People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1896-08-27
A Manufacturers Views.

A Manufacturers Views.
Pontiac Ill. Observer,
Charles K. Sligh, president of the
Sigh Furniture Company, OF Grand
Rapids, Mich, one Of the largest con-
Germs of the kind in the world, writes
tU the Chicago Record as follows:
ut affords me pleasure to comply
with the Records request to submit a
few reasons, from a manufacturers
standpoint, why the independent,
free and unlimited coinage of silver
by the United States would be bene-
fetal to our country,
ut is a well established principle
in finance that the quality or value of
money is regulated by the quantity,
and that the quantity Of all the money
in the world regulates the value Of all
commodities and products that are
bought and sold. If the volume of
money is large, prices will be high,
and if money is scarce or boarded,
IpriceS will be low. This principle has
been repeatedly demonstrated in all
times of the worlds history, and the
men who secured the demOnetization
Of silver were perfectly familiar with
it. They were the money lenders of
the world, who desired that their
money should become more valuable,
and they accomplished their ends
through corrupt, diShOnorable means.
The results of demOnetization have
justified their judgment, and, while
it has brought misery to millions, it
has doubled the value of their dollars,
and in its elimination in the last two
years has brought the producing
classes and the manufacturers to the
verge Of bankruptcy, and if continued
for two years longer three-Quarters of
the manufacturing establishments
now operating will be wiped out of
existence, and their plants will pass
into the hands of the money lenders,
who will acquire them at from one.
quarter to one-third their value. The
election Of Mckinley, which promises
nothing but higher taxes and a monop-
oily OF the spOils, cannot avert this
disaster, as the United States Senate
is anti-gold standard and sure to re-
main so for at least the next four
years.
The only hope for the producing
classes is 10 legislation that will
cheaper money, thereby compelling it
to seek investment In productive en-
terprises, employing idle labor and
making market for farmers products.
The only way to cheaper money is
to make more Of it. With our mints
Oren to the worlds silver, as they
were prior to 1873, and as they are
now to gold. the demand for gold
must be lessened, and its value there
by decreased, and the demand for
silver must be increased, and its val.
ue thereby appreciated, ultimately
bringing the two to parity.
All manufacturers who understand
this question are convinced that no
lasting prosperity can be attained
until the agricultural classes lone
half Of our pOpulation) receive prices
that will give them profit on their
products, and that they can secure
better prices under gold standard is
absurd to contemplate, Our farmers
today are selling their surplus prod.
ucts to Europe, in competition with
Russia, India, Argentine and other
countries in which gold is at a high
premium. 1t is the premium on gold
which acts as bonus on exporta-
tion In all silver standard countries.
As there has been no depreciation Of
silver in silver standard countries, the
farmers there are getting as much for
their wheat and cotton and other
products now as they did twenty
years ago, while our farmers are get
ting only half as much.
This is accounted for by the fact
that previou. o 1873, when England
bought our silver to pay for purchases
in India, Russia. ETC., she had to pay
81 80 an ounce for it, which now she is
buying for 96 cents an ounce, and
she can secure the same quantity Of
products from those countries now
for an ounce Of silver that she could
then. Under free coinage by the
United States silver would be worth
Sl.29 cents an ounce, and no one
would sell it for less, because he
could take il to the mint and ro-
alize that: therefore, England would
be compelled to ray nearly double
what she pays now for our silver, and
this would mean nearly double cost TO
her for wheat and cotton she buys
from India, Russia and Argentine.
and corresponding increase in the
United States.
This would enable our farmers to
again become consumers of manufac-
tured goods, which they have largely
ceased buying during the last three
years, aud would afford a home mar