The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1898-09-28
THE SILVER BATTLE.
Under Consumption Rather Than
Overproduction.
TIE CAUSE CT HARD TINES

United States. Such is the
Opinion OF TWO Gold
Papers.
They are getting down to the facts
oy degrees. Here VIC find the Finan-
cial Chronicle and the Springfield Re-
publican arguing just like The State or
any other "Bryanite' newspaper in ac-
counting for the discouraging condition
of the cotton manufacturing industry.
Reviewing the Financial Chronicle 5
annual statement of the cotton growing
and manufacturing industries The Re
publican says:
1t is from under-consumption rather
than over production that the industry
has been so deeply depressed. The
Chronicle undertakes to prove this by
showing that the consumption of cot
ton by the American mills during the
past five, years has been considerably
below the per capita rate Of the pre-
vious half decade, which was period
of greater prosperity and more normal
consumption. And this lower per cap
tia use of cotton has proceeded stimuli
taneously with declining imports Of
cotton goods and increasing exports of
fabrics Of our own manufacture. II
consumption were at the normal rate
there would be work for practically all
the existing cotton machinery, and the
approach Of better times is regarded by
The Chronicle as assuring the speedy
restoration of prosperity to this great
industry. Meanwhile We may peril
ncntly ask how the reduction of wages
in the cotton mills is calculated to help
on the restoration or increase the con
sumption whose present low state is the
cause Of depression.
What The Republican now so readi-
ly admits when the argument is made
by the Financial Chronicle is precisely
what it would not admit when the same
argument was made by The State few
months ago 1t is under-consumption
that depresses the cotton manufactur-
ing business and most other great in
dustries in this country. They are not
producing more than the people would
buy at fair prices if the people were
prosperous, but they are producing
more than the people can afford to buy
at this time. And that is conclusive
proof that the people are not, as the
gold organs claim, in prosperous con-
dition.
All suggestions of ;'under-consump-
tion" as reason for the paralysis of
industries have been for this reason
either ignored or secuted by the gold
press. And wisely; because under-con-
sumption implies inability to buy, and
inability to buy-in the face of the
abounding yields from fields: mines
and forests-implies the lack Of money
and the cruelty of our financial system.
Admit general under-consuwption and
you admit general hard time; admit
hard times and you admit the failure Of
the gold standard to do what was pro-
missed for it.
Of course the gold men will now de-
clear, as the Financial Chronicle does,
that We are on the border of better
times and that the gold standard is to
be vindicated at last. But they have
been busily engaged in making that
same declaration ever since the repeal
OF the Sherman law in 1898, excepting
such occasions only as they were pro-
testing that the good times had already
come Wait another week on the
gold Standard" "Give the gold stand
ard chance'' ''Gold standard pros
perity is due to arrive punctually at y
NJ. on the day after eleetionr' Don't
monkey with the gold standard
when it's just about to hatch out riches
for everybody" And so on.
But this sort Of thing can't go on in
definitely. The people can't be fooled
much longer with promises. Five years
is a long time. The gold standard has
had five years to prove its character
and its effects and it has proved that
they are evil. That the evil will ever
turn into good the people who were de-
luded in 1896 do not now believe. At
the close of successful war and with
every advantage Of position, the party
which upholds the gold standard finds
itself confronted with popular dissatis-
faction, distrust and the demand for
something better" Even so optimis
tic Republican organ as the New
York Tribune sounds the alarm. 1t
asks the question, is there any dan
ger?" and answers itself thus:
''We say frankly, yes. Unless the
of the administration
throughout the country bestir them
selves and work from this time until
the night Of election day as they have
not worked before in the last 10 years,
there is grave danger that their repre-
sentatives will not be in the majority
in the next congress, and That the SEN
ate will be controlled by coalition
opposed to the administration and
sound money. This is the plain truth,
and it may better be told now than
when it is too late.
Not even foreign war has suficed
to divert the people from their domes.
tic grievance. Not even in the hour OF
victory do they forget that they have
a battle yet to fight a thousandfold
more momentous to them than Ell Ca
ncy or San Juan. They are arming for
it. The gold standard must surrender
and evacuate its entrenchment.-
umbia State.
Fatality in Pittsburg.