Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1898-01-28
BY HIS OWN PETARD
AN ADVOCATE OF FALLING
PRICES EMBARRASSED.
The Millionaire Owner OF the Goldbug
Philadelphia Record Explains That
the Rapid Decline In Prices Has
Cleaned Him Out.

We sincerely sympathize with the
misfortuntes of Mr.. Singerly, editor
of the Philadelphia Record. and presi-
dent of the Chestnut Street National
bank, of Philadelphia, and several 9TH
er failing concerns. His statement of
the failure is pathetic. In his state
ment published in his paper, the Rec
ord, he says editorially:
ITO the public The Record is COM
PEELED to make a painful personal an
nouncement this morning. Owing to
the financial embarrassment OF Mr..
William M. Singerly, president OF the
Record Publishing Company, the
Chestnut Street National bank, and the
Chestnut Street Trust and Savings
Fund Company, were obliged to sus-
pend business recently.
"The weight which proved too heavy
for Mr.. Singerly to carry was his large
investment in the Singerly Pulp and
Paper Mills, at Elkton, Md. The eX-
IRENE shrinkage in the price of paper
and the resulting depreciation in the
value of that property was the primary
cause of his embarrassment and OF the
suspension of the bank and trust COM
pany, with which he has been so close
ly identified.
"An extraordinary effort was made
before the announcement of the sus-
pension recently to tide over the DIFF
ficulty, and Mr.. Singerly's friends raj
l.; nj
crosby and fidelity, but it was found
impracticable to turn the assets at his
disposal into shape to meet imme-
date requirement"
Mr.. Singerly has achieved the honor
of occupying the foremost position as
an advocate of contraction Of the. vol
ume of money to the gold standard,
the consequence of which is falling
prices, stagnation, and bankruptcy,
says the Silver Knight-Watchman His
wild rawlings against the restoration OF
silver to the place 1t occupied before
a criminal conspiracy deprived the
world of the benefits of the supply of
metallic money which was enjoyed for
thousands of years previous to 1873,
might sound harmonious in the insane
asylum, but not elsewhere.
The great crash which has carried
down the Chestnut Street National
bank, several other banks and kindred
institutions, Is attributed by Mr.. Sing
erly and his friends to the shrinkage
of values. We must assume that Mr..
Singerly did not know that the shrink
age of values was embarrassing to en-
terprise, otherwise he would not have
been so earnest an advocate OF con-
traction. II he thinks that the shrink
age of values which has "busted" him
is good thing, we are not disposed to
question his motives In advocating
such folly, but If Mr.. Singerly and
other men engaged in business are not
real maniacs and animated by an in
sane impulse to commit financial sui
eide, it is barely possible that they are
financial idiots, and really, believe the
doctrine which they teach, which Is
that the smaller the volume OF money
and the more the circulating medium
is contracted, the plentier money will
be. and that the facilities for obtain
ing money will increase with the de-
crease of the supp1yAo money.
II Mr. Singerly is sane and can con-
vince himself that the lower prices fall
the easier 1t will be for him to extricatt
himself from the ruin which declining
values have produced in his case. we
will recognize him as genius.