The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-09-15

| foundations of more great fortune.
We're laid in that period than any othel
period of our history-it is pre-eminent
~ period in which the rich grew rich
er. 1t is also a period in which tht
farmer was worse '.f1eeced' by the
middle man" and transportation com
| panies than possibly any other period
| in our history. If the farmer was more
| prosperous then than now it is not be
| cause he is robbed" more now than
| then.
AS an illustration as TO how persons
can be deluded by appearances note
the following published in the World
Herald of Omaha, Organs paper q
short time ago. II has been copied
and Endorsed by other papers: "Ai
the close Of the civil war money was
plenty. All commodities sold at a
high figure and there was plenty OF
cash to purchase them. There was
work for all who wished it, at good
wages. Calico sold at 3IH cents per
yard, thread was 10 cents spool and
the girl for general homework had
dresses plenty. Tea was from 80 cents
to S150 per pound and the house
wife's caddy was always full. A suit
of the plainest clothes cost $50 up, and
no man who would work need go rag
ged. Wheat brought S1.15 per bushel
and other grain in proportion.
IL is not making a partisan statement
to say that the condition from the
farmers standpoint was worse upon
this showing than now. On the lace
Of the statement it would take 3O12
bushels of wheat to buy "a suit of the
plainest Clothes" while at the present
low price of wheat the same suit could
be bought for $50 or 10 bushels of
wheat. A bushel of wheat then would
buy but three yards OF calico, it Will
now buy six. '"The girl for general
Homework" would have to command
six times as much wages as now to
buy the same amount of calico. The
wage-earner would have to get about
five times as high wages to buy his
clothes then as now Did such wages
exist then? Not at all.
So it will be found on examination
that the farmers and wage-earners,
the classes first appealed to for support
Of "cheap money" are the classes that
are it's first and most defenseless vic
Tins" There is no gain by raising the
price of what the farmer has to sell
and at the same time raising relatively
higher the price of what he has to buy.
In all the accumulation of the past an
this nation there is but 81 900 per cap
ita to show for it Prosperity lies in
production and consumption. The
business of the country is founded in
producing what you don't need to ex-
change for what you want. Money Is
a medium of exchange-it facilitates
the exchange and rates or measures
the things exchanged. Gain or loss
is measured by the price relation OF
things sold and things bought. The
amount of money is important only
when it becomes redundant and tends
TO promote an unhealthy business spec
ulation; or when it becomes so scarce
that exchanges are hampered.
After the revolutionary war and prior
to the constitution, the states tried
"cheap money" to their hearts content
The constitution, in view of the dismal
failure of the 'cheap money" exper-
iments, forbade the states to make any
thing but gold and silver coin a tender.
From the adoption of the constitution
to 1905 the country was prosperous on
about one-fourth the per capita circula-
ton we have today.
Pollard in his history of the Confed-
eracy says: ''The evils of the expand
ed currency were not only financial.
They were also moral. The super
abundance of paper money was the
occasion Of wild speculation, which
corrupted the patriotism Of the coun-
try; introduced extravaganza and Ii
centiousness in private life and above
all bestowed fortune on the most undo
serving,-who in snug shops in Rich
mond made thousands of dollars q day
by 'wringing money out Of the necessi-
ties and distress of the country"
The national Democratic platform or
1892 demanded that all paper should
be redeemable in coin, 'for the pro-
lection of the farmers and laboring
classes, the first and most defenselesS
victims Of unstable and fictuatng cur
rency." "Cheap money" is delusion
and snare This is its undisputed
history. Its first and most defense
less Victims are '.the farmers and la
boring classes"