The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1895-10-11
LIVE ISSUES.
The Prosperity We Read About.

In the poetry of mathematics we
read of wonderful curve which.
always approaching, can never
meet its companion line. This
hyperbola is typical of that pros
perity which is now so frantically
doomed by the plutocratic press
always returning, it never returns.
We have not forgotten-we cannot
forget-how evidently it was re-
turning, but returned not, in the
dismal days following the repeal of
the Sherman law. That prosperity
has yet returned, or is now return
ing, to our people is hyperbolic
untruth. Falling prices and shrink
ing values are brought about by
one of two causes, viz: either an
increase in the purchasing power of
money through a diminution of its
quantity or an excessive production
of commodities beyond what is
needed to supply the necessities
and desires of mankind. AS to the
theory of over production, it ap-
pears to have been abandoned by
its supporters. Do millions go
hungry because there is too much
bread; naked and uncovered from
the cold because there is too much
clothing; idle because there is too
much work to do? False and
fraudulent legislation is responsible
for fallen and falling prices and
shruken and shrinking values,
armies of tramps, crowded aims
houses, and hundreds of thousands
of suicides.
The necessary result of falling
prices and shrinking values is de
preston of all industrial and com
mercial activities. The result of
this depression is diminished de-
mand for the use of money and con
sequent fall in the rate of interest,
accompanied by great and increas
ing accumulation of unloanable
funds (unloanable even at the low
est rates ever demanded,) in the
bank vaults. A low rate of interest
is the infallible indicator of indus
trial and commercial stagnation and
depression. Therefore it is evident
that the current bank statements
give the lie direct to the news
papers spreading the news of re-
turning prosperity, for they exhibit
accommodating hordeS of funds, I'M
loanable even at the lowest rate of
interest ever known. Reports of
the general market, exhibit contin-
uOus decline in the prices of the
great staples, and the tendency is
still downward. There is absolutely
no reasonable prospect of anything
more than merely spasmodic spec
ulative advance, which cannot be
sustained for any length of time
above the general level of prices, by
any combination which can be made
for such a purpose. 1t is true that
in many cases the papers report an
increase of wages paid by manufac-
turers. 1t is necessary, however,
to remember how these wages are
paid. They are almost universally
paid. not in money, but In due bills
of the company of one form or an
other, which are, in effect orders on
the company's store for goods and
family supplies, and they are also
receivable for rents of quarters due
the company.
To advance the wages, and sinful
taneously to advance rents, and
prices at the company store, in
equal ratio, is not natural increase
of wages at all. 1t is, OF course the
right of any employee to demand
money for his wages and to deal else
where than the company store but
heknows, and every body else knows,
he will be dismissed if he does and
black listed besides. He is to every
intent and purpose a slave of the
company. These facts are too well
known to be contradicted; too plain
to be misunderstood too strong tC
be refuted. AS to the manufacture
ers they are in the hands of the
banks, and when word comes down
that wages must be advanced unit
after the elections, they are advan
ced ; and a great parade is madeIby
the papers of the advances, before
the public. Neither are the papers
ignorant of the bogus character Of