Mexico weekly ledger., 1895-08-15
SEEKING LIGHT.
A Moses Wanted TO Solve the knotty
Problem of Supply and Demand
Relatlv G to Values.

Aip't mug
address to the People" by the "bi-
metallist editors" occurs the follow
ing:
Conditions which compel a farmer
debtor to confront such shrinkage OF
values and such corresponding shrink-
age of ability to pay must necessarily
mako him poorer and menace MN
with bankruptcy. To Illustrate; MIS-
souri, produced 1896, 900 bushels or
wheat IN 1872, and the product was
worth $40, $40, $50, the year before sill
yer was demonetized. In 1890 we pro-
duced 30,113,S2l bushels, which, at the
prices of 1872. would have brought
S43. 460, ASS, but a shrinkage of values
of about Al per cent had interviewed,
and our thirty odd million bushels
were worth only about S22, 900, 0O0-a
loss of nearly $4,000, 900 in n state
on a single crop"
Here every cause that mas a ten
dency to depress values or prices but
the "crime." or the decentralization of
silver, is lost sight of or willfully ig-
nored.
The writer lived in Illinois from 1861
to 1891. Prior to 1878 he frequently
sold corn for twenty-fiv cents a
bushel. In 1874, the year after the
demonstration of silver, corn was
worth sixty-five cents a bushei. The
following year ii was down again to
twenty and twenty-five cents a bushel.
What caused the rise and fall here?
Most any farmer could answer.
In 1877 corn again sold at twenty
cents a bushel. In the fall and winter
of 1882 yellow corn sold for sixty-five
and white for seventy cents a bushel.
In 1890 l sold my corn to shippers in
Illinois at thirty cents a bushel, while
here some feeders paid as high as
fifty-two cents. Hadn't these feeders
heard of the ''crime?" Last year
feeders paid, on an average, forty
cents a bushel, while the probabilities
are that twenty cents will catch this
years crop.
In 1890 oats brought forty cents a
bushel; nov ten cents. Forty cents
II years after the crime was COM
mitted was a pretty stiff price for oats;
but ten cents-Great Scott! HoW's
that for "prosperity?" Have the
farmers committed a crime by raising
too big a crop? Self binders used to
sell for $500; now Sis will buy better
one. Is the "crime" to blame for
this? Or, did the same causes which
depressed the values of farm products
also operate in decreasing the value
of the manufactured article? Wire
nails, when first made i'll this country,
sold at twenty-four cents a pound; a
year or so G they could be bought
for less than three cents. Who doesn't
know what made the change? If the
farmer could control the amount OF
his farm products -raise only enough
to supply a normal demand-couldn't
he also control prices? If, for in
stance, they could combine and agree
not to raise any wheat for sale, but on
ly enough for their own wants for two
years would anything be heard OF
"fifty-cent wheat" crime or nc
crime?
Before 1873 l sold timothy seed al
70 cts. a bushel; last year got $40.
If these conditions had been reversed
-S2.40 paid in '72-then the poor old
"crime" would have been compelled
to bear the blame.
Probably if the grippe" had APP
peared in 1874 instead of 1890, that
would have been saddled on the poor
old sinner, too.
Pm III favor of ''good'' money, no
matter whether it's made of gold, sill
yer, paper or pot metal-any kind that
everybody else is willing TO accept at
its face value in exchange for needed
commodities. But let us be fair, and
not lay all our ills and woes to the de-
monetization of silver, when we know
that prices were often lower before
than after the act.
Why is there an abundance of money
for those products that are scarce
such as clover, timothy and flax seed
and a dearth for such as are plenti-
full?
If an abundance of money will in
crease prices how is it done? Is it by
becoming deprecated? Does money,
like a commodity, decrease in value
as it increases in volume? During the
war money was plentiful and cheap.
1t took a great deal to exchange for
all commodities except land, if land
may be called such. Land that was
worth IS an acre then sells for 800
now. Does anyone suppose that if
the number of acres of farming land
had increased in number at a like
ratio as farm products, that it would
bring 800 an acre? If oats were as
scarce as clover seed would they sell
at ten cents a bushel? Two years ago
winter apples were worth two dollars
a bushel; the chances are that "two
bits' will be the selling price this
coming fall.
In 1875 CATER" mot 'tbefore tax
ing") paid 50 a bushel for potatoes;
since then I've seen the time when
the merchants would almost prosecute
a farmer for offering them for sale. If
silver and gold luctuate in value the
same as any other product, how can
they be kept at a parity? If the Gov
eminent goes into the free coinage
business will the delivers after the
precious metal be increased in num-
Der? If silver would increase or de-
cline in value would the dollars have
to be called in and some filed off OF
added to to keep it on a parity
with the gold dollar?
Oh, yes! the Government will fix
the price. Then why not fix the price
for u corn, wheat, oats, etc?
WI. - 5000 4. l,- .-~1Is--