Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1897-08-26
As to Prosperity"

tom-toms and firing off rhetorical
pyrotechnics about it at such a rate
that the ordinary citizen is somewhat
dazed and is anxious to know what all
the racket is about 4 careful inquiry
develops the fact that all this noise
and outcry is due to the fact that
mark for number of days and that
there is fair prospect of its staying in
that empyreal region for some time TO
come. All things taken together, it
seems to be another commotion at a
mountains giving birth to a mouse.
We have seen wheat sell in the open
market for over two dollars Ter bushel,
and no one was greatly excited. Let
US examine the present wave of pros
perity in the light of the cold facts and
see what there is in it.
Certainly, the value of many trust
protected manufactured articles have
recently exhibited an upward tenden
cy. The Dingley Bill has given the
power to the factory baron and the
lords of the mining districts of this
country to place any price they please
upon their products. All they have to
do is to experiment and discover the
highest price that people can be made
to pay for their goods, and take it.
OF course, they will soon fix a table OF
prices just under the mark at which
consumption would be limited. This
furnishes a most excellent reason why
prices of manufactured articles should
begin to look up. What about the
prosperity of the producer? There is
no deny ing and no one wants to deny
that right at this time wheat is excep-
tionally high, and it is very probable
that corn will be aided by the extra
demand for wheat; but what has
caused this sudden bulge in wheat?
Was it the passage of the Dingley Bill
or the establishment of the gold stand
ard? The most ignorant Republican
is not silly enough to claim that re-
cent political events in this country
have had anything to do with the fur
ry in grain. A shortage over almost
the entire grain-prOducing portions of
the earth, except the United States,
has given our farmer the chance of his
life-to make money out of this years
harvest. But what about next year?
Suppose the earth should succor her
children in Europe and Asia, and the
Pampas of South America smile with
harvest in the year 1898? What then
will become of the farmers prosperity?
1t seems that our farmers are pros
porous because those of other lands
suffer; that our larders are filed only
because others have nothing to eat.
This commotiOn about prosperity
deceives no one. Our producing class
es have more than a suspicion that
prices are not left to be regulated by
the natural laws that ought to govern
trade; that few men by controlling
the volume OF money in circulation alb
solutely control prices, and that a syn
dictate of bankers can advance or de-
press prices as they please. 1t is the
yoke of these men that must be broken
at any cost. No true prosperity can
come to the people of any country
while any class of persons can make
the producer stand and deliver.
The REGISTER is glad that our farm
ers are getting a good price for their
wheat, but it is sorry that helpless
women and children in other parts of
the world must suffer privation and
want, if not death, that our farmers
may keep roofs over the heads of
their families. 1t does not believe this
to be genuine prosperity. With our
coal miners striking against 60-cent
per day wage; with the iron workers
going to work at reduced rates, and
the volume of business now being done
generally at lower prices than in the
year 1896. it will be just as we'll not
to go to extra expense in buying fire.
works to herald the advent of prosper
ity before you have some tangible
evidence. beyond the dictum of sub
sidized press, that it is here to stay.
When the cold-blooded statistician
comes to cast up his accounts and take
the average of prices for the year 1897,
Republican shouters will find that the
prosperity of the present year is large
ly matter of wind. They would do
we'll to stop long enough to read the
following extract from an interview
put forth by Senator Chandler of New
Hampshire on August 18th:
THAT prices are still falling can
hardly be denied. The reference to
sporadic rises in the prices of certain
articles is not fair argument. For
special reasons particular commodi-
ties will rise, even when the general
average OF prices is downward; as
wheat, when there is a famine in In
dia or short crops in Europe. The
bimetallist argument is based on the
general fall in the average prices ex-
tended over a period of years. MIR.
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