The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-06-10
WHEAT and SILL YER.

| The average export price of wheat in
| 1873 was $1.31 per bushel-as given by
! the government statistical abstract. The
present export price is about 65 cents
The price of silver bullion in 1873 was
| cents an ounce above the coinage value,
or $1.31. The present price is SO cents
an ounce.
Wheat and silver have therefore fallen
since the silver demonstration act of
| 1873 at much the same ratio. During the
same period -four has dropped from 81 so
| to 81 and cotton from 10 cents to cents.
| Specialists in prices find that the decline
| in staples generally has been in much the
same ratio. There have been TEMPORARY
| fluctuations, of course, produced by va
rious fiuctuating conditions; but the gen.
eral trend of staples in the main is about
with the price of silver
One of the most significant and inter-
esting discussions Of this question re-
Gently appeared from an unusual source.
| 1t is not often that the market columns
of gold organ yield much light upon
the free coinage issue, and particularly
on the free coinage side. In the market
columns of the Minneapolis Tribune, the
other day, appeared report considerably
out of the ordinary. 1t was discussion
between the eminent wheat dealer and
expert Robert ]. Lindholm, and his Lon
| don friend and dealer E. A. Driver. It
seems that Lindholm and Driver are in
business way pretty good free silver
men, and their wheat correspondence
| brings it out, as follows:
A. G. Chambers & Co. received the fol-
| lowing: Our mutual friend, E.. A. Dr-
| yer, who has been on the continent for
! year, writes me from London, and, after
saying something about market letters
| pregnant with ideas, he says: Zone
| thing all along seems to have escaped
you, namely, the silver question. REAL
| LY ALL OUR STAPLES ARE BRING
ING ABOUT THEIR USUAL PRICE IN
SILVER. IF SILVER WAS 1O8 IN
| STEAD OF 68, EVERYTHING WOULD
BRING THE USUAL PRICE. l
take exception to my friend Drivers
charge that have overlooked the silver
QuCoIlOu L d. 1IOul H. nave TodlIZoQ
that THE PRODUCER OF WHEAT,
FACTURED OR GROWN, CAN Elk
CHANGE 1T FOR AS MANY OTHER
PRODUCTS AS HE ALWAYS COULD,
BUT THAT HE HAS TO GIVE TWO
OR THREE TIMES AS MANY GOODS
WHEN HE UNDERTAKES TO PAY
HIS DEBTS, BY CONVERTING HIS
GOODS INTO LEGAL TENDER ON A
GOLD BASIS. l have known this for a
long while, and come to the conclusion
that the increased demand for and legis-
lation in favor of the use of gold has in
creased the value of gold, and that if sill
yer came in competition it would in
crease In value and god decrease until
they met. We have bimetallism on the
Chicago Board of Trade, where the debt
or can always liQuidate in the cheapest
wheat, last year in winter and this year
in spring wheat, but when they claim
that privilege for the debtor in money
they are called knaves, cranks and dis
honest fellows, and when, in addition to
this, we hear the cuckoo's admonition
that it is improper to discuss anything
Of importance in a market letter, my
friend Driver must excuse my silence
upon this all-important subject so far.
Robert ]. Lindblom'
Two more earnest and practical free
coinage men than these two plungers on
change it would be difficult to find In
| spite of "the cuckoo's admonition that
it is improper to discuss anything of i'm
| portance in market letter." they for
once speak out in meeting, and quite to
the point. The facts to which they bear
testimony are substantially as follows:
First, that staples are now about the
same price in silver as they always have
been; and that if the price of silver were
reinstated the prices of staples generally
would be about as formerly.
| Second, the producer of wheat can ex-
change his product for about the same
amount Of other products as ever, but has
to give twice as much as formerly in pay
ing his debts.
Third, the appreciation of gold is due
to legislation, and legislation would
| promptly give to silver the former value
which the act Of 1873 took away.
| Fourth, the dealer in the Chicago
| BOARD OF trade mas Dlmotall1Sm IN the
choice given him in liquidating his debts
| in wheat, but when he asks the same
power of choice in money he is called
knavish and dishonest
| Robert J. Lindblom cannot be said to
be an impractical crank" He is one Of
the leading authorities on wheat in Amer
| lea. He is a successful and practical
dealer. The same may be said of Driver.
the London correspondent They are
not dreamers and theorists, any more
than Jay Cooke is one. All three of these
men are practical free coinage men. 1t
is condition, and not theory, which
| confronts them. They know that free
coinage will help trade, and that without
| 1t trade is now dead or dying
In harmony with the observation Of
| these authorities, that wheat follows sill
yer In the markets, last weeks silver
boom, following the Oregon election, was
| accompanied by the greatest improve
ment in wheat that this staple has en-
| joyed in year or more. From its low
| level on Tuesday, wheat between that
time and Saturday made the marked
gain Of cents a bushel, the only noted
1nv1t to