The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1896-02-21

supply Of standard money, or money Of
ultimate redemption.
Consequently it is plain enough that
the question of price levels is one OF
the relation OF money volume to com
modities. We can, therefore, have
which price level We choose, that of
dollar wheat, fifty cent corn, and SO on,
or the other level Of fifty cent wheat,
| twenty-five cent corn, etc. Either Of
these planes Of prices can be easily
enough secured. One, that represent
by fifty cent wheat, is the gold plane
Of prices; the other, indicated by dollar
wheat, is the bimetaIlic plane. With
gold the sole measure it is impossible
to have high, or higher, prices. On the
contrary prices must go lower as gold
appreciates, or grows dearer, as it is
doing now all the time. With money
supply left, as before 1878, to come
from the mines of both gold and silver,
We would undoubtedly have in time a
range of prices approximating that
which prevailed from 1850 to 1873.
But the gold men say that low prices
are not an evil. That may or may not
be true, but falling prices are an evil
always, for they not only increase bur
dens, but they impede production and
imperil business enterprise. Moreover,
low prices are an evil, if with low prices
debts are to be paid which were created
when prices were high, for then earn
ings are unjustly taken from those who
are entitled to them and turned over
to those who have no right to them. 1t
is often claimed, too, that when prices
fall, what one buys costs less and there
fore no one is hurt. But in the first
place, debts and taxes and many other
things do not change with prices, and
consequently more of everything is re-
quired to pay the same debts, taxes
and many other things, after prices
have fallen. Again, things do not go
down evenly. Products go first, profess
sional services, cost of education and
things that can be controlled by mono
plies, follow slowly. Then, again, pro-
ducers sell in the wholesale market and
buy in the retail market; and prices in
the retail market often remain up long
after wholesale prices have gone down.
Hence, in any view Of the question, fall
ing prices work injustice to all pro-
ducers, and most of ali, perhaps, to the
great agricultural class.
Great solitude is manifested in high
places about the depreciation of cur
rency. But what about the de-
probation of everything else? The
currency at best is not more than 3 per
cent of the entire wealth of the coun-
try. Is it nothing to have wheat, corn,
goods of all kinds-all the products of
Iabor-all the the things that must go
to buy money and to pay debts and
taxes, and in the end labor itself, de-
preciate as we have seen them go down
since 1873?
Ask the question Of yourselves, and
you neighbors, under which condition
would this country be most prosperous,
one with a general range of prices, in
Dictated by dollar wheat, fifty cent corn
and other things in proportion, or one
with fifty cent wheat, twenty cent corn
and other things ranged on that scale?
Well, as has been shown, the difference
is one Of money supply and nothing
else. We cannot have the higher range
of prices with only gold and bank
promises to pay gold for currency.
There is no getting away from the
fact that the basis of our money system
must be broadened by adding silver to
gold, if we would have higher range
of prices for our products, OF if we
would prevent a further fall of prices.
This is the only way, too, to provide
! gOund and stable aItrrencv