Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1898-10-28

full revival of prosperity. They also
assert land print tables furnished by
the treasury department to prove iD
that the volume of currency Is now
being expanded more rapidly than
ever before. Than how can believer
in Wall street political economy deny
that currency expansion and prosper
ity 60 hand In hand?
Why not, then, expand the volume
Of currency still more rapidly by open
ing the minis to the free coinage OF
silver and an increased circulation OF
greenbacks?
Surely our Hannacratic friends will
not claim that we are in danger OF
becoming too prosperous. Prosperity
is one good thing of which a nation
cannot get too much.
The sad truth is that the treasury
estimates OF increase in the volume OF
money are deceptive, and Wall street
overestimates the prosperity OF the
masses of the people. 1t is true that
I some Wall street gamblers are pros
porous; at any given time some gam
blers must be winners. 1t is true that
many Wall street commercial nigh
waymen are enriching themselves by
| looting the industries Of the country.
| Statistics of the increased profits OF
these gamblers and looters whose ma
! tional headquarters are in Wall street
apparently prove a revival OF pros
perity; but the actual fact is that
! these Wall street gains all come from
the pockets of people who receive no
equivalent therefor, and who are by
! that much the poorer
! Increased prices for trust stocks
and bonds do not indicate that the
western farmer Is better of. The
western farmSr owns no trust stocks
watered or s,awatered-and he is SELL
ing his wheat for but half it's last
! years price. The rise in the price OF
| monopoly stocks has not benefited the
western farmer; on the contrary, 1t is
an unerring sign that he Is being bled
worse than ever. And, on the other
hand. he has his resources cut in two
by the fall in the prices OF farm
: products. =
The fact that the railroads are again
| paying high dividends does not prove
that the southern planter Is prosper
GUS. The southern planter, as rule.
owns no railroad stock, and he, to-
gether with the farmers OF other sec
/ lions, pays ultimately the whole of the
freight charges which 60 to pay in
! tereet on bonds and dividends on
; stocks to the amount Of ten times the
actual capital invested in the rail-
roads.
Meanwhile the southern planter is
selling cotton for cent less than the
price obtained in 1897, when cotton
! went lower in price than ever before
in the history of the country.
Farmers cannot be prosperous while
the prices Of farm products are con-
stantly falling; nor can any other class
, of producers.
The government reports, showing an
) Increased volume of currency, are de-
ceptive in several ways. They pro-
fess 10 show that the circulation in
| 1865 was 377O,129,755, while the gov
eminent report for 1885 stated that the
circulation in 1865 was $1,180,197, lat,
a discrepancy in the two reports of
$41o, 1892. The statistical abstract
of the United States treasury in 1886
shows the per capita Of money in cir
culation in the northern states to have
been sol. while this years report puts
, It at $22.16, reducing the per capita by
including the population of the south
ern states, where scarcely any United
| States currency was circulating In
1865.
The treasury reports do not attempt
| 70 show a circulation Of anything like
ISL per capita now, but an effort is
made to prove large per capita by
considering all money in the United
States treasury and in the bank re-
serves as in circulation" They also
assume that all gold and silver ever
coined. aud all paper money ever
printed, is now in active circulation.
As n matter Of fact, the money, pa
per and metallic. undestroyed, unex-
ported. outside the United States
treasury vaults and outside'the banks,
probably does not constitute per
capita circulation of 81.
At any rate, the industries Of the
country require double our present
volume of currency and the quickest
| and easiest way to obtain this increase
is through the free coinage of silver.
| PERCY PEPOON.
| CURRENT COMMENT.