Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1896-08-27
MARSHALL County, Mnnesota Thursday 1896

those which have occasioned decline
IN the prices of great number of
commodities. For instance, copper
tea kettles sold in 1860 for $3.50
each, and now can be bought for rs
cents: This because copper has de-
clined. The metal fell from 25 cents
per pound in 1880 to 9 or 10 cents
in 1892 because of the extraordinary
prOductiveness of new American
mines and new methods of mining
and smelling, and this decline oc-
CURED in spite of the efforts of one of
the most influential syndicates ever
organized. For these reasons: the
prices went down; neither gold nor
silver had anything to do with it.
Pig iron sold for $50 per ton in
1873, for SILL in 1881, and now as
good grade can be bought for $13.
Concurrently with this stimulus to
enlarge consumption the increase in
the worlds production of pig iron
from 1877 to 1892 was 916 per cent,
and for the United States alone 343
per cent. Corresponding declines
have occurred in the prices of rails,
structural steel and nails. A decline
in the price of wheat has been almost
continuous since 1885, and the
worlds over-production and surplus
supply have increased correspond
lngly. Cotton was worth about 20
cents per pound in the paper 90 per
cent greenbacks of 1878, and now
sells for 6 to Z cents. People who
attribute this decline to monetary
changes between gold and silver over
look the fact that the supply for cot
ton for many years has tended to
exceed the worlds requirements.
What have these facts to do with
"appreciation''? The Democratic
tariff reduced the price OF wool, it is
true, but other equally powerful
causes contributed t., the fall in price.
In the island OF Australia, which af-
fords the largest supply Of wool, the
number Of sheep has increased more
so per cent in the last six years.
What has appreciation" of gold
to do with that?
The supply OF these four great
commodities, iron, wheat, cotton and
wool, controls the cost of bread and
breadstuffs generally, of all cotton
and Woolen fabrics, and nearly all
tools, machinery, ships. cars and
buildings. An oyersupply Of them,
and to much less extent than has
actually occurred, will materially
effect the market price of products
whose average annual value cannot
be less than two billion dollars. Also
the decline in price due to great re-
| ductions in the cost of transporta-
tion in recent years should not be
overlooked. Rail rates in the Uni
ted States have dsclined 60 per cent
in the last forty years. The cost OF
carrying bushel Of wheat from
Chicago to New York is 20 cents less
than in 1870, and contemporaneous
reductions in ocean freights have
further augmented this difference in
the markets of the world.
In the investigation of the phenom-
ena Of appreciation and depreciation
candid persons must keep the facts
OF the case in mind and not invite
mental imbecility by harboring the
wild-eyed hallucination OF "1S73".
Until the formation of the silver Wall
street trust, about ten years ago,
there was no crime of .'1S73".
The thing was invented by that
trust and is now being worked by
the paid agents OF that trusts 'sbi-
metallic league to the great disad-
vantage of the business Of the coun-
try. The most stable measure OF
! value is labor, which has gone hand
in hand with gold. For reasons
above stated, gold will buy more
than formerly; SO will silver. Try
taking wages in Mexican silver, which
is the Populistic plan, and see how
much you can buy. You will want
your United Safes (Republican) mon
ey restored, and that right speedily
There is one query that defes COM
prehension: How can any laborer or
producer be in favor OF cheap, half
value dollars? Can any currency on
earth be too good for him?-J os1AH
HARTzELL, in Canton Repository.
For Mckinley.