Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1897-09-09
SILVER AND WHEAT.

tablished to overcome the infantile is-
norance of writer's like the one who
wrote about "Silver and Wkeat, in
the New York Tribune of the 10Th If
he knew better than to say what he
did, then he ought to be given the ad-
vantages of a reform school. He thinks,
or pretends to think, that the Bryan.
ties" contend that the prices of silver
and wheat have always been ''closely
linked together" The contention of
the Bryanites, and also of the leading
writer's on political economy the world
over, is that Interpretation of gold,
caused by the demonstration of sill
yer, is represented by the decline in
the past twenty years in the general
range of prices on forty-fve leading
commodities, as given in the standard
tables printed in the London Econo-
mist and accepted as correct by all in
telligent mOnometallists as well as
bimetallists. This fall In prices was
nearly cOincident with the fail in the
"a iNO "a oiAfSIf hdO hOdb, 90 a lCduluS
commodity, was frequently used to il.
lustrate the fact. It never was con-
tended by anyone that a failure of the
wheat crop would not, for that year.
result in a larger price for the reduced
amount of wheat that could be gather
ed. The rise in the price of wheat
caused by the failure of crops in all
other great wheat producing countries,
has not caused rise in the price of
the other forty five leading commodi-
ties which furnish the basis for the
tables above referred to. Silver has
taken sudden drop, partly because of
Its decentralization in Japan, partly be-
cause the gold nations which use it fo-
subsidiary coinage have suspended it's
purchase temporarily which they will
have to resume, but mainly because of
the famine, plague and insurrection in
India which have paralyZed that great
wholesale customer which has always
been strong support of the SILVER
market. If il will afford the writer in
the Tribune any satisfaction we will
suggest to him the following self-evi
dent propositions:
1. If nobody buys silver. aud no gov
ernment coins it, it will not be worth
anything at all
2. If silver should be restored to it's
full former rights at the mint, it would
again be worth its weight in coin at
the rate of 37l4 grains of pure silver
to tie dollar tthe remaining All grains
being alloy, and that would be 81 20
an ounce.
3. If gold were totally demonetized,
the four thousand millions of gold coin
now in existence would make such a
glut in the bullion market that gold
would probably not sell for as much as
dollar pound.
4. If there should be a failure next
year of the wheat crop in all countries,
including our own, wheat might 60 as
high as five dollars a bushel-or even
ten-if only enough could be raised to
feed the ''sound money" men of wealth
and their wives and children.
5. If there should be an unusually
large amount of wheat in all the
wheat growing countries next year. it
would be so abundant that it might 90
down to twenty-five cents a busbel.
And then, if 1.-THE leading nations of
the world would prohibit the grinding
Of wheat into flour, it would probably
go down to ten cents bushel. After
that the production would cease.
The Tribune writer will readily see
that silver might go back to 81 29 an
ounce, and wheat might go down to
ten cents a bushel; and yet all this
does not in any manner controvert the
established fact that there had been a
decline dnring the last twenty years of
40 per cent in the general range OF
prices of forty-fve leading commodi-
ties, including wheat and silver, and
that it has been caused by the demon
etization of lver-Cinciunatt En-
Quirer.
Monday afternoon Mr.. McCay had
one of the McCay irrigation pumps