Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1897-08-06
A LEAK SOMEWHERE.
The False anl the True Reason for
the Fall of Prices.

Inc IAN OF prices Is que TO over
production, brought about by improved
processes. And that the law of supply
and demand regulates prices"
This is the explanation given us by
our gold advocates.
In considering these propositions, let
us see how much of this is due to in
yentions, etc. We will first consider
the agriculture as this is the life OF our
nation-to the inventions, ETC., in that
line. BY the record of the patent Office,
we find that all improvements in farm
implements since 1870 have not re-,
duced the labor or cost of produce, on
a general average, more than 2h per
cent. Now, we have from this bold
statement to make. In 25 years from
1s45 to 1870, the progress of invention
in agricultural lines, was greater than
in all the previous history of the world.
and, indeed, the price of produce stead
lily increased. But in the ensuing IS
years to 1895 there We're fewer improve
ments and prices have steadily de.
clined. Now Mr.. Edward Atkinson is
one of their greatest elaboraters upon
this one subject. and he denies all this.
But will give some reports from the
patent office verified by members of
congress and from farmers. In 1905
there had been granted 6,TOO pillow
patents, and since 1870 but three valu-
able Improvements upon the same
Since the opening of the office $500
patents for harvesters have been grant
ed of which the only important one is
the Irvine binder, patented in 1870, for
which 900 patents have been, given.
Nine hundred and twenty corn gath.
erers and perhaps as many potato
planters and gatherers have been pat,
ented and none of either are Of much
real use in farming. There has been
no reduction in the cost of raising a
beef. hog, sheep, horses of mules. The
good old-fashioned patent holds good
yet, as it did in the beginning of crea-
ton. Counting the labor of the men,
who did their binding after the old
Mccormick harvesters at two dollars
per day, the total saving of all these
improvements since 1870 is estimated
at six cents per bushel for wheat, rye
and oats, and much of the six cents is
taken up in cost of machinery, repairs
and interest. And so we may make
tour of all the list of inventions in other
industries and find the same conditions,
but this is sufficient to show that nearly
all our farm implements were in use
before 1870, and as l stated, that since
that time the cost of labor has not been
reduced more than 2h per cent.
The theory that overproduction is
the cause of low prices is contrary to
the laws of political economy, because
we notice that since prices are tending
downward, as they have been for near
ly rs years, the cause of it must still
be in operation, and the improvements,
though of slower growth. ought not to
any more than keep pace with the prog
ress of the race which daily demands
mose TO meet lis PEG uifed warts. Wheat
should not be eireaPes, because it's pro
dueed IN gpaater quantities, unless the
per capita production has ALSO IN.
creased, m 1852 our per capita predae-
ton of wheat was 90 bushels, the eN-
port price was S1.13. In 1893 our pro-
duction per capita sc bushels, and the
price 81 cents. It has been established,
beyond q doubt that everp1oduction
Is not the cause Of low prices, for we
see it bringing the least when it is
scareest. Products remain unsold in
the markets, and prices tend down
ward because those who produce are
not permitted to consume. Why? Be-
cause the producers of our wealth are
not its possessors. If the produce of
your farm be taken to pay your taxes,
insurance and interest, what have you
to exchange for the product of labor
in other lines? And if these other lines
of products go for the same reason,
what have toilers to exchange for the
produce of your farm? You cannot eff
feet an exchange on nothing. If the
farmer or mechanic have nothing left
to exchange, even if they produce
much. how can their purchasing power
be exhausted if they produce little?
The American farmer must sell at
price fixed in Liverpool. buy at one
fixed by American combines, and what
he has left is consumed in interest on
mortgages and taxes. McKinleyites
claim there are not enough consumers.
Very true; but how do they propose TO
increase the number? / do not see but
one way, that would be to limit proda1c-
ton, raise prices by decreasing the
of people employed, by depriv-
ing another million or two of all the
purchasing power. Now. once IA
nous doctor was laughed at for treating
a man with the govt by drawing OFF all
the blood and filling his stomach with
warm water. But here would be a
for curing the prostration Of
Industry, by hitting the patient on the
head with a brick.
Every gold advocate will tell you that
demand and supply regulate value. So
does the money supply do the same,
and If the supply is cut in two the re-
mainder will be doubly valuable, as
long as the people must have it. What
ean be palmer than that If the volume
be four billion of silver and four billion
Of gold, AND IT'S declared that only the
four billion of gold is money, that the
value of this gold is double. All the
world must have money, and when the
supply is only one-half of what it was,
people must give more and more goods
each year to get it, and that gives lis
lower prices, because silver is no longer
real money. It is not strictly correct
10 speak OF falling prices, because
values OF everything else bear the same
relation to each other as they did
formerly. You can exchange one kind
Of goods for another kind, and for sill
yer at nearly the same ratio as before