The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1898-11-16
SLOW TO MOVE.
Some Gold Standard Testimony
on Prosperity.
ARGUMENTFoRFR FREE SILVER.
Law and Declining Prices Not
Productive of Prosperity or
Industrial Activity.


of Commerce. Southern bankers think
that fve-cent cotton is a fairly good
thing for the planters. 1t has been
polling the bankers and announces
these unique conclusions:
The uniformity of the replies is re-
markable With scarcely an exception,
they give satisfactory assurances that
fve-cent cotton does not mean any Sc
rious injury to the South, chiefly for
he Sc reasons: The cost of production
has been greatly reduced by various
means. especially in the new regions;
the reduction in some cases amounting
to about one-half the cost of ten years
ago. 1t is generally conceded that
there is small profit to the grower in
cotton even at present prices. Consid-
cradle relief is reported from the diver
si6cation Of crops and industries, while
an increased number Of planters have
raised supplies themselves, for which
they formerly paid exorbitant prices.
In fact, the financial condition of the
growers seems much improved in spite
Of cheap cotton. They are universally
reported as getting out of debt, and this
of itself should have an important bear
ing on Southern prosperity.
But the Springfield Republican is
not convinced; and it puts the case
strongly as follows:
Whether the banks are the best pos
sible source of information on this sub
ject we cannot tell. They certainly
should know if the planters are getting
out Of debt at the hands Of a lower
priced product than ever before expe
rienced. But if low priced cotton were
calculated seriously to affect the pros
perity and financial strength Of that
section, it is to be questioned whether
the banks would be among the first to
admit it. Meanwhile We may say that
all the petty considerations and offsets,
which may be advanced or invented to
belittle the consequences Of low and de-
clining commodity prices, cannot set
aside the fact that such conditions are
not productive of prosperity or indus
trial activity and enterprise and profit.
The particular producer whose product
goes down and down in the market can
indeed partially recoup himself in time
under conditions of a general fall in
prices, through ability to purchase his
supplies at a lower rate. But not
few of his charges, such as wages, taxes,
insurance, and interest on longtime
notes, remain substantially the same,
and the margin Of profit declines, while
the investment in the business remains
beyond recall at the higher level Of for
mer higher values. The low and fall
ing price extends its depressing influence
far beyond the plantation. 1t deprecl-
ates the value of the raw material held
| by the mills and of the goods made and
! making therefrom which have not yet
been sold or have not reached the hands
| of the final consumer. Thus every link
III this chain of production is weakened,
and the chain itself is necessarily slack
ened in consequence, producing
hesitancy, contraction Of effort and de-
preston. Furthermore it is simply
not true that the general fall of prices
is commensurate with the decline IN
cotton, or that the planter has been en-
abled to Offset the shrinkage in his gross
income througha corresponding shrink
age in his expenses. While cotton is
at the lowest price ever known, Brad
streets table of averages for over 100
staple commodities shows that general
prices are considerably above the low
record Of 1896. The planters cannot
combine to advance their prices. They
are too numerous and scattered. But
those who supply the planter with
what he has to buy can, and do, IN an
astonishing number of instances, COM
bine to dictate terms to the planter,
for the time being, at least 1t is fol.
de-rol to say that fve-cent cotton is in
consequential in it's industrial and I'M
ancial effect.
The Columbia State, in commenting
on the above, says ''our friend, Col.
Youmans, Of the cotton reduction
organization, couldn't put the case bet
ter than The Republican-and We take
the liberty of adding that he couldn't
make in as many lines stronger free
silver argument than our Massachusetts,
goldbug contemporary has done in argu-
| ing against the theory CT prosperity
with low and falling prices. y Here IS
another wit1ess-no less paper than
the chief gold organ in this country the
New Yonrk Evening Post. The Post
quotes Chauncey Depews prosperity
| proclamation in Chicago, and says:
The Tribune happens to be IN a sim
liar state of exuberance. 1t declares
that the business of the country is in
the most prosperous condition known
in years, that it is from 10 to Is per
cent. larger than it was last year at
this time, that the number OF hands
employed has increased greatly-'Sin
the iron business about quarter, IN
some others more, and in others less,
but on the whole so largely that earn
ings and expenditures of the working
people have everywhere expanded more
| than was expected by the most san
guinc." Other paeans of prosperity
abound in the Republican newspapers,
but we do not find any responsive
echoes in the trade journals. One of
these, The Dry Goods Chronicle, says
that merchants who are heavily stocked
up with goods read these articles with
amazement; that everything is in readi-
ness for the procession to move, but
that the much-vaunted prosperity Is as
halting as street parade. 1t has not
yet started. Talk syou will about the
statistics of pig-iron and the clearing
house returns, the men who have goods
to sell know that business is bad. There
have not been many failures asyet, but
there have been some bad ones, and
they have come where they were not
expected by the Republican party. The
| rool onS uoo1an industries orc n 4 de-