Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1899-11-22
CONDITIONS OF PROSPERITY.

When Prices Are Rising Industry and
Production Are Stimulated
The Money Supply.
The controlling condition of pros.
perity is found in prices. When prices
are rising industry and production are
stimulated, giving employment and
wages to labor and profit to all legit-
innate enterprise. Under such condi.
ton production moves toward a max
imum, and if this condition be of long
duration it brings the entire energies
of a nation and people into full play
in the production and distribution OF
wealth. At such times money is never
found to be in idle boards at the great
money centers, because money is losing
its power to command other things in
exchange and cannot be profitably
boarded, while on the other Hand a
profit is certain if money is prudently
invested in legitimate enterprise. But
II prices are falling enterprise becomes
the unerring road to bankruptcy. If a
period of falling prices be long drawn
out, bankruptcies and failures will be-
come the rule and successful enter
prise the exception. Under these con-
ditions money will accumulate in vast
hordes in the bank vaults at the money
centers, and although the rates of in
terest may rule low, the fall in prices
through an increase of the purchas:n 9
power of money itself will defeat it's
profitable use in productive enterprise
and general stagnation of business will
be the rule, with labor unemployed and
distress universal among all classes,
except bond holders, money lenders and
salaried officials. At such times mort
cages eat up the equities of debtors,
while the burdens of taxation grow
more oppressive and burdensome.
There has never been in the world s
history period during which the hui
man race made advances in civilization
and wealth, and the masses of the peo-
pie constantly rose from a lower to a
higher level. except when money supply
was increasing. The productiveness or
non-productiveness Of the mines I'M
erringly mark the periods of advance
ment or retrogression among all ma
tons and peoples as far back as we have
records.
Money is the unit of price. Prices are
expressed in numerals and fractions
of the money unit. Price is an express
sion of the relation of the money vol
ume to the articles bought and sold in
the worlds markets. The number of
money units that can be made of gold
is dependent upon the quantity of gold
in existence. The number of additional
money units that can be added to the
worlds volume of money each year de-
ponds upon the yearly output of the
gold mines. The same is true of silver
The only test of suffciency of
money or an adequate annual increase
of money supply is found in price lev
els. If in the absence of wars that sus-
pend the production and disarrange
trade, or the absence of famines or
pestilence that likewise create abnor-
NAL market conditions, the general
price level is falling, it is evidence that
the money supply is inadequate and
insufficient. If, on the other hand, un-
der normal conditions the general level
of price is firm or advancing, no COM
plants will be heard of an insufticiency
of money or the undergraduates of sup
ply.
So great is the influence of money
supply that if all other conditions ex-
ist favorable to the highest efficiency
in production and money supply is in
sufficient, falling prices, curtailed pro-
duction, enforced idleness on the part
of labor, increased bankruptcies and
general hard times will be the prevail
ing conditions.
all the gold and silver that could be
extracted from the mines went into uni
versal use as money. The fact that
some nations made their coins of gold
alone and others coined only silver
caused no disturbance whatever so long
as one or more commercial nations
freely coined both metals.
At this point we desire to lay es-
pecial emphasis upon the fact that the
controlling condition of prosperity is
the supply of money, not the color,
specific gravity or chemical tests. Yel-
low money will uphold prices, if the
supply be sufficient, and the world can
prosper using only yellow money if
there be a sufficient quantity of it.
White money is just as potent as yellow
money. AS money is not fnality, is
not used as an article of individual con-
sumption by anybody anywhere, but
is simply accepted in exchange for
other commodities or in payment for
property or debts, the color, specific
gravity or chemical tests are imma-
terial, but the supply is all important
because upon this the exchange power
of the money depends, and upon the
supply depends the ability of men to
procure it to pay debts and taxes.
Ancient civilization in Persia, Asia
Minor and Egypt fourished when
money supply was abundant, but when
the great leads of gold and silver in the
Olympian mountains became exhaust
ed and the sands of the Pactolas yield
ed no more gold, a decrease in money
supply and fall in prices centralized the
wealth of those nations into the hands
of few, plunged the nations backward
into slavery, to endin their final disso-
luton. Rome hourished while it's VIC
torious armies were plundering the
world and bringing gold and silver to
Rome, only to see it's population become
slaves, its power depart, and it's civiliza-
ton disappear when the yield of the
mines no longer furnished an adequate
money supply.
From the beginning of the Christian