Natchitoches populist., 1899-01-20
FINANCIALCA TECHISM
CHAPTER ON INDEPEN
ACTION-PLAIN FACTS.
Under the Safeguards OF the Democratic
Platform the United States Can Coin
Silver Free without Fear of Foreign
COnspirators.


not our foreign securities be thrown
upon the markets and how are we to
pay our foreign obligations?
A. ALI foreign obligations falling due
must be paid, no matter whether we
have free silver or a gold standard,
unless they be extended. If foreign
securities, which are foreign debts, be
thrown upon our markets they will be
eagerly taken by our own people, and
no patriotic citizen will regret very
deeply such a change From condi-
lions brought about by foreign in
yestments" so ardently loved by advo-
Gates of the gold standard, by which
: 100000 acres of our domain-a ter
ritory greater than New York or Penn
sylvania, belongs to foreigners, such
as the British Lord Scully, who owns
100000 acres in Illinois, and applies
to 1t the pernicious system of British
landlordism; the legislature Of Illinois
mas thought 1t necessary to protect us
by prohibiting the ownership Of lands
In Illinois by foreigners. And am
one of those who would rather use
home capital and home products for
the development of home lands and in
dustries. We will pay our foreign OBJ
legations as we have always done, in
our own products, which consist of
gold, silver, wheat, cotton, corn and
manufactured articles, just as We paid
them from 1860 to 1880, when we had
nothing but paper money. And be-
cause the burden will fall upon our
wheat and cotton and corn it is i'm
portant that the price Of these articles
shall be kept up in order that We may
be enabled to pay our debts.
@. Does the disuse of silver as stand
ard money affect the price of these
commodities?
A. 1t does. With so cents in gold
the English merchant can buy from US
one ounce of silver He can take his
ounce of silver to India. Russia or the
Argentine Republic, all silver coun-
tries, and exchange it for bushel OF
wheat. By selling a bushel of wheat
for an ounce of silver the wheat-raiser
of Russia, Argentina or India is get
ting as much for his wheat as he ever
got, and his ounce of silver will ex-
change in his own country for as much
as 1t ever would. Because he is COM
peting with us for the wheat market
of the world we must sell our wheat
for the same price, so cents in gold, or
one ounce Of silver But an ounce Of
silver will only pay 60 cents worth Of
debts or buy so cents worth of sup
plies for us, where formerly it paid
$1.29 worth Of debts and bought S1.29
worth Of supplies. So If we must COM
pete for the market of our most i'm
portant products with silver countries
We must use the kind of money they
use or get worsted What is true of
wheat is true of all our products so
far as they compete for the markets of
the world, One result of this decrease
of prices is shown in the following
statement: To pay the national debt
at the close of the year 1896 would re-
quire
646,778,5S4 bushels of wheat.
90,7S0, 731 barrels more -four.
8,673, 406,S63 pounds more cotton,
h1,3S9,540 barrels more mess pork
than it would have in 1866.
O. But why do you take wheat, etc.,
for illustration? Has not the cost of
raising wheat and other agricultural
products been greatly reduced of late
by the invention of labor-ss.ving ma
A chinery. and are not the low prices due
to overproduction?
A. We take wheat and other agri-
cultural products for example because.
as has already been said, they are i'm
portant in that We must rely upon
them In trade with foreign nations and
in paying foreign debts. They consti-
tute So per cent of our exports. We
are very much interested in them. The
period Of great labor-saving inventions
came before 1878. Prior to 1873 steam
was being utilized, the cotton gin. the
grain drill, the reaper and the thresher
had taken the place Of hand work, the
cradle and the fail, yet prices had not
fallen as they have done since 1873.
Nor is the cost of production of wheat
being greatly reduced. According to
the report Of the Illinois state board OF
agriculture for 1896, the average cost
Of production of wheat from
1873 to 1896 was Y cents per bushel;
1881 to 1895 was rs cents per bushel;
1893 to 1895 was 1914 cents per
bushel
Nor is reproduction the cause.
From 1860 to 1873 the production OF
wheat In the world increased annually
at the rate Of 2.S per cent; at the same
time prices advanced 20 per cent. From
1873 TO 1885 the worlds production
only increased is per cent annually, q
decrease of almost one-half, but prices
fell nearly 80 per cent. Under present
conditions, however, there seems to be
an under-consumption In 1877 W.
consulnped rer capita SOL bushels 0.
wheat when 1t was s1lT per bushei
IN 1854 we consumed but Sal bushels
=, ,3ta 4hougb II xvaa worth hut A.