Omaha daily bee., 1896-09-25
STICKING TO A FALsEHooD.
II is Much Easter Than Searching for
the Truth.

u IL huch tnSter Thnn searching FOR
the Truth.
New York Times DEM
Mr.. Bryan's latest speeches have degener-
ated into sheer denunciation of the gold
standard and the persistent iteration of the
falsehood that gold has largely appreciated
in purchasing power since the "demonetiza-
ton" of silver. He keeps telling the farm
ers that that is why the prices of some OF
their products have been reduced. while he
tries to make them accept the absurdlty
that at the same time they have to pay as
much as ever for other things.
This appreciation of gold is now The main
stay OF what Mr.. Bryan considers his argu-
Elent against the gold standard. but II he
tried to inform himself and wished to in
form others of the truth he would know that
his assertions are refuted by all the stats
ties on the subject.
The only way of determining the pur-
chasing power Of gold is to compare the
general range of prices of commodities as
measured by gold for a series of years.
rms has been done, and there are four care
fully prepared tables showing this COMPARE
son down to 1891. DR.. Soetbeer used the
prices of ia leading articles in the markets
OF London and Hamburg, taking 100 as the
standard, in 1850, Gold prices advanced
somewhat irregularly up to 1873. 2S in 1873
and then declined to 102.02 in 1887. and stood
at 1913 in 1891. Saurbeck's table of Eng
lish prices takes the standard of 100 in 1867,
when the other table stood at 124.44, and
shows an advance to i09 in 1873 and a de-
cline to 6S in 1891. The London Economist
table uses only twenty-five leading articles
and begins with 100 in 1850. In 1875 the ad-
vance had been to 1874, but in 1891 the level
was at 1902 and in 1895 at 80. The American
authority is the Aldrich report, based upon
223 articles and coming down to 1898. TAX
ing the standard of comparison as 100 in
1850, it shows an advance to has in 1873
and a decline to 81 in 1888. The purchas-
ing power of gold was then but little greater
than in 1860 and not so great as in 1850,
low prices indicating an increase in the
relative value of gold.
An interesting feature of the Aldrich
table Is the comparison with wages. TAX
ing 100 as the standard in 1860, 1t appears
that wages measured in gold had slowly
advanced during the preceding twenty years
from S2.5 and continued to advance almost
steadily to 1886 in 1893. The purchasing
to LOCO in 1850 and .S37 in 1910. The cost
of gold in wages was .593 in 1893, as COM
pared with .G7S in 1878, LOCO in 1860, and
l.2i2 in 1910. These figures show but slight
fluctuations in gold from year to year in
hfty years, as compared with prices, it's
purchasing power being less than at the
beginning of that period and little greater
than twenty years ago, and a decided ad-
vance in wages paid in gold.
Mr.. Bryan constantly tries to give the
impression that the gold standard was first
adopted in this country in 1873, whereas it
has been the sole standard since 1884,
though he sometimes talks as If we were
What he is trying to do is to substitute
the silver standard after the value of the
metal has demonstrably declined to little
more than half what it used to be.