The Norfolk weekly news., 1900-10-25
SILVER AND COTTON.
Bryan's Theory as to Parity and
Price Is Disproved.
owing to GOOD Times of the Past
Four Years the People Are Us
ina More Cotton Than
Ever Before.

Everything seems TO go wrong for
the silver theorists. Their claim that
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
10 rise. Their last attempt, however,
in the effort TO sustain this argument
was cotton. which continued to fall in
price until 1899.
They studiously avoided the fact that
the cotton production of the United
States, the worlds chief cotton pro-
ducer, has enormously increased, and
that this fact accounted largely for the
decreased price, but kept hammering
away with their assertion that the si-
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 1889, while silver continues it's
downward course.
The price of an ounce of silver in
March, 1896, just prior to the nomina-
tion of MIR. Bryan, was a little over 70
cents and the price Of pound of cot
ton was 7R 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 62 cents and
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 1892 the
home market took a much larger share
of our enormous cotton crop than it
was able to take under the business
depression and inactivity of manufac-
turers 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 ,O0O, 600
pounds in 1892, fell to lose, 100000 in
1894, 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
over 30 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 16pounds
in 1894, and increased to more than
27 pounds in 1899. Nearly 35 pei
cent. of the entire cotton crop was
consumed at home in 1892, and i1
1894 less than 90 per cent. was con.
sumed at home, while the figures fol
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 2!
per cent.
The relative Importance of the
home market of this single item O.
cotton illustrates the value to tn,
farmer of a prosperous market a
home for any and all of his produc
tions. The figures of the bureau O
statistics and of the department O
agriculture show similar condition!
regarding the home consumption o
farm productions in prosperous year!
as compared with years of terribl,
depression under democracy and 4;
low tariff, in which people were com
PEELED to reduce their expenditure
for food and clothing to the yer!
lowest possible figure, and the re
suit is that the home market unde
the prosperity of 1900 is worth hun
dreds of millions of dollars more (,
the cotton planter than it was unde
the depression which is sure to re
turn to the country in case, Mr.. BryaI
and his followers are permitted t,
force upon the country their polio,
Of free silver and low tariff.
The following table shows the hom
consumption and expectation of cot
ton in the years 1892, 1894 and 1899
Home Consumption. Expectation.
oaDsmGsd POunds osptIa Pfr srOUI,is POUnds PGre .
1894 :. j, ,Os6, ,ose, 1853 1851 26ss, ,2S2S26 2S 5
1899 2, ,006, ,S4S795 H,l4 7S7.9l9,l22 $40