The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-08-01

IL leading articles of British manufac-
ture, and cover the time from 1851 to
1859. The prices are taken from the
Official records Of the city of Hamburg,
which DR.. Soetbeer declares to be "ma-
terial which is complete and trustworthy
to higher degree than any known to
us. -.
The method is by index numbers, TAX
ing the average prices of the several arti
cles lfon 1877 TO 1850, as the base or 100
per cent.
MI. Brumm. Was not 1S47 year of
grent nnanoial depression?
MIR. MoCleary Of Minnesota. No sir.
My friend Is probably thinking of 1887
or OF 1887 DR.. Soetbeer, whose pre-em-
lnence as statlstician my friend will
not question, and whose tables he has
no doubt quoted, chose the years afore.
s Md as the very best available for the
purpose,
The attention of the committee is now
invited to my Chart B see showing the
prices OF wheat and rye, the great food
grains of Europe. The average price of
all grains is given also.
TIE standard price, explained above,
is represented on this and the succeeding
chart by the heavy horizontal line A.
Th0 two special points to which the
committees attention is invited in this
connection are:
/. The fact that the average price of
grain after 1878 (Which year is indicated.
for the sake of prominence, by the heavy
vertical line B-B) never fell Us low as
the average in the "bimetallio' days of
| 1S47-1850.
2. The fact that the price rof silver
(Which was, as has been said, quite uni
form up to 1879 had very plainly NO re-
lation to the prices of grain. Any man
who in the fifties had insisted that there
was any such relation would have been
barred from standing among sane and
sober minded people.
Leaving grains, your attention is next
| invited to the course OF
PRICES OF ANIMAL FOODS.
These charts (Which exhibit the Scot,
beer figures for the chief animal food
| products individually show that the
price of each fuctuated sharply through
out all these years, each according to the
| circumstances peculiar to itself; but that
never since 1878 did the price of single
one of them fall as low as in the so-caIled
"bimetallio,' days at the close of the first
| half of this century. And it is probably
| true, as my friend from Iowa whispers
that the butter and egg business Of the
country outweighs in Importance its sill
| YER industry.
A Member. Did Mr.. Towne use these
| charts?
Mr.. MnCleary of Minnesota. No;
| these reveal u portion of the elephant
| which, so far as the record shows, my
colleague never saw. E(Laughter.)
AS said when began to discuss this
section of my colleagues speech take
exception to one portion of his Silver
and-Prices chart. The chart gives Soet-
beer as authority for prices down to 1892.
But the Soeubeer tables end with 1885
and no ons has any authority to extend
them. Nor do / believe that my COL
league intended to do So As matter
of fact, my colleagues chart is almost
an exact facsimile OF one used in speech
two years ago by the Senator from Nsvn-
ia INF. Stewart). 1t was afterwards
published in the appendix to the last
edition OF the Coinage Laws, aud 1T
was probably there that my colleague
found it. He is not the first young
man. Mr.. Chairman, who has been led
into error by following blindly the pa
| triarchnl-looking Senator from the State
of deserted mining camps. (Laughter.)
WHAT CAUSED THE TWO GREAT
| FALLS IN AVERAGE PRICES.
Taking the century as the period for
investigation, and reverting again to my
Chart A for the course of prices, let US
try to discover the reasons for those
mighty changes in the level of prices.
| We note first of all that there have been
in this century two periods Of very high
prices and two periods of gradual fall in
prices. Can any principle or law be dis
covered in accordance with which these
| changes in price levels took place? II SO.
| it Is very impOrtent 70 this discussion.
| Let us see if the two periods of high
prices have anything in common. The
| first OF these periods extended from 1889
TO 1914 with its highest point at 1909
1t is very Important to remember that
these were the years of the Napolennic
| wars, which cost Europe SO much in 4
| blood and treasure. 1t is noteworthy,
also, that the second period of very high
prices covers the years of great wars the
Crimean in the early SOS. our own
lowed in the later COS by the war be-
tween Prussia and Austria, and in 10
by the Franco Prussian war.
( Now war Is great destroyer OF prop
erty, while at the same time it takes
from the productive industries vast num-
bers of their best workmen. 1t is Il time
of abnormal dem and coinoident with
abnormally restricted supply, hence
period marked by great wars is always
a period of abnormally high prices.
Mr.. Shafroth. Was not the rise in
prices in the fifties due chiefly to i'll
/
Mr. McCleary of Minnesota. No, sir.
That statement has often been made, but
it is clearly not true. The Increased
gold production may possibly nave had
some small influence. But that 1t was
very small may be seen when we remem.
Der the following facts:
l. The rise in prices began before the
great output of gold began. as will be
seen by referring to the Sauerheck chart
above The prices were Influenced no
doubt by the insurreotionary disturb
ances in Europe and by our war with
Mexico.
O. There was marked fall in priceI
in 1857 1850, as we all know, when thu
gold production of the fifties was great
est.
j And oorroborative of my conclusion
from the foregoing l note;
g. During the great rise in prices from
1889 to 1909, above mentioned, the pro-
duction of silver was practically unis
form, while the production of gold
FELL. OFF MORE THAN so PEE