The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1896-09-24

al currency-which since 1853 was only limited
legal tender-only about 8 0O0, 900 of silver dol.
lars were coined. They were so scarce that
you would hardly ever see one except in
curiosity shop as q rare coin.
There was constant trouble with the legal
ratio between gold and silver, which could
not be 80 fixed as to keep the two metals to-
gether in circulation. Once one Of them would
be driven out Of the country and then the
other. Meanwhile over 81 ,0O0, 000, 600 Of gold
coin was coined. and since 1853 gold was sub
stantially the only full legal tender money In
actual circulation. And those were exoep-
tionally prosperous times. Then the civil war
came and swept all our metallic money out Of
sight. Paper money took its place, and in that
condition we were in 1878, when the famous
act Of 1873 was passed What, then, was in
reality that law that has since been SO fierce
ly denounced as "the crime of 1882 Why, it
was simply an act revising our coinage laws
and providing among other things that certain
silver coins should be struck to be legal tender
in the payment Of debts only to a small amount.
The standard silver dollar, that had practical
" been out of use since President Jeffer-
son in 1906 had stopped it's coinage, was simply
not mentioned in the enumeration. That is
all. The act Of 1873 therefore did not create q
new state Of things, but simply recognized a
state of things which had existed for many
and many years. 1t did thereby not only not
destroy half the money Of the country, but
not q single dollar of 1t.
Why Prices Have Declined.
But what Is it, then, that has caused the de-
cline of prices2 I appeal to your common
sense. Do you think that when one man, aid
ed by machinery, does as much productive
work as formerly ten or more did, and when
our modern means of transportation CARRY the
product from the producer to the consumer
with five times the speed at one-fifth the cost,
and when In the transmission Of intelligence
time Is quite and cost almost annihilated, do
you think that then the product Of human
labor should not in due proportion become
cheaper? If 1t did not, then modern civiliza-
ton would In one Of its most important and
benefcent functions be a flat failure. For
what Is the inventive genius of the age that
devotes itself to practical objects engaged in
what else than in devising and developing
means and methods by which the things re-
quired by mankind for the sustenance and
comfort Of life be made better and more easily
attainable-that Is, cheaperp
F. The farmer in the United States welcomed
the agricultural machinery which helps him
in planting, raising and harvesting his crop.
He welcomed the railroad, the steamboat, the
low freights, the telegraph, which shortened
the distance between his farm and the market,
and the banking arrangements required for
moving and selling his product. But as near
ly all our farmers had the same encourage
ment, SO it followed quite naturally that the
wheat crop Of this country increased from an
annual average Of 312, 0O0, 900 bushels between
1870 and 1880 to an annual average of 475, Co.,
900 bushels between 1890 and 1885, But also
foreign countries had the encouraging benefit
new wheathelds were opened in Russia and
the Argentine Republic and elsewhere, and,
according to Bradstreet's, very competent
authority, the wheat product of the world
grew from 1889 to 1894 no less than 429, OOO, COO
bushels, while the worlds consumption is es-
iimated to increase only 1900 900 to 16, 600 900
bushels annually. When the increase Of the
worlds supply thus gains upon the increase
of the worlds demand, is it a wonder that in
the worlds market, which rules the price for
all exporting countries that price should have
declined? Is not this an infinitely more ra-
tional explanation of the decline in prices than
to ascribe that decline to the so called de-
monetization law Of 1873 which practically de-
monetized nothing, but was actually followed
by an increase of our currency. nearly trebling
its volume and making the per capita far, far
higher than it ever had been before, and high
or than it is in any other country except onep
You might as we'll ascribe our civil war to the
great comet of 1911.
Our Recent Silver Laws.
Cowed by the uproarious cutlery which was
started by the silver miners and taken up b.
the "cheap money" men, congress passed two
laws. one in 1873, the other in $780, in pursu
ance of which over AZ, 600 600 of silver dollars
were added to our currency, more than 50
times as many dollars as had ever been coined
before, besides a large addition to our sub
sidiary silver coins. Our paper money was
largely increased, SO that while in 1873, the
year in which the American people were said
to have been robbed of half their money-while
in 1873, say, we had STA, 900, 900 of money in
the United States, We had 81, PIT, 00O 900 in 1885,
nearly three times as much, and while in
1878 the circulation was $500 per capita, it
was s22.96 per capita In 1895-ffty times as
many silver dollars and many times more
MOI Of al kinda thar, this nv had
had in its most prosperous days-and yet the
price Of silver in the market kept on falling,
and the prices Of many commodities, agricul
tural staples included, continued in their de-
clining tendency. Now analyze this case.
Upon what ground do the silver advocates as
sert that the 80 called characterization of silver
depressed pricesP According to their own
reasoning, because there has not been sufficient
money to sustain prices. Sustain what prices?
Those prevailing before 1873. But there is
now three times as much money as there was
in 1878 and much higher per capita circula
ton. Well, what becomes Of their argumentp
Some Of the silver philosophers have invented
q more mysterious phrase--that prices have
gone down because by the act of 1878 the SIMON
BY Of ultimate redemption" had been curtail-
I'D, only gold being available for this purpose
But, according to the treasury statistics, We
had in 1878 only SIS, 100000 of coin, including
subsidiary silver, in the country, and now We
more than "a times as much money Of "ultimate
redemption as in 1878. And yet prices are
low. The man whom such facts do not con-
vince that the decline of prices cannot have
er BY tie act Of ISIS skull
so thick that trip hammer would not drive q
sound conclusion through it.
How the Act Was Passed.
But hear myself asked, If this is so why
was this act Of 1878 passed secretly, surrep-
titiously, stealthilyp For silver orators have
been persistently dinning into the popular ear
for many years, until millions believed it, the
story that the silver dollar was "assassinated"
through the law Of 1878 by some dark, corrupt
plot This fable has been so often and SO al-
thoritatively disproved that am unwilling to
takeit up again in detail. Senator Sherman
did that recently In q most conclusive manner.
! will only add that was member Of the
senate at the time and know whereof affirm,
and emphatically pronounce all the stories
about the act Of 1878 being passed surrept1tious-
ly; about senators and members being some
how hypnotized. 80 that they did not know
what they were doing; about some English
man being on the ground with much money to
promote the demonstration Of silver, and SO
on, as wholly and unQualihedly false. wish
to be scrupulously courteous to my opponents.
But as conscientious student of contempora-
neous history am bound to say that in the 40
years during which have been an attentive
observer Of public affairs have never wit
messed nor heard Of such INSCRIPTIONS shame
less, persistent, audacious, cumulative, gigan-
tic lying as has been and is now done with re-
gard to the act Of 1873. its origin, its nature
and its consequences.
What Would Follow Bryan's Election.
Consider now what the immediate conse
auences would be if Mr.. Bryan were elected
president with a congress to match. Mr..
Bryan would Of course be anxious to have
his free coinage law enacted, but that could
not be, even II he called an extra session OF
congress, until some time in April or May,
five or six months after the day of election.
But as soon on the 4th Of November as the re-
suit of the election was announced every body
xrould lrpou, that tho paritv of cold and silver