The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1896-10-09

10 has shot sonse things up In price, The corn
crop CT the United States Is more valuable
than both the wheat and cotton crops com
bined. The crop of corn made just preceding
the gold standard. in 1862. sold for "a cents at
gold figures, and the crop of 1894 was worth as
cents in gold, and IL has generally been above
the 1872 price. The oat crop Is about equal to
the wheat crop. Oats were worth 20 cents in
1872 and 90 cents in 1894 Fat beef steers were
worth $40 in gold in 1872 and 500 in gold in 1896
Hogs are worth more now than they were in
1872 and have generally been higher than they
We're then. The farmers wives get as much in
gold now for butter, chickens and eggs as they
did in greenbacks in 1872, and this crop is
more valuable than the wheat and cotton
crops combined. Tobacco. potatoes bacon,
hay, coffee, leather, whisky and n 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 1t 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 1893. The price
OF wool has declined, but the worlds produc-
ton OF 1t, since 1872, has doubled and the use
of 1T has been partly supplanted by the use Of
cotton goods. Horses have declined, but the
railroads, electric cars and bicycles are doing
the work they did. The cost of the produc-
ton 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.
ufactured by machinery have declined in price,
for the reason that with each invention the
cost of producing the article is lessened. HUI
man genius has produced more results for
cheapening production in the last 80 years
than in all the ages of the world before that
time. These grand triumphs of man over mat
ter, instead Of showing depression from
standard of value, show forth tho glory and
dignity of the human intellect, and are an UNI
mixed blessing to the whole human family.
Could any one outside of n 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 alikep
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 lost 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-
mean, she reigned queen of commerce for CEN
turtles. The scepter Of commercial greatness
passed fHOm her when her own children reared
Carthage at the other end of that sea. Some
800 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
Gent 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 fat 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 its 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 Sic, 900. From 1851 to
1865, covering the gold boom in California and
Australia, the yearly average was $3.50, 0O0, 900.
The output for 1903 was $685. 0O0 900 and for 1894
$1S1, 100000. The birth rate among gold using
countries is not increasing, while the produc-
tion of gold Is on the increase, as just stated.
This answer ought to satisfy even the extreme
10 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
men speak to each other around the world as
IL 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 a lower to higher plane Of
intelligence. A farmer may now live for
whole year on tho 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 a bank and draw on
the bank for what he owes and spends Mel
Their he nor the men who bought his crop had q
dollar in the bank. They only had credit
there.
The bank owns the money in its vault, and
its customers simply have the banks obliga-
ton. Bank credits perform precisely the same
work that gold and silver do, and they per-
form 1t much quicker and more conveniently
The Scots are tho most conservative people in
the world, and they have had the best banking
system of any people for 200 years. On gold
reserve Of $23, 652 600 they support bank credits
to the amount Of $448, 2sS, 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 tho shape of bills, notes, checks,
etc., do the other 80 per cent. The business
of the world could no more be done today with
gold and silver than its inland transportation
could be done with OK wagons.
The 10 to orators, in denouncing the act Of
1878, 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 40, SOC, 900 and our per
capita Of money VS. $3.50. In 1894, after the
country had been saffering with gold standard
for 81 years, our population is 6S, 600, 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 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
spirituous 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-