The Norfolk weekly news. (Norfolk, Neb.) 1888-1900, 1900-09-20

form.
Present Prices.
Under the gold standard prices are
as certain to fall as a stone which is
thrown intoth air."
This declaration taken from the writ
ings of that eminent seer, William Jen.
nings Bryan, was selected as a text of a
few remarks on prosperity by the Re-
publican some weeks ago. The Phono-
graph sailed bravely forth to defend the
prognostication of it's patron saint, ex-
planning that present conditions are alb
normal and that no fair average can be
struck for at least ten years. Not salts.
fed with this, however, it tried a new
tack last week and, while admitting
everything the Republican has claimed
with reference to enhanced prices, it
makes a labored attempt to prove that
the trusts" have been the principal
beneficiaries and that the poor, down
trodden farmer has not enjoyed a fair
share of the increase. The Photograph
says:
Galvanized barb wire costs S2.5O to
50 more than in 1896.
1t requires % per cent more wheat to
buy a stove than in 1896.
You have to pay 33 per cent more for
lumber than you did in 1896.
1t takes one. half more of corr to buy
a coil of rope than it did in 1896.
1t takes from 10 to % per cent more
grain to buy farm implements than it
did in 1896.
1t takes two dozen more egg to buy
the same weight of sugar that you got
for a dollar in 1896.
The Republican has investigated the
local markets during the past week and
it has learned some things. One of
them is that the Photograph either
doesn't know what it is talking about or
that it is engaged in another deliberate
attempt to deceive.
In 1896 galvanized barbed wire sold at
$3.50 per 100 pounds; it now sells for
SD ID per 100. A man would be com.
PEELED to buy from / 900 to 1900 pounds
in order to pay the increase mentioned
by the Photograph. 1t would have re.
quired 900 bushels of 10.cent corn to pay
for 900 pounds of barbed wire in 1896 {;
lO5 bushels will do the trick now, so the
barbed wire trust isn't getting any the
best of the corr grower.
Stoves have advanced since 1896 about
10 per cent wheat has advanced during
the same period more than 60 per cent.
Problem How can it require 20 per cent
more wheat to buy a stove than it did
in 1896?
T~wo.by-four scantling cost 500 per
900 feet in 1896; the present price is
S23, all increase of 10 per cent. Drop
siding cost S25 per 1000 feet in 1896;
the present price is $50, and increase of
20 per cent. White cedar fence posts
cost about II cents apiece in 1896 and
the price is the same today. Flooring
cost $25 per / 900 feet in 1896 the pres
ent price is $50, an increase of 90 per
cent. Sheeting cost $50 in 1896 the
present price is S23, an increase OF Is
per cent. Shingles are the same price
as in 1896, 1925 per / 900. Where is
the Photographs increase of 8 per
cent on lumber?
A sixty pound coil of rope in 1896
would have cost the farmer So. Had he
paid for it with 10.cent corn thirty
bushels would AVE been required. The
same rope is now worth 81 IS. Paid
for in 30.cent corn, fifteen and one-half
bushels would be required. Instead of
one-half more corn being necessary, the
farmer can buy almost twice as much
rope with the same quantity as he could
during the halcyon low-priced days of
> '96.
There has been an increase in the
$ price of farm implements. but the state
S ment that it requires 20 per cent more
S grain to buy them is grossly exaggerated.
q The increase is by no means proper
2 tionate to the enhanced value of most
farm products. Fifty bushels of wheat
e would have been required to pay for
a s~ixteen.inch plow four years ago; to-
b day the same plow can be bought foi
thirty two bushels of wheat or its equiv.
g alent.
Sugar was selling vent pound:
for a dollar in 90 eggs I cents a dozen
:, Fourteen dozen eggs would have bought