The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-08-03


losses have mounted into not merely millions,
but billions.
This is a sample of a sort of reason
ing that can appeal only to the very
ignorant. 1t is dispelled in a moment
by going back to the familiar and
elementary lessons of Bastiat. If you
double the number of counters and
halve the value of each. have, you
benefited or injured anybody? If you
halve the number of counters and dou-
BILE the value of each, have you bene-
fitted or injured anybody? The deduc-
ton from the figures quoted that the
producers of the Mississippi valley
have lost billions of dollars by the
decline in the value of farm products.
Is utterly fallacious. If farm products
had declined alone, and the price of
no other commodities had fallen at
the same time. then the loss would
farmer exchanges his produce for 9TH
er commodities, and if their price has
declined at the same ratio he neither
loses nor gains. The mere fact that
he could have sold his animals and
grains for an aggregate amount much
larger makes no difference whatever
when it is remembered that he would
have had today to pay just that much
more for everything that he needed to
purchase.
The same idea creeps out in the fol-
lowing extract from the Litchfie1d In
dependent:
st. Paul has assessed her real estate this
year and made reduction from the last as
sessment of $S1. 000, 900. This is one result of
trying to get down to a gold basis per-
manently. $50
Just so. One result of trying to get
down to a gold basis permanently is to
squeeze the wind and water out of
things, to get rid of fictitious and
speculative quotations, to puncture the
inflated balloons of unreal values and
to look at the world as it actually is.
instead of viewing it through a magni-
flying glass of enormous power Does
any sane man in the state of Minnesota
suppose that $31, 900, 900 of actual value
could disappear in ST. Paul? Further
more. has there been any change in
the monetary system or standard in
the United States from the time when
the assessment of ST. Paul real estate
was $31, 100000 greater? If we had the
gold standard at that time, in the
height Of the boom, as we undoubtedly
had, and have the gold standard now,
how is the gold standard responsible
for the $31000,000 of difference? What
utter nonsense people are capable of
talking about finance. 1t has come to
such pass that a man cannot be
thrown from bicycle and break his
leg without somebody seeking to prove
that it is due to the gold standard and
the money sharks, and would never
have happened under free coinage of
silver.
st. Paul had real estate boom once
upon time. While it prevailed prices
were marked up. Values never rose to
full corresponding average. Those
prices represented, in part, only what
men thought that somebody else would
give at some future time for the prop
erty in question. 1t was a condition
not peculiar to ST. Paul, but common
to other cities and to the whole coun-
try. Partly on that account and partly
to make possible an unwise increase. in
the aggregate of the public debt, assess
ed valuations were raised to the limit.
Now that the burden of taxation is
more seriously felt, we come down to
the basis of actual fact, and away from
speculative quotations. Every dollar
OF real value that ever existed in St.
Paul is here yet. All the real value that
Is represented by horses, COWS and
food products in the Mississippi valley
exists today, wherever there Is a horse.
COW or a bushel of grain. The money
mark on them counts for nothing
whatever as long as the ratio at which
they exchange for other things remains
stable. This is a very simple PROPOSE
ton, but it takes a long time to work
it's way through certain understand
ings. &C