The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-11-22
REPORT IN FAVOR OF BIr1ETALLlSrl.
Mr. Bears Analysis Of the Findings Made Last Summer BY
the British Commission on Agricultural Depression

From an article, Shall Agriculture
Perish?' in the National Review Gon-
dom by William Z. Bear the English
authority on agricultural prices.
After nearly four years investiga-
ton and deliberations the royal COM
mission on agricultural depression has
issued a report, signed by IA out of 16,
in which they propose certain pallia-
tives, but avowedly refrain from sug-
costing a cure. Having diagnosed the
disease, they point distinctly to it's
cause. prescribe certain specifics for the
alienation of the symptoms, and then
admit that they have not touched the
source of the malady. They say: I'VE
have no hesitation in expressing our
entire concurrence in the opinion that
the present crisis in agriculture is due
primarily to the fall in prices Then,
having made their proposals, they
make this admissions:
we do not claim for these recon-
mendations that, either singly or in the
aggregate, they will prove to be a COM
plete remedy for agricultural depres-
sion. They are in the nature of pallia-
lives. and will. we hope, if carried out
do something to ease the position of
occupiers of land, and enable them to
conduct their business to more advan-
tage."
Finally the commissioners say:
We have agreed nearly unanimously
upon our report UP to the point
now reached Cthe last paragraph of alb
But upon the remaining subject of dis
cussion, viz, whether any, and, if so,
what remedy or remedies might be pos
sible for the chief cause of depression
there is considerable difference of opin-
ion amongst US, and we think it desir-
able to close this part of the report at
its present stage, leaving the subject
to be dealt with in separate memo
randa."
From these remarks it is quite clear
that the commissioners, having con-
Guided that the fall in prices is the
main cause of the decay of agricul-
ture, could not agree upon any pro-
posal touching that cause.
Fortunately the great majority of the
commissioners-10 out of the IA who
sign the main report or out of the
whole 16 members of the commission
are not the victims Of a doctrine of
desolation. They have signed sup
Elementary report" which, like the Sc
quel of a novel threatening to end in a
tragedy, brings the victims of adverse
circumstances out of their apparently
hopeless fix, and places them in a fair
position for living happy ever after
wards. At least, this report shows how
so pleasant a result may be attained.
It is by far the most important of all
the reports in the volume of which it
forms part, supported as it is by a
very striking and convincing state
ment, added on his own responsibility,
by one of the SignatorieS-Mr. R l..
Everett
The supplementary report opens with
the remark that as stated in the pre-
ceding report, the fall in the prices of
produce is primarily responsible for
agricultural depression; that the evil
dence is practically unanimous upon
that point, but that none of the recon-
mendations made in the main report
relate in any way to that main cause
of depression, nor pretend to be rene
dies or anything more than palliatives
for the distress which has overtaken
agriculture. Under these circumstances
! the majority of the commissioners go
on to say, it seems to them that their
inquiry would be held in many quar-
tiers, and not without some reason. to
be barren and practically useless, if no
attempt was made to ascertain whether
and how far this primary cause of de-
! preston can be mitigated or removed,
and that therefore they propose to ex-
anime this aspect of the question. They
! proceed to repeat the statement that
most of the witnesses attributed the
fall in prices to increased facilities and
lessened cost of production, to the open
ing Of new countries, to increased facil-
tiles of transport, and consequently to
increased foreign competition. But they
further point out that other witnesses.
representing the opinions of a consider
able, and, so far as they can Judge, an
| increasing section of the agricultural
| community, attribute the fall in great
measure to a change which has oc-
CURED, not SO much in circumstances
affecting products as in the value of
| money itself, since the abandonment, in
1873 and 1874, Of the bimetallic system,
which formerly prevailed in certain
countries on the continent and
in the United States. While