San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-08-21

wheat growers. The average price of
wheat 1T Dubuque during this entire
interval has been 20 cents. This price
has been so nearly reached recently that
it is hardly profitable to speculate about
the causes which produced the low prices
Of wheat during the panic and hard
times beginning in 1892. But it does
seem unreasonable to attribute it to a
crime said to have been committed 90
years ago and which few people con-
sidered criminal five years ago. Mr..
Bryan evidently had not discovered this
crime ON March 16. 1892.
Corn and Oats.-Figs. and show
the Dubuque prices of corn and oats
from 1861 to 1884, There is nothing
about either curve to attract attention
to the year 1878 except the word
"crime, which indicates where the act
of 1878 was passed. Both curves show
a distinct rise from 1861, but after 1867
the prices of both have been practically
constant, with perhaps slight upward
tendency aud distinctly higher than
during the war. The price of corn has
f1uotuated around an average of about
3S cents, and that of oats around an
average of about 80 cents. This does not
mean that at various times the daily
quotations may not have been much
lower. In 1861. for example. during
August and September, the price of oats
was 10 cents per busEel. The similarity
between the slope Of the curves for corn
and oats is very striking.
Cattle. Fig. shows the Dubuque
price of cattle per hundredweight from
1861 to 1892 From 1861 to 1864 the
annual average was little less than
50. From 1866 to 1892 the price was
very steady at about SO. 40 excepting
during the period from 1880 to 1885,
when prices we're abnormally high, run
ming up to So. 80 in 1882. Here, as in
the other cases, the war prices were the
lowest. The highest prices were not be-
fore, but nine years after, the crime.
"Hogs.-Fig. shows the Dubuque
price of kogs. Compared with subse-
quent prices, the war prices for hogs
were better than in any of the other
commodities. The demand for army
supplies may perhaps account for this.
Prices during 1869 and 1870 were alb
normally high. Since that time they
have shown no tendency to either rise
or fall. They have fiuctuated around
an average of about 81. 90 per hundred
weight.
Butter and Eggs. Fig. shows the
Dubuque price of butter and Fig. 9 the
price of eggs Here also the lowest
prices were during the war. and in both
cases there is a marked rising tendency
from start to finish"
Professor Nlpher then quotes London
prices of wheat and shows that they
have declined faster than Iowa prices
mainly because Of reduced cost Of trans
portation. He says that without doubt
the future price of wheat will be deter
mined by the amount of wheat grown
and the ability of people to pay for it. 7"
he draws the following conclusion:
"In not one of these diagrams is there
the slightest indication of a falling off
in price dating from 1878, nor is there
the slightest feature to indicate that
the year 1878 has any significance what
ever in our commercial history. In not
one of these diagrams could any person
pick out the year 1878 if the dates were
removed. What ground have we, then,
for asserting that prices have fallen by
reason of the crime of 1878? What is
this grand display of political Mysteries
all about?
"From 1861 to 1899 the farmers in
Iowa were getting ON the average
slightly increasing prices for their prod
uce. This was certainly true of produce
which was not forced TO seek foreign
markets.
SIN the name of all that is reasonable
why should these farmers object that
the dollars in which they were being
paid would buy more of manufactured
goods in 1892 than they did in 1878?
Let us be candid. Let us remove these
business matters from the corrupting
influence of partisan politics and think
about them soberly and talk about them
calmly. They concern our welfare and