Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1896-07-24
100000. it was in 1884 s4.25o.ooo.0oo.

yer was never SO great as in recent
years and this fact accounts for the
most part for the depreciation of silver.
The worlds output of silver from 1900
to 1880 (Dr. Soetbeer's tables) was
about 1,431 million ounces. From 1870
to 1894 inclusive it was about 2,33377 mil
lion ounces. From 1890 to 1894, five
years, it was 74S million o-unces-nearly
half as much as from 1900 to 1870. While
in 1895 it was said to be greater than
ever. With such an enormous output
depreciation was inevitable.
That gold has not appreciated since
1878 because wage earners on the YER
age are getting more of it for their Ia
borand because men are willing to lend
it for about half the interest they for
merly received.
That the price of products has not
varied because silver has deprecated;
since some products of the farm are
no cheaper than in 1873. Improved
methods of production and supply and
demand fully account for lower prices
of products of the farm and the work
shop.
That while the rich may have great
ly prospered, never since the world be-
gan has the sober industrious poor, as
a class, had SO many good things to en-
joy for the same effort put forth as
during the closing quarter of the nine
tenth century. OF course the present
depression has brought hardships to
all classes.
That any depreciation in real estate
values is due to a "busted BOOM or to
causes almost entirely local.
That there is plenty of money in this
country, but there is a scarcity of cir
culation, because capitalists lack con-
fidence and are slow to lend or invest
their money.
SOME CONCLUSIONS FROM THE ABOVE.
That one prime of the panic
and the continued depression is a lack
of confidence growing out of the free
coinage agitation and the unsettling of
values involved therein. Stop the agi-
tation and confidence will be restored.
Capital is both timid and indepen-
dent.
That congress cannot enact that
wheat shall be worth 81 per bushel, nor
can it say that an ounce Of silver,
worth 66 cents, shall be worth sl.2914.
That while Uncle Sam is undoubted-
ly able to wollop the life out Of any ma
ton Oh earth, he cannot make the na-
tions of the earth agree to double the
value of silver because lie says it shall
he done, and our International com
mercial relations are too intimate and
too important to ignore the business
methods of the rest of the world.
That the free coinage of silver by
this country alone at 16 to l would
give silver Il fictitious value, drive out
gold, bringing .in operation once Enc
Gresham's law, and reducing oul
money by about scoo,ooo,ooo Of gold.
That the country then would be on {
, silver basis alone and the present true
and permanent bimetallic conditions
the only real bimetallic condition.
that have ever prevailed in America
would be overturned.
That as gold would go to a premium
. the silver dollar would buy only wha'
4 it's bullion value would be worth, ant
, prices of commodities would be practi
cally double.
That the wage Garner, pensioner, ant
g all receivers of fixed incomes would bt
greatly injured; for they would not sc
, any money than now, while VIVA
. they do get would only go half as fur
q That the workingmsn or salasiet
$ man who votes for free silver vote.
4 against his own interests. His EN-
a ployer will pay him very little, if any
more and the purchasing power will b.
cut in two.
;, That free coinage will enable TIN
= debtor to cheat his creditors; for Will
he borrowed in gold he will pay in de
preciated silver.
That as we shall be on a silver basi
the price of commodities will not onl.
fuctuatc in response to the laws o
:, supply and demand of the commodi
= ties themselves, but also according t.
:. the fiuctuation of silver which will still
be measured in terms of gold. TIL
merchant and the manufacturer woul'
thus have to encounter the uncertain
= ties of a double tiuctuation, just q
they did during our paper money re
gime.
That, worse than all. the election Q
- Il free silver president and congress
!. will cause a run ON all the banks b
%depositors anxious to get gold Will
they can. A large number of tn
banks will not have the ready none
o to pay; they will then go INTO tn
hands of receivers, the bank creditor
r,;ll 10 Foronl 70 coAf1o Inv J;c%,.oc.