Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-03-06

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prices generally depends on the pro
portion of money to debts and com
mOdities, 1. e., to debts to be paid ant
things to be bought and sold; an,
as the volume of currency redeemabl
in standard money, and also OF banl
credits that so largely supply the place
OF currency. depends on the supply o
primary or basic money, it follows tha
general prices depend primarily or
the supply of standard money Of
money of ultimate redemption.
Consequently it is plain enough thai
the question of price levels is one o.
the relation of money volume to COM
modities. We can, therefore, have
which price level we choose, that oI
dollar wheat, fifty cent corn, ten cent
cotton, and so on, or the other level oil
fifty cent wheat, twenty-five cent corn
five cent cotton, etc. Either Of these
planes of prices can be easily enough
secured. One, that represented by
fifty cent wheat, five cent cotton, etc.
is the gold plane of prices; the other
that indicated by dollar wheat, ten
cent cotton, etc, is the bimetallic
plane. With gold the sole measure il
is impossible to have high, or higher
prices. On the contrary prices must
60 lower as gold appreciates, or grows
dearer, as it is doing now all the time.
With money supply left, as before 1873,
to come from the mines of both gold
and silver, we would undoubtedly have
in time range OF prices approximat-
ing 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
burdens but they impede production
and imperil business enterprise. More
over, low prices are an evil, if with low
prices debts are to be paid which were
created when prices were high, for
then earnings are unjustly taken from
those who are entitled to them and
turned over to those who have no right
to them. It is often claimed. too, that
when prices fall, what one buys costs
less and therefore no one Ia hurt. But
in the first place, debts and taxes and
many other things do not change with
prices, and consequently more of
everything is required to pay the same
debts, taxes and many other things,
after prices have fallen. Again, things
do not go down evenly. Products 60
first. professional services, cost of edu-
cation and things that can be con-
trolled by monopolies, follow slowly.
Then again, producers sell in the
Wholesale market and buy in the retail
market; and prices in the retail mar.
ket often remain up long after whole
sale prices have gone down. Hence,
in any view of the question, falling
prices work injustice to all producers
and most Of all, perhaps, to the great
great agricultural class.
Great solicitude il manifested in
high places about the depreciation OF
currency. But what about the depre-
citation of everything else? The cur
rency At best is not more than 8 per
cent. of the entire wealth of the coun.
try. Is it nothing to have wheat, cot
ton, goods Of all kinds-all the prod.
ucts of lsbor-all the things that must
90 to buy money and to pay debts and
taxes, and in the end, labor itself, de-
preciate as we have seen them 20
down since 1872
Ask the question of yourselves. and
your neighbors, under which condition
would this country be most prosperous,
one with q general range of prices
indicated by dollar wheat, fifty cent
corn, twenty-five cent wool, ten cent
cotton and labor and other things in
proportion, or one with wheat fifty
cents, corn twenty-five, wool twelve
and half, cotton five and labor and
other things ranged ON that scale'
Well, as we have 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 a higher
range of prices for our products, or Il
we would prevent q further fall ol
prices. This is the only way, too, to
provide sound and stable currency.
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