Southwest-sentinel. [volume] (Silver City, N.M.) 1883-189?, 1896-03-24

NANA -" NNHAN W
openly and after the fullest dis
cussion makes not 50 much differ
ence as whether such act was done
wisely. Good laws are TO be up
held when made, and bad ones
condemned.
The United States has been upon
the single gold standard long
enough to have given it a fair test,
and the latest statistics reveal
some startling conditions. Prices
have fallen; cotton has fallen
from 20 cents per pound in 1873
to z cents in 1894; wool from 20
to %; pork from s26 per barrel in
1870 to s14 in 1894; beef from
s13.45 per barrel in 1882 to $3.50
in 1892; wheat from S1.27 per
bushel in 1882 TO Sol in 1892.
Yet Notwithstanding the fall in
the price Of cotton and wool
more people are naked and in
rags than ever before, provisions
are much cheaper than ever be-
fore, yet tramps, beggars, paupers
and p%oorhouses have greatly in
creased. With the foregoing low
prices yet the people have worn
less clothing and eaten less food.
The agriculturalists have made
less money and spent less, hence
the merchant has sold less; the
manufacturer produced less. With
a rapidly increasing population
we find fewer marriages in 1894
than in 1892. Divorces are in
%creasing in number; the rate of IL
legitimate births is increasing.
Suicides have doubled in twenty
years; there were FIVE times as
many homicides in 1894 as in
1886. Legal executions increased
from rs in 1887 to 126 in 1898. In
1890 twelve trains were 'held up"
and in the first ten months of
1895 there were 45 train robber-
les in the United States. From
the Atlantic to the Pacific, from
the lakes to the Gulf of Mexico,
there is complaint Of hard times.
And this complaint has been car
ried abroad for the number of inn
migrants have fallen off one-half.
Yes, the number of American citi-
zens who have been able to visit
Europe has fallen off fifty per
cent since the repeal Of the Sher-
man law. Now, with a law that
causes such awful results, it mat
tiers not how 1t came upon the
statute books, must be re-
moved. The American people
must understand the cause of this
blight upon the prosperity of the
nation, and without waiting for
England or Austia to restore the
money Of the constitution. In
stead of legislating to lessen the
amount of the circulating me-
dunn it should be increased to
meet the demand of an increasing
population. AS you increase the
demand for money you increase
its price unless you also augment
the supply. Money has a price
and is as subject to the law of
supply and demand as any other
article. When prices Of commod-
tiles are falling, money is going
up;when money is falling commod-
prices are rising. An ideal none
tary system would have no huc-
tuations and from the beginning
of history to the present there is
no period in which prices of COM
modities were so long in decline,
and in such a rapid decline as
since the demonstration of silver
to the present. Men may say
there is plenty of money because
of the fact that the U. S. govern
ment can borrow it at such a low
rate of interest. But a low rate
of interest is a sure indication OF
stagnation in business; the higher
the rate of interest the more use
there is for money and the better
returns therefor. There can be
no greater error than to believe q
low rate of interest is a healthful
sign. Interest is the pulse Of the
business world. Low interest de-
notes sickness of commerce az
much as low pulse illness of body.
But what is the worst feature Of
the gold standard is not the low
prices and low interest, but the
falling prices; falling month after
month, and year after year. The
falling prices have increased the
business failures In this country
from ten thousand in 1890 to ff.
teen thousand in 1893. FAILING