Delaware gazette and state journal., 1896-02-06

IL ITlCtH HhNb uOb AtIiAhoh W ifhbph
Of the 80 called decentralization of
silver, and IL, on the other hand, the
decline of prices which has admittedly
taken place is not curse but bless
ing to the masses of the people of this
country, then it seems to me that, the
foundation being destroyed, the whole
superstructure of the argument falls to
the ground.
What evidence has been adduced by
a single advocate of this free-coinage
measure to show that prices have de-
clined because of the so-called do
monetization of silver, and that gold
has appreciated, which Is the correla-
tive Of the decline OF prices in gold?
None that have been able to discover,
except that the price of silver itself
has declined nearly pari passu with
that of the staple commodities with
which il is compared. II there is no
other refuge for the argument of those
who advocate this amendment than
the bare fact that silver has declined
in price as measured by gold, and that
the commodities produced by agricul-
tural and other industries have also do,
cined, then | say that there has been
failure to prove the assertion; nay,
there has been failure to prove even
the probability that the one is the
cause of the other.
On the other hand, | think it can be
shown to every candid and fair mind
that tho decline in price of every staple
commodity that has been mentioned in
the course of this argument can be
accounted for by reasons that are OBJ.
vious and on the surface, and that
have no relation to the decline of silver
and do not even suggest an apprecia-
tion of the standard of value. And
when we show that silver itself has
been subjected to the influence of the
great rice-controlling element that
always is so potent, that of increased
supply and diminishing demand, then
| think we can safely assert that the
corner stone of this argument has been
destroyed.
Mr.. President, the argument that de-
clining prices are due to any condition
of things produced by the law of 1873,
or the decentralization of silver in Ger
many, or the cessation of free coinage
in France leaves out of sight altogether
those great economic influences which
are always at work and operating and
which can be discovered by the most
casual observation. 1t leaves out of
sight all the great improvements which
have been made in Industrial produc-
tion. | know that the Senator from
Arkansas with that fairness which
is characteristic of him, will admit
that a decline in prices not caused by APP
preciating money, but which cannot be
traced to improved methods and modes
of production, is not an undesirable
thing, but / want to call his attention,
and tho attention of the Senate, to the
fact that stares us in the face, that
meets us at every turn, that the last 20
years have been marked by an improve
ment and an advance in methods of
production unequal in all the past his
tory of the world.
That argument loses sight of all those
great appliances for the transaction of
business, the improvements and in
crease in railroad transportation,
steamship navigation, the telegraph,
the telephone, and of the numberless
devices for dispensing with the use of
actual money in making the exchanges
of the world.
Mr. President, who, il his attention
ia called to it in the most casual way,
does not recognize that in 25 years there
has been almost az great revolution in
the transportation facilities of this
country as there was when railroads
first superseded the old transportation
by stage coachY The continent has been
spanned; thousands of miles of rail
roads have pentrated into regions
that hitherto were unproductive be-
cause remote from the markets of the
world; hundreds of thousands Of acres
of land have been brought into tillage.
Increased production of the great food
products Of the world has been the
consequences Are these to be lost sight
of and ignored and this great and
beneficient decline of prices of the
great necessities of lie to be attributed
to decentralization in 1873, which
was not discovered until two or three
year after it had been consummated?
No. no, Mr.. President we can not
close our eyes to the history that is
making around lis, to the facts that
stare lis in the face. l hardly need to
particulariZe.
But let me call the attention of the
Senate to conspicuous instance of
this great price-reducing movement
that mechanical improvement and in
vention and brain power have brought
about. | allude to the Bessemer steel
process. This has occurred within the
period which we are discussing. Prior
to that invention and the expiration of
the patent of the Bes6emer- Siemens
process for converting iron into steel,
steel rails sold for S1S7 per ton. To
day S2o ton is the price of the best
steel rails. Has that had nothing to
do with the cost Of raihoad building?
Has that had nothing to do with that
most important factor in the distribu-
tion of the products of labor; | mean
the cheapness and increased facility
of transportation? To-day we CON
vert 20 tons of iron into steel rails in
% minutes. Iron rails are worth about
S22 ton, and steel rails last three
times as long as iron rails.
Think of the enormous economy in
the one factor of transportation, which
enters into the price to-day of every
article of common use and common
necessity. At tho commencement of
this period, or little before. corn was
burned as 1t was taken from the fields
over the Western prairies. To-day it is
sold for only little, 6 or cents, less
than it is sold on the coast line Of the
country and at the port of New York
Mr.. Allen--It iSbeing burned to-day.
Mr.. Gray--Mr. President. If that
state of things has been brought about
by opening up the markets by this
cheap transportation to the production
of the grain OF the great prairies of the
West. until thoy are competing with
the farmers of the Atlantic coast, so
| that the farmers here are suffering, as
they say, and say truthfully, from the
competition of those great steam plowed
fields of the West, and has brought
| your product to the seaboard for OK