The River Falls times. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1894-1933, 1898-10-25

The Wall street organs assert that
the country is experiencing wonder
fu1 revival of prosperity. They also
assert land print tables furnished by
the treasury department to prove it,
that the volume of currency is now
being expanded more rapidly than
over before Than how can a believer
in Wall street political economy deny
that currency expansion and prosper
ity go 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
some WaT street gamblers are pros
porous; at any given time some gam
bers must be winners. It is true that
many Wall street commercial high
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 off, The
western farmer owns no trust stocks
Watered or unwatered-an 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, it is
an unerring sign that he is being bled
worse than ever. And, on the other
hand, he has his resources cut in two
in hn Of 20
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 a rule,
owns no railroad stock, and he, to-
gether with the farmers of other sec
tons, pays ultimately the whole of the
freight charges which go to pay in
terest 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 a cent less than the
price obtained in 1897, when cotton
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-
Tess to show that the circulation in
1865 was $77O,129,755, while the gov
eminent report for 1886 stated that the
circulation in 1866 was $1,18O, 197,147,
a discrepancy in the two reports of
S4lO,067,392 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
Deen SOL, while this years report puts
1t 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
1866.
The treasury reports do not attempt
TO show circulation of anything like
sol per capita now, but an effort is
made to prove a 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, and all paper money ever
printed, is now in active circulation.