The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-07-25
STATES TIES LEGAL DEPARTMENT NOT
DESTROYS OF nABBLING, IN
lss+f NATTONAEiaFINANCE 500
LEAVES AVE- THAT ITO THE STUMP.
CONTENT To -..tWRESTLE. WITH
KNOTTY PROBLEMS ARISING
WITHIN TGE STATE.
OTHERS ARE REss BACKWARD.
State COmmissioner of Labor Sta
Hstics Discusses G old, Wheat
Values and Like Topics.


nut Is propounded- to the oracular at
torneys of the states legal department
The latest query asked, of the attor-
ney general relates not to the admins
tration OF the laws against prize fight
ing on islands in the river between this
state and Wisconsin, but. inquiries
whether or not the silver dollar COM
monty In circulation is a legal tender
Up to the present. the attorney general
has not replied to the query, although,
as rule, the department is very ac-
commodating and lays down the law
on any subject from the Interpretation
of country jury yerdicts to the exclu-
sion of lice from the rural schools. The
answer to the question is simple one,
according to the collection of legal lore
in the states legal galaxy, as the stand
ard silver dollar was by the act of
Feb. 20, 1873, made full legal tender
for all debts, public and private.
There is, however some reluctance on
the part of the department to embark
on the sea Of national finance, lest
other questions of a wider scope than
purely domestic shall be poured in
upon the already overworked depart
ment. Attorney General Childs is him
self out of the city, and until he re-
turns the department will not take any
official action in the matter, lest fatal
Precedents might be established that
would cause the department much an
noyance. ts
'a Other departments at the state house,
however, are less reluctant about en-
eaging the public attention with affairs
it7tp
problem is treated at length in a paper
by Labor Commissioner L. G. Powers
which has been printed by the govern
ment printer, and is now being circu-
lated as one of the documents of a
campaign of education It embraces
study of the relation Of wheat prices
to gold prices in this and foreign coun-
tries, the statistics in the main having
been published in the Globe at the
time of their making up. To this Mr..
Powers adds the conclusion that in
these figures there is no trace either of
the appreciation of gold and the ruin
of the wheat raised by the silver legis-
latfon of 1871 and 1873. Mr.. Powers
continues: f7"a f 7Gns1 81 1gds
The advocates, of the free, coinage of
silver have, from time to time. pre-
sented figures showing an increased
profit in wheat raising in India That
Increased profit they have credited to
the fact that India has been all these
years a silver-standard nation. But no
evidence has been produced showing
for India as great an advance in value
OF wheat land, such increasing ability
to meet mortgage debt, such aecumu-
lation Of farm resources, and such other
gains as are found in Minnesota, Ne
braska, Iowa, and Kansas. Each and
all countries agree in the fact that there
has been on the average an increasing
profit in wheat raising with the passage
of the last thirty years in the great
centers of such production, but not in
the centerS of wheat consumption
I u In the. case of the wheat raised in
Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and Nebraska
and in that raised in Russia and India,
we find no trace of price. variations
due to changing money supply. We do
see, in the price for which the wheat
raised in these three nations is sold in
England and on the Atlantic seaboard,
a price variation due clearly to changed
cost of transportation, intensified by
the effect of Minneapolis milling in
ventions upon the relative prices of
winter and spring wheat. The wheat
farmers of these four states and those
in Russia and India have been gaining
in their relative average ability to pay
off their mortgage debts. The prices of
their lands have been increasing. The
resources of these farmers have
been increasing far beyond those of
any other set of ,stoilers that their
several countries had witnessed before
1870. If the legislation of 1873 has con-
tributed in giving this descreased mort
gage foreclosure, this increased value
to lands, the growing resources of those
farmers; if it has assisted in maintain
ing the general stability of wheat
prices which we have found in these
four states for th1rty-four years; if
it has maintained that stability of
prices while the farmer has increased
his ability to produce wheat by SO per
cent, we can well cali for more of such
legislation.
The passing years. and their laws
and changes have not brought an ap-
probation in the value of gold. They
have rather been accompanied by a
large list of results, which in all past
ages have been accounted the proof
value of the precious metals. Nothing
can be found in the annals Of European
history accompanying the flood of
American silver in the seventeenth
century, which so increased the saving
and debt-paying powers Of the average
farmer as has been realized since 1862
by the average spring wheat farmer
in these four American states, and
also by the wheat raiser Of Russia and
India This is what we have left after
eliminating the effect Of changed cost
of production and transportation upon
the Western wheat farms. If it shows
q change in the value of the world
precious metals, does 1t not prove
marked depreciation In the exchange
value of gold in terms of wheat, and
not the opposite, as has been so long
and loudly asserted by the advocates
nf tlna free rrira na of SilVer2