Graham guardian., 1896-01-10

20 egrading o. s-..Sr Eas increased the
Price of Gold and Lowered That of Com
mod!ties.
The American in a recent editorial
shows that as one nation after another
has closed its mints to silver the de-
| mand for gold has increased, its price
has risen, and there has been a general
fall in the prices of commodities Il
saws:
'Saurbeck's tables of forty-five lead
ing English commodities show prices TO
be about 81 per cent. lower to-day than
they were on the average for the years
1s67-1S77, while tables covering sixteen
of the principal exports of the United
States, taken with regard to irnpor-
tance, show fall in prices for the fiscal
year 1895 of 54 SO per cent. over prices
ruling in 1873. Mr. Sauerbeck's tables
are substantiated by the tables of the
London Economist, and the general
fall in prices in London of twenty-six
OF our chief imports, which show col
lectively fall of sc. AZ per cent. for
the fiscal year 1895, as compared with
the year 1873.
between 1850 and 1873 the labor
cost of production was falling faster
than since, but prices were not falling
they were rising-and the wage
Garner benefited from improved
methods of production in higher
wages Since 1873 prices have fallen
almost steadily, and the producer has
reaped less and less reward for his in
dustry. The only bright spots in our
industrial history for the past twenty
years have been when prices were ris-
ing consequent upon temporary meas
ures to enlarge the use of silver
"The most palpable but far from the
most injurious effect of falling prices
consequent upon the appreciation of
gold has been to double the burden of
all debtors and levy double tax ON
all production. 1t forces every debtor
to pay more than he covenanted to
pay, not more dollars, but more prop
erty. In 1873 the. funded debt of the
United States amounted to Sl,7iO.4 49,
$50, now it amounts to S747, $50, 400, but
the same quantity of commodities
which it would take to cancel this ap-
parently much-reduced debt at prices
of our principal exports for 1895 would
have paid OF debt of l,645, 43s, 4s0 in
1873. Our interest and non-interest-
bearing debts amounted to some 81, O65,-
600, 900 in 1873, ia 1895 to some s., ,05O,-
900, 900, but it would take the same sac
rifice of commodities to pay this debt
to-day as it would to have paid 80, 310,-
600, 900 debt in 1873. As with the United
States, SO it is with our railroads and
other debtors"
These facts cannot be successfully
controverted. The rise in gold has
caused lower prices, and lower prices
mean bankruptcy to debtors, ruin to
producers, idleness, lower wages and
distress among toilera The Ameri-
can says:
'The silver using countries are
placed at great advantage in compe-
tition with us, for they have been
working on stable standard and
have had no disturbance of wages or
prices With what we look upon as a
fall in silver, prices and wages have
not advanced in silver-using countries,
while with what they look upon as an
appreciation of gold. prices and wages
have not fallen in gold-using countries
proportionately. The difference be-
tween this depreciation in silver and
the fall in our wages and prices is
their profit in selling to MS To meet
this competition is impossible, for we
are handicapped with taxes and fixed
charges, payable in gold, and cannot
reduce the pay of our wage-earners
without reducing our plane of civiliza-
tion.
"This leads to increased competition
for our markets from European manu-
facturers, who, no longer able to dis
pose of their manufactured products
to silver-using countries. seek an out
let in the only remaining market-the
United States"
This is a very clear summary of the
situation, and we commend it to all
fair-minded readers Atlanta Constf-
tutiOn.