The Monitor-register., 1896-08-21
Silver and the Farmer.

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prices has been due to the demonstration
of silver, and that if silver is srestored"
prices of farm products will be doubled,
and will continue to advance.
No doubt many farmers in the West
have been misled by these assertions,
while others favor free silver coinage on
the supposition that they can discharge
their Indebtedness in money worth only
half as much as that which they bor
rowed. This scaling of debts. even if it
could be done, would be repudiation-
downright dshonesty-and we cannot
believe that any large number of farmers
that. The average life of private debts
is less than year, and that class of
Indebtedness could all be collected in gold
before any free coinage law could be put
on the statute books, unless it be done by
revolutionary methods, which is improba-
BILE. Moreover these debts would have to
be paid in gold in a time of panlc-"the
greatest panic the world has ever known"
Senator Sherman says-and MIR. Bryan
has admitted that there would be a panic.
AS to mortgages they average in dur
alton about three years, but those not
already made payable in gold are, ac
cording to high financial authority, nearly
all due now. The scare caused by the
success of the Populists 10 some States
few years ago caused creditors to be care
full; hence they have been carrying NOR
tgages along ready to foreclose imme-
diately if the repudiationists should carry
the elections. This effort to scale debts
could only result in the owners of the
farms being sold out, or else having to
pay in gold at time when it would be
impossible to get that metal without pay
ing premium for it. The very moment
that there was fair prospeo of Popocratic
success that moment gold would go to a
premium. Hence on the score of scaling
debts the farmers could gain nothing by
the use or so 0,cent dollars.
AS to the fall in prices, so far as that
has taken place the alleged demoneti-
zation of silver had nothing whatever to
do with it, and except by calling half.
| dollars worth of silver a dollars worth
| there will be no advance in prices. The
increase in price will be altogether
| fctitious-due to a debasement of the
currency and not to any increase in real
value. l. will not be maintained, either,
| for the same reasons that have operated
| heretofore to cause decline in the prices
| of many articles will be operative to an
increased degree. In the first PLACE the
panic, sure to come and already, because
of the mere possibility of Popocratic
success, casting shadow over the land
will paralyzs business, close workshops,
throw millions more of workmen out of
employment, decrease consumption and
cause general bankruptcy.
To more or less extent such has
been the effect of every panic. One of
the worst the nation ever experienced was
the panic of 1857, when the free coinage
of silver law was on the statute books.
There was small panic following the
election of 1892 The nation has not yet
recovered from it. What has been the
effect? The per capita consumption of
wheat in this country declined from 5.91
bushels in 1892 to 454 in 1895. That is
decline, taking into consideration the
increased population, of 1876 bushels for
each person, or SO 00O, 900 bushels for the
entire nation in one year. The decrease
in the total consumption of corn aggre-
gates 935, 900, 900 bushels year. Cotton
also shows a decline, and even wool, free
of duty and sold at ruinonsly low prices,
shows decreased consumption.
This enormous decrease in consump-
tion since 1892, notwithstanding the low
| prices, tells the story of the farm er's
woes. More cotton was produced in 1895
| than in 1892, and larger percentage of
the crop was exported, and yet the home
consumption was much less in 1895 than
in the former year The plain truth is
that the home market was greatly injured
by triff legislation and the panic, both of
which reduced the ability of our people
to consume farm products. This power
to consume will be much further lessened
| by opening the mints to the free coinage
of silver. Duties will then all be paid in
silver, as at present. But the foreigner
can get a silver dollar for fifty cents in
gold, and thus by the Popocratic silver
policy all duties will be reduced one half.
The flood of Canadian and other farm
| products that will pour in will compete
with our home products, while the num-
| Der of mills that cannot now compete
with foreign cheap labor will then be
enormously increased. Foreign capital
| would be withdraw, and the nation
would be desolate indeed. The farmer
who is suffering now because of the lack
of home demand for his products will be
| at least vice as bad off under free coinage
of silver.
But be will be able to get bis labor
| cheaper, We are told. That is compare
lively true Wages will either not rise
between 1860 and 1865 the average price
of all articles increased 116 per cent, but
the average of wages increased in the
same time only 43 per cent, aud that.
notw outstanding the fact that 2, 900, 900 of
men were Withdrawn from productive
pursuits to serve in the army. Without
| such demand for men now wages would
] probably not increase at all. With the
prices of the necessaries of life doubled
and the wages of the great army of work
men remaining stationary and reduced
one half in purchasing power, how much
would consumption decline then? Ger
tainly one-half. And that would lessen
that market for corn, wheat and other
farm products to such an extent as to
bankrupt the ar mers so that they would
be unable to employ help.
The decline in prices began eight years
before the alleged decentralization of
silver. There never was a more false
assertion than the one that prices declined
because of the passage of a law in 1873
that did not then exist-silver dollars
Philadelphia Press
Nelson's Vessel.
| Nelson S Foudroyant has been refitted
| again at a cost, it is said, of 800, 900
and will be exhibited at the principal
British ports, going first, how ever, to
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