The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1897-06-11
FACTS AS THEY ARE


the Financial Situation.
Most ren are amenable to reason.
The difficulty is not so much in form
ing right deductions and reaching
thereby right conclusions, as in get
ting at the exact facts. In the discus
sions Of the economic situation now
and during the late political campaign
our trouble with the farmers was not
so much in carrying them with us by
the chain of our reasoning as in making
/ it clear and indisputable what were the
facts as to production and overprOdue-
ton and as to the effects Of a reduced
volume of standard money and a
ehangeable and diminishing volume Of
it, and what were the facts as 10 the
variable value of gold when used as
single standard.
The advocates Of a single gold stand
ard denied that gold was variable in
value as measured by the average price
of a considerable number Of products,
They assert that gold is the most stable
Of all things. This we simply claim
is not the fact.
Again, we assert constant fall Of
prices, on the average, owing to the
abolishing of silver as standard money.
In face of all the statistics our OppO-
nents deny this basal fact. We show
from the best data obtainabie that gold
is steadily going up and because it is
the sole standard inversely that prod
ucts are going down. This falling of
prices destroys a mans farm in course
of time, his basis of credit, then his
credit and he becomes a bankrupt.
This, as a matter of history, is merely
question of fact.
1t is of great importance, therefore,
to get clear testimony from the adyo-
Gates of the gold standard as to the
facts, and we find in a recent letter
from H. AlIoway, in the Chicago Trib-
une, statements which we regard as
Of immense moment. Let US premise
that Mr. AlIoway is well-infOrmed
writer. His reputation is established
for fairness and reliability. In his let
ter of April 10, he makes the following
statement:
by far the most interesting feature
in the situation has to do with the low
prices at which the staple products
of the country are selling. Current
/ prices mean that producers are unhap.
PLY situated as normal buyers. Con-
ditions in the grain and provision mar.
kets Of the United States are conditions
fundamental in every department OF
the American financial world. With
the farmers of the country poor, with
our crops commanding only bargain.
counter prices, 1t is the idlest of dreams
TO count upon any developments gen
orally favorable in any industrial OF
commercial way. No bar to progress
and prosperity can count in America
beside hard luck among the agricul-
turists, 1t may sound trifle trite to
state facts like these-as facts they
are-and such facts at the present time
have more bearing than aught else in
the Wall street situation
It has been constantly denied by gold
standard advocates that the farmers are
any worse off than they have ever been
It is asserted that prices of products
are only proportionately low and that
the producer has his compensation II
low clothing and low prices in what
he must buy. But here from an uneX
pected quarter we are told that ouI
crops are commanding only bargain
counter prices" and that any prosper.
ity under such a condition is an idle
dream"
1t is distinctly admitted that agri
culturists are enduring ''hard luck" anC
that there is no such "bar to progress
and prosperity" again, that these facts
bear on the fnancial.situatiOn.
We welcome this frank statement o.
the Western Rural.