Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1907-01-16
Land and Money.

Ridgeway's says: "Slnce July l,
1900, the population of the United
States has increased about 10 per
cent, and in the same period money
in circulation has increased more
than SO per cent" A recent hulle-
tin Of the United States Department
of Agriculture, giving the results OF
a thorough investigation, says that
farm lands have increased from
1901 to 1905 an average Of 34.6yper
cent Does the reader see any cause
and effect between the facts above
stated?
It's natural to suppose that land,
that is, good corn land at least,
would certainly increase as rapidly,
and probably much more rapidly
than population. Hence we have
for many years figured that, taking
the average Of ten years, man
might count on an increase of at
least two per cent per annum in the
value of corn land over and above
cost and improvements. In the last
seven or eight years the increase
has been much more than that. To
what other cause can it be attributed
more certainly than to the increase
of the money in circulation?
1t would certainly seemreasonable
that the larger the per capita Of cir
culation, the more it would re-
quire to transact the business Of the
country and the higher prices would
be; but the question arises: What
causes this steady increase in the
per capita of circulation for the last
seven or eight years?
We are adding to our gold supply
about $l2O,000,0OO per annum,
somewhere about ninety millions of
which is dug out Of our mines and
the rest is received from foreign
countries in payment Of the balance
OF trade: for it must be remembered
that this, the amount of imports of
gold and silver over and above our
exports, is the real balance of our
accounts with foreign nations We
are credited with great deal more,
but the trouble is, as we have often
pointed out, that this so-called
balance leaves out Of account. four or
five of the main items Of the balance
and hence is a false one. necessarily
so. This in five years would be
about rs per cent. Why isit then,
that in the same length Of time the
increase Of money is 33 per cent?
1t should be borne in mind that
gold is not the coin current of the
country. A vast amount Of our
business is done without money at
all, by checks and drafts, and nearly
all the money that passes current is
notes of various kinds and silver fo,
small change. This main function
of the gold is to serve as the basis
and redeemer Of this current money
and it is considered that one dollar
in gold floats five or six dollars OF
paper.
1t is, therefore, perfectly reason
able to assume that the advancein the
price of land is due to two things
the increase Of population and the
increase in the per capita Of circula.
ton. This may seem to our readers
mere theory, but it has the most
direct practical consequences. 1t
means, and can mean nothing else,
that SO long as the amount Of money
in circulation increases, so long
must lands advance in price, barring,
of course, temporary periods Of
panic and depression when every
body wants to sell and nobody wants
to buy.
If this be true, then the first duty
of every farmer is to get a piece Of
land and hold onto it. 1.-The wants
to prosper as farmer, let him get
good land; and good land, as we
have pointed out, is land with a
good soil resting upon a clay OF
other water-holding subsoil and in a
climate where there are sufficient
heat units to develope the crop de-
sired, together with sufficient rain.
fall. A man can go to sleep on the
title deed to a farm Of this kind
Wallace's Farmer.