Omaha daily bee., 1896-10-10
FINANCE FOR THE FARMER
J. Sterling Morton Delivers Sound Money
Speech in Chicago,
REPLIES TO MANY SILVER PALACES
Secretary of Agriculture Declares
Gold Demonetized wouid Be Pre-
fcrred to Legal Tender Silver
ms Payment for Debts.

CHICAGO, Oct. 9.-secretary OF Agricul-
ture ]. Sterling Morton spoke at
the Auditorium tonight under the
auspices Of the Sound Money league. The
hall was filled to the extent OF its seating
capacity and when Secretary Morton ap-
peared upon the platform he was greeted
with loud and enthusiastic cheers He
was introduced by David B. Jones Of the
Sound Money league, who paid fiattering
tribute to the secretary as a politician and
a man.
Before beginning his address, Secretary
Morton announced that an invitation had
boen sent to President Cleveland, requesting
his presence at the meeting Mr.. Morton
then read the Presidents letter regretting
his inability to be present, which was as
follows:
Gray Gables. Buzzards Bay. Edwin
Sir am SO much interested in the, work
which the American Honest Money league
anything | consistently could to aid its cf-
forts. l regret, therefore, that / must de-
cline your invitation 10 address the league
on some date previous to the approaching
election. Even II the pressure OF Official
i've It cyonsisteHt isis With Strict propriety to min
gle actively IN the pending campaign; VINE me
~ nens rs have enn the "s least doubt as to my
sentiments on the vital question which at
this time absorbs SO largely the M attention liGi
financial ideas and the labor of enforcing
the, lessons of public and private honesty
and morality, l feel must be prosecuted
without such participation on my part as
you suggest. Wishing for the league the
utmost success in It's patriotic endeaver,
"' '''' ' GROVER CLEVELAND.
DEFINES MONEY AND CAPITAL.
Secretary Morton spoke of Chicago as
the biggest wholesale market for farm
nrn In thn VII oil w
finance for the farmer ought TO be thought
about and discussed" Money he "a! ID, was
merely measure of value and mediator
of exchanges, and dollar with too much
purchasing power was as impossible as
square meal with too much nutritve power.
Capital he defined as money saved to put
into business to reproduce itself. He made
the statement that the statute can no more
fix the purchasing power of coin than 1t
could fix the price of corn and wheat. All
that legislation can do for currency is to
confer upon 1t the power to liqudate debts.
Its value in llquidatng debts depends upon
demand and demand depends upon desire.
If gold were stripped of its legal tender
quality demonetized gold would be preferred
by creditor to legal tender silver.
After attacking the populistic orators for
inciting the poor against the rich and point
ing out that the rich men Of today were
the poor men of few years back, he turned
his attention to the alleged "dlscontented
and distressed farmers" He said: "Eructa-
tory orators say all lnlS COIUeS lTOiu lue
satisfied demand for moro money
and bigger prices for farm prod
ucts. But these economic oracles
confound terms and make desire and
demand synonymous. Nearly all men desire
moro money. But no man can make law
full demand for more money except he offer
some valuable in exchange therefor"
After giving some figures on the values of
farm products Of the United States Mr.. Nor
''A '"''' MONEY AND PRICES.
My views are thoroughly in accord with
those expressed by J. Schoenhof in hls -ery
valuable book on THE History of Money
and Prices"
The quantity of money in circulation
does not determine prices of products and
cause of inherent qualities in commodities.
The conditions regulating prices are deter
mined min by the forces engagsd in ProdpGten
have declined In prices during the last five
years on an average of about 30 per cent.
production. Science has made labor more
productive. The yield per day of individual
effort in many. branches of agriculture, is
three, four and ten times that Of former
periods Yet wages have doubled and
sometimes trebled, while the purchasing
power of money has been either stationary
or increased in much less degree. Prices
have declined and wages risen logically be-
cause of this development of improved
production High wages and low prices are
copartners. They faithfully represent the
increased skill and productive power of the
Wage-eaTner
Farm products have also declined In price
because, through improved implements,
machinery and cheapened transportation,
new and vast areas of fertile lands have
been opened TO tillage. Steamships and
railroads have brought In contact with the
central markets OF the world the farm
products of Australia, the Argentine Re-
public, Russia and India. Transportation
by water and by rail has been reduced TO
plies from producing districts are crowded
into consuming populational centers from
every quarter of the globe. Thirty years
two or three sources. And yet the fall in
the prices of agricultural products has
hardly been SO great proportionately dur
ing that period of time as the decline in
the prices of manufactured articles.
The fallacy of the popuistic claim that
tization of silver is easily exposed by re-
cent commercial history of the United
upon fact, that the demonetization of sill
yer lessened the circulating media and so
caused the decline In prices, then there
mense rise in prices following the resump-
ton Of gold payments in 1872 because from
1862 to 1879 all metallic currency, except
the gold circulating on the Pacific slope,
had been entirely out OF use in the United
States. The coin in this country including
year of resumption to siO2 O47, ,9O2 And that
amount In thirty-eight months, more than
auintupied and !, IN IsO iS issl reached the enor.
all kinds of money in the United States in
1878 amounted to only s729 2,64S, while in
1881 the money In circulation I'm this coun-
try amounted TO S1l14.23S.1l 1l9. Thus, in less
than four years, the United States showed
rise from $l532 to s2l.1 per capita circu-
lation This speedy and vast increase of
the volume OF currency money should have
according TO populistic theories, materially
enhanced the prices OF all salable things
But, on the contrary, during that period
there was a marked decline in some of the
most staple products of the United States
Briefly, to verify this statement. Wheat
was Sl,0S In 1877 and declined TO % cents
In 1880, and pork fell off from S4.76 per
barrel in 1877 to ss.sS In 1879 and to slS,23
In 1880.
These illustrations are sufficient, I'm this
contention, TO demonstrate that an Increase
or money does not necessarily increase the
prices of farm products.
Congressman William Jennings Bryan
reasoned well. on March l6, 1892 when he
said In the house of representatives:
you must attribute 1t to the inventive