The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1896-09-04
Republican County Ticket.
WHEAT AND SILVER.

One of the chief assertions OF the
silyerites is that the low price OF
wheat is due to the low price OF silver.
It has been shown time and again
that silver has nothing to do what
ever with the price of wheat. A cor
respondent of the Chicago Inter Ocean
who has been looking up the matter
in Washington, says that there is just
as much force in placing the cause for
the define in the price of wheat to
the increase Of the amount of silver
in our money volume as to say that
the decline in price of silver is the
cause of it. He shows that in 1871 the
average price of wheat in paper money
was 81 .25S, and the amount of silver
in circulation was $50, 100000. In 1895
the average price Of wheat had
dropped to soc in gold and the amount
of silver in circulation had Increased
to 1925, 900. 900, an increase Of l 200 per
cent in our silver money. Now, there
is lust as much force in saying that
this enormous increase in silver has
caused the great decline in the price
of wheat as to say that the falling
price of silver has caused it, for
neither have had anything to do with
it. Whatever decline there has been
in the price of wheat is due solely, as
we have shown before in the columns,
to the supply and demand. The sur
plus crop of wheat fixes the price OF
the entire crop, and not the f1uctuat-
ing price of silver. Our market for
what surplus crop we have is Europe.
Now, whatever surplus we have has
got to take chances with the surplus
of other countries, and if the aggre-
gate supply equals or exceeds the de-
mand, the surplus from the country
which can produce it the cheapest
will have considerable bearing on the
price of the whole.
Now the the complaint is that
wheat has dropped in price since the
alleged crime against silver in 1878.
If this charge Of the decline in the
price of wheat is true, is it not pos
sible there may be other causes for it
than silver? Since that time the
great wheat fields of the Northwest
have been opened up and thousands of
acres added to the wheat belt of the
country. Every inducement in the
way of the best transportation facili-
ties and the most improved farm
machinery have been put forth, which
have acted as an encouragement to
larger production of wheat. And this
enlargement of the wheat supply has
not been confined TO this country
alone. Development has gone on in
the rest Of the world also. and India,
Argentine Republic and Russia have
added vast amounts of the surplus
which has been sent into the markets
of Europe.
Senator PETER in his report on the
cause of the fall of agricultural prices,
made to the senate in 1894, said that
the effect of these large supplies of
foreign countries on the wheat
market had been to bring down prices,
and continued: "Our strongest rival
is now India, whose farmers during
the past seven years furnished nearly
one-half as much as we did of the
wheat requirement of our best
customer, England. Wages of
India farm hands run from to 10
cents of our money per day, and wheat
cost about 13 cents per bushel on the
farm there"
Can our farmers meet competition
of this kind? Of course they cannot,
and the free coinage of silver will not
help them to do it. The only remedy
against such competition is home
market such as this country has been
building up for the past thirty years.
Free coinage of silver will not build
up such q market nor aid in it, but
protection to our industries will, and
that is what the American people
want.