Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-10-04
Bryan's Theory as to Parity and
Price is Disproved.
SILVER THEORISTS ARE In A MIDDLE
Owing to Good Times of the Past Four
Years the People Are Using More
Cotton Than Ever Before-Bureau
of Statistics Report.

wheat and silver kept pace was long
ago exploded by the fact that while sill
yer has continued to fall since 1896
wheat and practically everything else
produced by the farmer has continued
to rise. Their last attempt, however,
in the effort to sustain this argument
was cotton, which continued to fall in
price until 1890.
They studiously avoided the fact that
the cotton production of the United
States, the worlds chief cotton pro-
Queer, has enormously increased, and
that this fact accounted largely for the
| decreased price, but kept hammering
away with their assertion that the ST.
multaneous fall in the price of cotton
and silver was proof of the accuracy of
their general claim that the price of
silver governs the price of farm prod
ucts. But now the last prop is
knocked from under this theory by the
fact that cotton is selling in the New
York market for double the price of
1898 and 1899, while silver continues its
downward course.
! The price of an ounce of silver in
|
ton of Mr.. Bryan, was little over 70
cents and the price of a pound of cot
ton was 71s cents; or, in other words,
in 1896 it required ten pounds of cotton
to buy an ounce of silver; to-day an
ounce of silver is worth GO cents and
a pound of cotton over ten cents, SO
that it now only requires six pounds of
cotton to buy an ounce of silver in
stead of ten pounds, as was the case
in 1895.
| The fact is that the price of cotton,
like that of everything else, is gov
erned by the ability of people to buy
and the relation of production to the
worlds demand. Under the prosperity
and manufacturing activity which pre-
vailed in the United States in 1899 the
home market took much larger share
of our enormous cotton crop than it
was able to take under the business
depression and inactivity of manufac-
tuners which existed in 1894.
The official reports of the bureau Of
statistics show that the consumption
of cotton in the United States, which
amounted to more than 1871 900, GOO
pounds in 1892, fell to 1,os6, 900, 900 in
1894, a reduction of nearly one-third,
while in 1899 the consumption of cotton
in the United States amounted to 2,Oo6,-
100000 pounds, having nearly doubled
as compared with 1894, and increased
over 80 per cent. over the corresponding
period of 1892.
The per capita consumption of cot
ton in the United States amounted to
over "a pounds for each individual in
1892, but it fell to less than 16 pounds
in 1894, and increased to more than
81 pounds in 1899. Nearly 35 per
consumed at home in 1892, and in
1894 less than 30 per cent. was con
sumed at home, while the figures for
1899 show return to the conditions
of 1892, the proportion of the cot.
, ton crop retained for home consump
:, ton in 1899 being again nearly q
per cent.
The relative Importance of the
home market of this single item o.
cotton illustrates the value to the
farmer of a prosperous market a
home for any and all of his produc
tons. The figures of the bureau O
) statistics and of the department O.
: agriculture show similar conditions
, regarding the home consumption O
farm productions in prosperous years
t as compared with years of terrible
/ depression under democracy and
low tariff, in which people We're com
] PEELED to reduce their expenditure!
i for food and clothing to the very
/ lowest possible figure, and the re
r suit is that the home market under
I the prosperity of 1900 is worth hun
t dreds of millions of dollars more t.
2 the cotton planter than it was unde!
the depression which is sure to re
r turn to the country in case Mr. Bryan
: and his followers are permitted t.
D force upon the country their polio.
y of free silver and low tariff.
5 The following table shows the hom
! consumption and expectation of cot
\ ton in the years 1892, 1894 and 1899
Home Consumption. Expectation.
Pounds. Per. Pounds Pore
consumed: capita. exported. tanned