Middletown transcript., 1896-08-08

II
hem on little reflection that unless
he price Of their wheat, cotton, corn,
1ats, rye, cattle, pork, and everything
slse that they produce and grow should
rise to a higher level Of prices than was
by the average prices OF allthe
things which they do not produce, but
which they must buy and consume.
they would be worse off, or, at best,
they would be no better off than they
are at present.
The free-silver orators who promise
them higher prices are careful to show
them only one side of the shield. They
tell them all about the drop in the
prices of their farm crops since 1873,
but they do not tell them anything
about the equally large fall in the
prices of nearly all the goods which
they buy and consume. They tell them
very glibly of the rise that will take
place in the market prices of Their crops
under the promised era of free-silver
imitation, but they are careful to keep
out Of their sight the fact that no
possible rise of prices can be made to
apply to farm pr oducts only, but must
inevitably affect prices generally, not
only Of what the farmer sells. but of
what he buys. 1t is true that dollar
Of gold will buy more wheat and cotton
to-day than it would in 1873. but other
things have fallen in price just as far,
and, of some of them, farther than
wheat and cotton. In 1873 one-Eorse
steel plow cost $3.50. which was at that
time about the price Of six bushels Of
wheat. But by 1889 the price of that
one. horse steel plow had fallen to $2.75,
which, in that year, was the equ ivalent
of the price Of only about three bushels
of wheat. A common one-horse ,lou
in 1873 cost S., which was then abant
the market price of five bush''l, ut
of wheat. Twenty years later tho
price of such pillow had dropped to 81,
which was then the price of less than
three bushels of wheat. A potato
digger that in 1873 lat the time silver
coinage was suspended) cost $40, which
was the price then of 19I bushels OF
wheat, could be purchased twenty
years later for $3.50, which was then
the equivalent of the market price of
only ten bushels of wheat.
These examples could be multiplied
all along the line of the farmers
machinery and also Of his family sup
plies. The dollar of gold will buy
more ploWs, more hoes, more mowers
and reapers, more farm machinery and
tools of all kinds, and also more Of the
general commodities which the farmer
needs to buy, than would the dollar
of gold in 1860 or 1870, and, on the
whole, the farmer has gained more
than be has lost by the all-around fall
in prices. Now how is the farmer to
be benefited in any way by putting the
general range Of prices back to the
level of twenty-three years ago unless
he is quite sure that at the same time
the level of the prices of the things
which be has to sell can be put back
not only to that old 1873 level. but q
little higher? The silver-mine owner
offers him no guarantee Of that, and If
he did, the guarantee would be worth
less.
The government, as the farmer must
remember, is not being asked to take
So cents worth Of wheat or cotton and
stamp upon it the legend: "This is
legal tender for one dollarj' What the
government is going to do il the far
mers and planters are foolish enough
to vote as the silver kings want them
to do, is to take So cents worth of sill
yer bullion-not wheat or cotton, but
silver bulli0n-and stamp on that the
legend, "This is one dollar" The
planter must keep In mind the fact
that this country cannot possibly buy
his surplus cotton, and the same is true
Of the farmers surplus wheat, bread
stuffs, and provisions. They must be
sold in Liverpool whether we have free
coinage of silver or remain on the ex-
isting gold standard. The price Of the
farmers surplus products in Liver
pool will be gold price, and, as be
we'll knows, that gold price will fix the
home price of his products in this
All that farmers and plant
ers viii be able to get for their wheat
and cotton must, then, In any case be
the market price in the gold-standard
to which they send their vast
surplus of products each year. If we
go to the silver STANDARD, that will en-
rich the silver miDe-owners, but all the
cotton and wheatgrowers will get 0ui
Of it will be simply the value in Amer
ican silver coins which the gold price
of their exported surplus will exchange
for In any Of. the markets Of the world.
The manufacturer and the silver
mine owner may be able to market the
great bulk Of thir productions here at
at home, wsth thd government for
special partner in their business, but
LheSSouthern planter and farmer can
not do anything Of the kind. He must
go out into the open market Of the
world, where American tariffs do not
protect and where the fiat of the Amer
I'll