The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1897-10-22
The Cause of the Great Fall in Prices.

pOllCy Vi pHOlSCtIOu ~ Ou'' vi tHSui'
This new form of protection has been
more far-reaching in its effects, more
subtle and cruel in its operation on GER
tain classes, and more prejudicial to agri
culture and other industries especially
to Experimentation any legislation of
modern times. 1t has really in fact, as
we shall see, created the depression which
affiicts agriculture today in gold standard
countries all round the world.
The article chosen to be protected" is
Just that one of which everybody has need
and which no one can do without, viz,
money. The new policy has borne its
natural fruit. AS the area of its operation
has extended, the husbandman in the old
world and in the new, in Great Britain,
in ireland, on the Continent of Europe,
in our colonies, aud in the United States
of America, has found himself compelled
to give more and ever more of his pro-
duce to buy the money with which to pay
his way. Whether toiling OH arabic land,
or tending focks or herds on the prairies
or pastures, he has found his reward for
his industry continually shrinking. He
has seen many other mems wages increas-
ing or stationary, while his reward for
his toll has been steadily getting less and
less. Engaged in the oldest, the largest,
the most necessary of all callings, an in
visible but irresistible power keeps
snatching away his legitimate profits,
until groaning with misery, he does not
know which way to turn to escape from
his hard lot. His difficulty is not with
the seasons; it is not with the soil; it is
not with his crops. The earth is as fertile
and nature as bountiful as they used to
be in the years of his prosperity. His
difficulty is with price. Nothing that he
can produce comes to any money; this is
the complaint on every agriculturist's
lips. The curse of continually falling
price dogs his heels whether he produces
wheat, wool, or maize, or cotton, or sugar,
or meat. If, unhappily, he is in debt, if
he has a mortgage on his farm, despair is
upon him as he finds more and even
more of his produce necessary to meet
each pound of his indebtedness. He can
not adjust his outgoings to his continually
shrinking income.
This constantly increasing difficulty in
obtaining money is exactly the effect to
be expected from the policy of limiting
the supply by protection"
The express object of that policy as
applied to any article is to raise the value
of it. Well have the moneyed classes.
the inaugurators of the new policy of
protecting" money, succeeded in their
object. They have so raised its value by
restricting its supply, that the husband
man has to give two bushels of corn
nearly for the money which he used to be
able to buy with one. They have cruelty
reversed the position as described in the
old parable. "How much owest thou thy
lord 2" can hundred bushels of wheat
when incurred my debt)," answers the
farmer of today. ''Take then thy bill
and write two hundle ed" mot fourscore),
says the mortgage, the tax collector, the
owner of leased land and the money
lender of today.
The cruel effect ofthis new form of
protection" is to be seen today in the
east of England-once the paradise of
agriculture-in ruined farmers, neglected
fields, tenantless cottages, and empty
mansions. Also in complete collapse in
the value of the land Thousands of once
prosperous families haye been reduced to
want. Mortgagors, once independent
men, easily able with old price levels to
meet their obligations, have been crush
ed; mortgages have sustained heavy
losses, the clergy are impoverished; hos
pitfalls, alushouses, colleges, benefit
societies. and numberless families whose
incomes arose from land, are being
plunged into ruin. Such are the fruits of
the new policy of protecting" money
(gold).
How has money been protected?
The method has been as simple as it is
unjust. 1t can be explained in few
words. Prior to 1873 the supply of money
of the precious metals was free, alike from
silver as from gold. BY series legis
lative changes made by many great
nations, beginning with Germany, ring
of protection has been put about gold,
and the other precious metal has been
excluded from its world-old free eompe-
tition with it. This restriction thus in
troduced, has, of course, raised the value
of money in all countries where gold is
standard, so increasing the burden of
debts, and lowering the prices of other
commodities measured by money. n \
Three facts full of interest as bearing
upon the present situation have been
clearly established in the evidence which
has been laid before this Commission
I. That there have been great changes
in the general level of prices in previous
times.
2. That in each case where such
changes have continued over a consid-
cradle period, they have followed large
alteration in the supply of legal tender
money.
s. That such alteration preceded and is
accompanying the present fall.