Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-06-01

had ANYTHING to do with hard times or
that the apprehension everywhere existihe
when the Democratic party started In 10
carry out its free trade promises had any
thing to do with the business depression.
Being q free trader himself he ignores
those, the prime causes of the business de-
preston. Indeed in attributing hard times
wholly to silver agitation he appears to
have undertaken thankless task with all
who remember that after Congress had
laid the silver ghost of Mr.. Cleveland
fancy, times did not improve but on the
contrary continued to grow worse until
the fall elections showed that the country
had got enough Of the Democratic party
in control and until Congress had refused
to pass some Of the more destructive feat
ures of the tariff bill. 1t is rather late In
the day for Mr.. Atkinson to attempt TO
get back onto that old and exploded theory
that the Sherman law was the only cause
Of hard times.
We would not argue but what the free
silver agitation has done harm but as it
did not assume it's most malignant form
until the dawn of better times 1T is an
evil that must be dealt with not as the
sole cause of business stagnation OF the
past two years but rather as the threat to
cause financial panic In the future.
And to this latter phase of the subject Mr..
Atkinson's arguments are very pertinent.
And in this connection we quote from
Mr.. Atkinson's article: 1.-THE representa-
tlves Of mining camps in our national Sch
ate, who. command immense sums OF
money, who lend their own money on
mortgage on gold basis, the banks of
whose states maintain larger portion of
their reserves in gold than do any other
banks of this country, and by whom every
other interest Of the country Is made sub
ordinate to this petty silver industry, are
the men who must be marked down for
public discredit. and be deprived of their
malignant power in the Senate of the
United States"
Continuing he points out the slight
relative value of tho silver industry as
compared with the great industries of the
country and the improvements in ma
chinery which have made 1t possible to
mine much larger quantities with frac
ton of the labor cost formerly necessary,
SO that while the price of silver bullion
decreased the output increased to an
alarming extent. The production of gold
is now greater than the production of both
silver and gold In 1918 and is rapidly
increasing. He also claims that gold it.
self has already lost part of its purchasing
power. For "the twenty-five years prior
to 1873 in which the relative value of sill
yer to gold was fairly uniform there were
as frequent or moro frequent commercial
crises, AS great 1uctuation In prices, and,
at one time, fall in prices very nearly to
the present level In the face of an increas
ing production of both gold and silver. =
Mr. Atkinson asks: "Is 1t not true that
an intelligent farmer can either derive
double product from given area of good
land by the employment of the same num-
Der of hands that he employed in 1860, or
derive an equal product from the same
land at less than half the cost of labor and
capital required at that date" In view
of such conditions he deems it simply alb
surd to connect the price of silver with
the prices of foods etc.
1t is gratifying to motto that Mr.. Atkin-
son thinks that the end of the free silver
| citation jc already near at hand