Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1896-10-31
FREE SILVER AND THE FARMER
Its Effect Upon the Grain Grower and
Farm Products Generally.

EFFECT Upon the Grd1n GrOwer ana
Farm Products Generally.
The farmer who votes for Bryan ex-
poets to be benefited by free silver in
two ways: He expects to see the value
of the dollar reduced so that he
will get more dollars for given guam
tity of his products, and he expects
to be protected from the competition
of silver countries in the markets of
the world. No exception to that
statement of the case will be taken
by any free silver advocate. 1t is the
essence of the whole argument as APP
piled to the condition of the farmer.
To say that the value of the dollar
will be reduced is simply another way
of saying that the prices of farm pro-
ducts will be advanced. An advance
in the price of farm products is, of
course, great benefit to the farmer,
proved the prices of everything the
farmer buys do not advance proper
tionately. But no one is so foolish as
to pretend that legislation can reduce
the value of the dollar so as to give
the farmer more dollars for his pro-
duct without also compelling the
farmer to pay more for everything he
buys. In other words it is perfectly
plain that Thousand bushels of wheat
will exchange for the same quantity
of sugar and coffee and clothes and
agricultural implements after the re-
duction in the value of the dollar as
before. This would be true, whether
the fall in the value of the dollar
Oh n1116 no 70 81 n I'M 81 Ia
number of dollars, such as we have at
present, or whether it should be due
to cutting the value of the dollar in
two by declaring that 1873 grains of
gold or its equivalent, instead of 25.S
grains of gold should constitute a dol
lar. 1t is important to remember that
the rise in prices, which is promised
by the adoption of free silver coinage,
is not such an advance in values as re-
suits from crop failure, or an in
creased demand for farm products In
the latter case the value of wheat and
corn rises relative to the commodities
the farmer has to buy, so that a thou
sand bushels of wheat will exchange
for an increased quantity of those
necessities and luXuries which the
farmer gets at the store. The import
ant thing to bear in mind, therefore,
is that debasement of the dollar
would not increase the purchasing
power of the farmer.
There are certain fixed charges
which would not advance. With a
debased dollar the farmer could pay
his debts with smaller quantity of
wheat and corn. He could have his
products carried to market by giving
a smaller proportion of them to the
railroad company. He could pay his
taxes with less quantity of his pro-
ducts than at present If he could
gain these three advantages without
any offsetting disadvantages he would
be justified in voting for free silver.
Right at this point some more COM
plicated effects of free silver coinage
arise for consideration. How would
it be possible to cut down the value
of the dollar without also reducing
the purchasing power of wage-earn-
ers? The man who earns ten dollars
a week will consume more of almost
everything when sugar is four cents a
pound, meat ten cents pound, flour
fifty cents a sack and clothing and
house furnishings propOrtionately