Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1899-02-03
WHY MONEY is IDLE.
MEN ARE IDLE FOR THE SANE
REASON.
Failing Prices and Industrial Eater
priae-The Paradox of Idle Hsa-cs OF
Money While Idle Men and Women
Suffer.

Falling prices is the bane OF enter
prise. When prices are falling, money
locked up In a safe or buried in the
ground will bring profit to its owner,
but IL employed in the production OF
wealth, its owner is certain to suffer
loss. When prices are falling debts
and taxes are absorbing the substance
OF the people, equities are being de-
stroyed, and the property of the peo-
pie Is being transferred unjustly to
the owners of public and private debts.
The price Of single commodity may
rise or fall in response to the varying
supply or demand for that particular
article, but when the general level OF
prices Is sinking, 1t Is money, which Is
the pricing instrument, that is becom-
Ing scarce and consequently dear,
which means that a larger amount OF
things in general must be given In ex-
change for given amount OF money,
says the Silver-Knight Waterman.
The advocates OF the gold standard
and contracting money volume COM
bat the argument that falling prices
is caused by a scarcity of money by
calling attention to a fact, which is
frequent, THAT the banks at New York
and other money centers contain large
deposits of idle money that can not be
loaned nm oood oocuritv of a low rate
Of interest. They insist that the
presence Of a large deposit in the
banks at the money centers is conclu-
sive evidence that plenty Of money ex-
lists. They assert that it is because
we have more money than is demand
ed by the business Of the country that
these large boards accumulate in the
money centers awaiting the call OF
persons who require money for use in
enterprise and production.
In this connection attention is call
ed to another state of facts that al
ways co-exist with large deposits of
idle money in the banks at the money
centers, which is, that labor is idle,
and the wants OF the people are not
supplied, and that times are very hard
generally. The advocates of gold con-
traction insist that the hard times can
not be caused by a scarcity of money,
when money is in abundance in the
banks at the money centers for which
borrowers can not be found at low
rates of interest
The answer to the foregoing argu-
ment is that when the volume OF
money in nation is diminishing,
changing the relation that exists be-
tween money and things in general, as
indicated by prices, which are gradu-
ally going lower and lower as time
progresses, that it is impossible for
men of enterprise to employ money
profitably in production; that falling
prices bring to enterprise disappoint-
ment and loss, causing the multiplied
ton Of bankruptcies and driving. bust
ness men to the wall. The experience
of few years under falling prices,
with its carnival of bankruptcy teaches
men the hazard of business ventures,
puts a check upon enterprise and linn
its production to the imperative de-
mands Of daily life. With the progress
of time under diminishing money
volume money must tend more and
more to accumulate in idle boards at
the money centers, as experience under
a condition Of falling prices teaches
the people generally that to engage in
active enterprise is to court loss and
failure.
1t must be borne in mind that the
man of business desiring to use money
can only secure 1t from the banks by
depositing a well-secured note obli-
turn the borrowed money to the bank
in a period of time varying from 80
to 80 days. He invests the money in
property and commodities that are
falling in price; that will be worth
less money at the time his obligation
for the repayment of the money ma
lures than it was at the time of the
purchase. Therefore, in order to re-
turn the borrowed money to the bank
the borrower is forced to suffer loss.
Therefore it is, that under conditions
of contracting volume of money and
falling prices, extending over period
of years, the greater the money con-
traction. the greater the boards of idle
money that must accumulate at the
money centers.
The contention is not made here that
a large volume of money and high
prices is of great advantage over a
smaller volume Of money and lower
prices. The activity of business and
the progress and development of a
nation are not dependent upon whether
prices be high or low, providing that
a general level Of prices be maintained
and a general fall Of prices be avoided.
The progress Of the world has been
made at such times as money was
abundant and prices were advancing.
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