The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-10-16
PRICES AND MONEY SUPPLY.

The discussion Of the level of prices
| for ell articles in common use has been
illuminated by a special paper from
the Hon. George Z. Roberts, Director
! of the Mint, in the American Illus
trated Review of Reviews. Mr. Rob
crts goes into the question with thor
oughness, not taking any loose pre-
misses for basis to begin with, and
| not going forward in any uncertain
manner; but he goes back beyond the
prices of few years past, to the days
prior to the panic of 1893. He COM
piles list of average prices Of common
commodities from 1880 to 1899, calling
this 100. He finds that from this av-
erage basis the prices in different
years sank at times away below that
common average. Thus in 1896 the
average was COL; in 1897, s9.7. By
the same comparison in 1905 the prices
had risen to 115.9, But the very Pc
Rod that Mr.. Roberts takes to get his
average was one of extraordinary de-
preston for large part of the decade,
The commodity tables made by Mr..
Sauerbeck of London show that there
was a worldwide fall in prices, begin
ming in 1867, showing a steady de-
cline to 1896, when from an average
Of 100 for the first period the prices
had dropped to 81. The greater part
of this drop undoubtedly occurred, in
this country at least, from 1898 to
1896.
This showing by Mr. Roberts is a
complete justification of the conten.
tion of the silver men of that time.
With prices abnormally low, Mr.. Rob.
erts does not state the fact, but the
fact is, that this extreme drop in
prices made it improbable for any per.
son to engage in any enterprise, or to
invest any money except at interest; it
discouraged the farmers from raising
crops, and held back the establishment
of manufacturing plants; all these
things were due to the abnormal scar
city of money. There was not money
enough in the country, not money
enough in the world, to properly carry
the volume of commerce and business
transactions that business men required
to have done.
In like manner when Mr.. Roberts
shows, as he does show, that in the
last five years the prices have def
nitely turned upward, showing a dis.
tinct increase ever since, in fact, from
that the reason for this increase is the
extraordinary production of gold and
the abundance of money. The rise is
not so much an increase IN the price
of products compared one with another,
as decrease in the value Of the pur.
chasing medium. It is singular that
Mr. Roberts does not dwell upon this
phase of the subject, hut contents him"
self with showing the nominal change
Of prices, proving tho rise in the av-
erage level, without in any way under
taking to account for the fall or the
subsequent rise.
The reason, however, is SO plain, and
is such conclusive demonstration of
the economies of the underlying princi-
pies OF what was called "the silver
craze that those who maintained the
cause of silver through that period of
depression and called for its monetiza-
ton in order to afford relief to the
producers and investors and those who
would establish manufacturing and
other industries, that they are entitled
to say that those who reviled should
now come to the front with the apol
L.
only in the benefcently altered condi
ton Of affairs the true facts that un-
derlay the troubles for which there |
was such clamor for relief, but that
the true cause Of the bettered condi. |
tions is the enormously increased pro.
ductiop Of gold. and its plentifulness |
IN the channels of commerce