The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1896-10-22

| 'ual cost. Ii he has had to borrow
part of his capital, as most business
men do, the shrinking value of his es-
tablshment wipes out his own invest
ment of capital, and it falls into the
nav of the lender. Falling prices,
| therefore, decrease the chance of sue
cess IN business introducing az unlock
ed tor element which upsets all the
"ell-lald plans OF merchant or manu-
facturer. The commercial death rate
is higher than it ought to be. Just as
the bankruptcy rate during the panic
year OF 1893 rose from per cent. of
all enterprises to ~ per cent, so an
era of falling prices, taken as a whole,
shows too high per cent. of failures.
This means a collapse of industrial
machinery, the smashing of ofenterprises.
The result is that just SO many more
new enterprises must be started in or
der to keep up the production. A part
OF our energy, therefore, is used up in
creating enterprises that ought to be
running enterprises.
In 1898 there was much arabic land ,
as many farms, shops, mills, furnaces
and railroads, as many tools, machines,
engines and dynamos, as much mus
Gle, skill, talent and ambition as the
year before. Yet there was an indus
trial paralysis leaving a great falling
eff in production. On all sides were
seen unemployed labor, idle machia-
cry, smokeless chimneys, rusting side
tracks and empty stores. What was
the trouble? Nothing more nor less
than the fact that many of the enter
prises by which the productive powers
of the nation are put in motion had
collapsed. Now, the paralysis we saw
then on a vast scale, is something that
inevitably goes with falling prices. The
prolonged fall in prices is nothing less
than chronic commercial crisis, and
we shall find it yielding the same re-
suits.
the question of honest dollars con-
Germs every man who is producing any
thing. The only people who benefit
by an appreciating standard are those
who hold money or claims for money.
The people who are injured are not
simply debtors, but every man who is
producing goods and trying to sell
them for money. In this gigantic
struggle it is impossible that the inter-
ests Of the workingman should be al
tered by the fact that he receives pay
ment for his product at the time he
produces it IN the form of wages. Much
has been made Of the fact that wages
change more slowly than prices of
commodities, implying that under the
gold standard the workingman gets a
certain benefit during this interval. In
1893, two and half months after the
beginning Of the crisis, $4,000 men,
willing to go to work, most of whom,
had families to support, were thrown
out OF employment. There had been
a sharp fall in the prices of everything
we buy. Wages had been very little
affected. Labor had received its share
of the burden, and received it prompt
ly, but it came not in the form of fall
ing wages, but in the form of the mar.
rowing of field of employment. Not
lower wages, but discharge is the first
effect CT falling prices on the working
men. After some time the fierce com
petition of the unemployed forces
down wages, and labor is once more
set to work. The prosperity then, tina,
under the gold standard the working
man Is supposed to enjoy, from the fact
that his wages do not fall SO rapidly as
prices, is but sawdust banquet.
There IS no patriotic American who
has not observed with anxiety the rise
of vague discomfort, the spreading dis
trust Of our institutions and the grow
ing bitterness between classes in thi:
country. If Il mischievous boy pinche:
the tails of the Tables peacefully sleep.
ing before the fire, they will promptly
begin 10 spit and claw at each other
s. with our producers. Angered by
the failure Of business calculations anC
by the unacCuuntable fall in the value
OF products, each has turned on the
nearest group and engaged in a strug
gle with It. Laborers and capitalists
farmers and railroads, have been JOS
tied against each other till there is {
feeling of rancor aroused that bodies il
for our future.