The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1896-08-28

| Than DOtl the Wn6a6 ana CO6GOn CROPS com
bined. The crop Of corn made just preceding
the gold standard, in 1862 sold for "a cents al
! gold figures, and the crop of 1894 was worth 4;
cents in gold, and it has generally been above
| the 1872 price. The oat crop is about equal te
| the wheat crop. Oats were worth 20 cents in
1879 and 80 cents in 1894. Fat beef steers were
worth $40 in gold in 1872 and $50 in gold in 1896
Hogs are worth more now than they were in
1879 and have generally been higher than they
were then. The farmers wives get as much il
gold now for butter, chickens and eggs as they
did in greenbacks in 1872 and this crop is
more valuable than the wheat and cotto1
crops combined. Tobacco, potatoes bacon
hay, coffee, leather, whisky and hundred
other things have not declined in price.
Labor, Land, Wool and Horses.
The labor crop is equal in value to all other
crops com bined, and it has steadily advanced
In price, Land is much more valuable in gold
now than in 1872, Notwithstanding it was de
pressed by the panic of 1892 and 1898. The price
Of wool has declined, but the worlds produc
ton Of it, since 1872, has doubled and the use
of it has been partly supplanted by the OF
cotton goods Horses have declined, but the
railroads, electric cars and bicycles are doing
the work they did. The cost of the produc
tion of an article fixes its value This is neces
sarily so, because if the profit is large. Others
will be attracted to the business until the price
Is brought to its proper level All articles man
u1acUureu Dy machinery nave price
for the reason that with each invention the
cost of producing the article is lessened. HUI
man genius has produced more results fol
cheapening production in the last 50 years
than in all the ages of the world before thai
time. These grand 1r1umphs or man over mat
ter, instead of showing depression from q
standard of value, show forth the glory eud
dignity of the human intellect, and are an u,
mixed blessing to the whole human family.
Could any one outside of a lunatic asylum at
tribute all these diverse and inconsistent
movements of prices to one cause, and that
cause acting evenly and uniformly upon all
things alike?
What Makes Interest Low?
Interest has declined since 1872 in my part
of the country from 3 per cent per month to
and per cent per annum. There is no deny
ing the fact that the goldbugs did that. The
south and west have saved more on the decline
of interest than they have loss in the decline
in wheat and cotton. Interest is always low
under an honest standard, among an honest
people, where money is plentiful. 1t is lower
in London than in any other spot on the globe
because her standard is stable and her COM
mercial integrity has been the care of her
statesmen and her people for ages past Eng
lands punctuality in meeting her obligations
has made London the clearing house of the
world Tyre was the London of ancient times.
Seated on the eastern end of the Mediterra-
turtles. The scepter of commercial greatness
passed from her when her own children reared
Carthage at the other end of that sea. Some
300 years ago England planted colonies in
America, and today the United States is Eng.
lands only formidable rival for the COM
merce of the world. The object lesson of an
cient history is being repeated. If the insati-
able mine owners by use Of their millions, and
the place hunting demagogues by unctuous APP
peals to prejudice, succeed in driving this
country from the standard Of civilization and
commerce, the standard that announces in
tegrity at home and inspires confidence
abroad, to fiat standard and silver basis,
then England will have no rival to grapple
with her in the marts of the world.
More Gold and More Credits.
The third proposition is that the supply of
gold is insufficient to make it correct stand
ard and it's scarcity will tend to depress
prices The average annual output of gold of
the world for the first half of this century, in
round numbers, was SIS, 100000. From 1851 to
1866 covering the gold boom in California and
Australia, the yearly average was $780, 600, 600.
The output for 1893 was $155. 600 and for 1894
$lS1, 900, 600. The birth rate among gold using
countries is not increasing, while the produc-
ton Of gold is on the increase, as just stated.
This answer ought to satisfy even the extreme
l6 to l people-the "per capita" Populist-es-
pecially in view of the fact that Improvements
in power and machinery are being applied to
the production of gold, while the genius of in
vention finds no inducement offered nor field
for operation in the population business.
My next answer is that the more highly en-
lightened the world becomes, and the greater
the improvements in business methods, the
less necessity there is for the use of, actual
money of any kind. Steam and electricity
have so knitted civilized people together that
they are practically one community. Business
Il -
If they were assembled in the same building.
Their business is done on a system of credits.
without the use of money, except for ultimate
settlement. Nor is this method confined to
business men. 1t is broadening with the evolu-
ton of man from lower to higher plane of
intelligence. A farmer may now live for a
whole year on the fat Of the land and never
handle dollar in money during that time.
He may receive checks for his crop. deposit
them to his credit with bank and draw on
the bank for what he owes and spends. Mel
Their he nor the men who bought his crop had a
dollar in the bank. They only had credit
there.
The bank owns the money in it's vault, and
it's customers simply have the banks obliga-
tion. Bank credits perform precisely the same
work that gold and silver do, and they per-
form it much quicker and more conveniently.
The Scots are the most conservative people in
the world, and they have had the best banking
system of any people for 200 years. On a gold
reserve Of 1928. 652 600 they support bank credits
to the amount Of $448, 288, 900. The best author
tiles estimate that only one bill of exchange
in 100000 is ever paid in money in England.
Gold, silver and other money perform l per
cent of the exchanges in this country, and
credits in the shape of bills, notes, checks
etc., do the other SO per cent. The business
Of the world could no more be done today with
gold and silver than it's inland transportation
could be done with OK wagons.
The 10 to orators, in denouncing the act of
1873, assert that half the money Of the country
was destroyed and hold out the idea that our
money has been contracted to that extent. In
1872 our population was DO, SOC, 600 and our per
capita Of money was $18.79. In 1894, after the
country had been suffering with gold standard
for 81 years. our population is SO, 275, 900, and
our per capita of money is 1854, and we have
much better money now than he had then.
The adoption Of the gold standard as a meas
ure of value did not increase the demand for
gold for use to any great extent Alcohol is
the standard for measuring the strength Of all
spirftuous liquors, yet that fact has never been
found to be very straining on alcohol.
A Surfeit of Silver.
Fourth proposition, that the free and unlim-
tied coinage of silver at 16 to would create
unlimited demand for silver and restore it to
a par. How the mere coinage of silver can in
any way increase its use among the people
am unable to understand. If there was not
enough Of 1t for use as money and the govern