The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1899-08-24
AN EASIER STREET., BE FREEh
FROM CRISES.

AN EASIER STREET, BE FREEZER
FROM CRISES.
MCKINLEY PROSPERITY EXPLAIN
ED SCIENTIFICALLY.
Mckinley prosperity is here. Grant
ed. Analyze it and you will see how
far short it falls of the prosperity the
Populist party would inaugurate. We
will be fair. detracting nothing what
ever from this prosperity!
| Iron and steel products are especially
booming. This is partly due to fam
inc of those products which happened
in this way: The manufacturers had
| taken in advance orders at much less
than present market prices; these they
generally have to fill first, and conse-
| quently there being a greater demand
than supply, old furnaces long idle are
being blown to take temporary advan-
tage of the rise Of price. OF course the
reaction will come before long, and
these same furnaces will be blown out
again.
In considering this present McKin-
ley prosperity, it is necessary to COM
pare prices today, not with last year or
the year before, but Tor long period of
years. Prices two years ago, when men
were asking, Where is that promised
Mckinley prosperity? were lower than
any time after the panic of 1893, lower
than any year since the gold discoveries
OF 1S49 gave an upward turn to prices.
Since that midsummer of 1897 prices
have recovered fully 20 per cent. This
Is admitted. We do not call the partial
recovery from a dreadful misfortune
prosperity. But Republicans do. And
even of this partial recovery, this 20 per
cent rise of prices, many who do not
feel it themselves, wonder where it is.
They wear forced smile, and admit
their true condition only in the strict
est confidence, when very near some
sympathetic ear. But the cotton plant
ers do not even pretend to hide their
miserable condition.
True, that never in the history of our
country were our railroads moving such
an immense bulk of goods as now. This
is the Mckinley prosperity OF which
there is ample proof 1t means that
comparatively few men are doing the
bulk of the profitable business. while
small shippers, small business men and
manufacturers are being squeezed out,
and their places taken by great corpora
tions, combinations, trusts.
Do not fail to note also that wages
have not been advanced nearly as much
as prices. Consequently labor is not
enjoying it's full share Of prosperity, by
any means. The legally favored few
through freight determinations and re-
sultant monopolies, are enjoying much
more than their share. WEALTH is
BECOMING MORE AND MORE CEN
TRALIZED.
Now, what are the causes for the
prosperity, such as it is? They are
these. The seeds of recovery from the
unprecedented low prices of the mid
summer of 1897 lay in our good crops of
1868, while there was a scarcity of
the worlds crops abroad The Dingley
tariff also diminished imports. Great
balances through our immense export
trade and slight import trade accumu-
lated in our favor. Gold began to flow
into this country, and increased the
volume of our currency, and our own
mines poured out the same gold metal.
This increase of currency was tempo
rarily checked by the issue of the Span
ish war loan, which drew money into
the treasury. Immediately afterwards
disbursements to meet deficits, with
further gold imports, soon turned the
tide, whereupOn prices again began to
mount. On July l, 1897, the volume of
currency in circulation in the United
States was given by the treasury re-
ports at $1,646, 100000; on July 1 last,
the circulation was given by the same
reports at 1892, 900, 900, an increase
during the two years of II 1-3 per cent.
And prices during the same period rose
by fraction less than 20 per cent.
This is the Republican Honest Gold
Dollar" whose value changes in two
years by nearly 20 per cent.
But the factor of worldwide influence
vastly more far-reaching than the pro-
duction of grain or other necessary ele-
ments Of true wealth, and affecting
through the changed prices every fea-
ture of human life, is the single fact
of the increased production of gold, re-
sulting in the general cheapening of !
that metal and rise in prices AS this |
rise of price occurred not only in Amer
lea, but in Britain and Germany, we can
find the cause for it only in this in
creased output of gold for the past de- |
cade At first this did not show, be-
cause Austria, Russia and Japan were |
all accommodating gold in order to get |
onto the gold standard. Demands were
greater than the supply of gold, and So |
despite the increased supply, it went on |
approaching and prices falling. But |
finally, by 1897, all these extraordinary |
needs were met, and the new supplies of
gold made themselves felt, not only in
America, but in all the gold-using |
world; prices rose, and not only did the |
prices of the alimentary substances rise