price of cotton or wheat will not rise in proportion to the depreoia- ton of tho dollar In which 1t Is to be paid that is, the purchaser for export will not pay for 1t at the rate of 40 4-10 cents foF each dollar whom silver Is worth GO cents an ounce, because he knows that silver may rise to 61 or 69 cents per ounce beforu he can soil the product abroad and get his money for 1t, and ho knows that if this happens tho gold he receives abroad cannot be exchanged for as many silver dollars As he paid tho producer hero. He will not take all this risk upon himself, but will compel the producer to bear it by receiving Q less price for his cotton or wheat, and this argument applies with equal force to all other articles. It Is impossible to esti- mate accurately the amount of loss which this would inliict upon tho American pro- dueers of exportabie products, bus is would undoubtedly be very greh6, as the vaiIi0 oS ouF exports of domestic ulerehandise ia nearly s870, GOO. 900 per annum, and a small percentage upon this large sum would very materially affect the incomes of our producers.
 1t is argued that the existing standard of valuo ought to be abandoned because since 1873 prices of commodities have fall on, and will continue to fall, if the stand. ard 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 commod= ities is attributable to the appreciation of ! gold, and that tho appreciation In tine yalua of gold has been caused by tho alleged de- monetization of silver in Germany in 1871 and 1873, the omission of the standard sill yer dollar from the coinage of the United States in 1873, and the suspension of the coinage of silver by France in 1878. 1t is true that the prices of many things have fallen since 1873, but it is true, also, thnt
 
 before that date. The assertion that the fall in prices since 1873 is due to the ap- preciation of gold alone is based upon the assumption that the relations between supply and demand have not changed, thaS there has been no diminution of tho cost os production and distribution, that the fa- cilities for effecting financial exchanges have not been improved, and, in brief, that the world has made no progress ID the conduct of its industrial and commas cial operations for moro than 20 years.
 Effect of Labor Saving Machinery.
 This assumption is so inconsistent with we'll known economic and historical facts that 1t seems scarcely worth while to give 1t a serious consideration. Reductions h the prices of commodities are generally duo to so many different causes that it is scarcely ever possible to ascertain the e9- tent of their separate influences pre- sume however, that even the most ardent advocate of free coinage would be willing to admit that tho invention and use of la- bor saving machinery, the extension of our railroad systems, the Improvement of our waterways and the great reductions in the rates for carrying freight, the employment of steamships, tho use of the telegraph on the land and under the sea, the application of electricity in the production of light, heat and power, the utilization of by prod uets which were formerly wasted, the in- troduction of more economical methods in the processes of production, the wonderful advance made by our laborers in skill and efficiency, the greatly reduced rates of in- forest paid for tho use of capital, and many other things which it would require much time to enumerate and explain, have affect ed prices in some measure, at least, and yet they Ignore all these great influences in their argument upon the subject and at- tribute the lower prices of commodities to single alleged and inadequate cause the appreciation of gold. presume, also, that our free coinage friends will admit that if the change in prices has been caused entirely by the appreciation of gold, the reduction would have affected all things alike, because 1t cannot Do 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 AbIund ba haar In hf