Norwich bulletin., 1911-11-23
LETTERS I'D THE EDITOR
The Question sefore the House.


 MT Editor: The question before the
 house is, What is the cause of the hlgh cost of. living? Mir. Montgomery insists that the whole thing is governed by
 the law of supply and demand; ana money also comes under this law. will agree that the law of supply and demand has much to do with money in fact it is the supply and demand for money that is the primal cause, TOT the reason that we cannot well get along without it; hence it is an indls- pensabIe factor of civilization.
 The experiences of most people IS that the suppIe is inadequate, about all the time. But, MT. Montgomery, here is q fact that perhaps you never took into consideration, viz, that the denand' for money is equal to the de- nand for every other thing which money buys. What kind of law IS thls law of supply and demand for money Is it an equitable, just and constltu- tional law. that keeps the supply less than the demand2 From what source does the supply come2 Where is the fountain head? Who is to say now much is to be supplied2 In democ- racy as this government is called, the sole power is lodged with the people The power to make the laws. As mon ey is @ creation of law, and law IS made by the people, then the source from which it cones must De the peo-
 pie. For whom is the money to be .crcated2 Is it not intended for the people? The people demand money and cannot get along without it. The people demand it. and must have il. and can only supply it by the law, and the people are the law, provided we have a republican form. of govern ment.
 Today we have the spectacle of government of 90.000,000 people having the only and absolute power of creat-, inS money for their own use, yet the demand is so great and the supply is so inadeQ uate that the deDt which haS been created is so large that it takes from the people three -ffths of all the wealth they provided to pay the m terest on this debt. As the debt n- creases, more and more of the wealth is taken to pay the interest. Allow me to ask yous Mr. NJ, to find some authority in the constitution for con greSs (the representatives CD of the people, to run the people in debt and tax them to pay interest on 1t, when the constitution gives congress the power to create a legal tender money that will pay any debt in the United States? Why should congress run in debt and pay interest, having the power to create money? This is not according to reason and common sense. Now MT. NJ. for another ques- tiOn and some history leading up to the date of his old store book 1872. This question involves your law of supply and demand for money. What effect would it have on prices, and | cost of living, with a decreasi vol ume of money and an increasing pop ulation? Do you think it would tend to ! cause hard times? Can you think it a more potent factor to cause distress than for the supply to decrease while 1 the demand increases? In 1866 the supply of money in circulation amount 1 ed to $1,996, ,6S7.770- In 1876 the amount had been reduced to $606, ,O00,- ] 900. In 1866 the population was 35,- 537,14S In 1876 the population had | increased to 46.2S4,344. The percapita | decreased from S50.76 in '66 to $15.89 i in 96. The amount of money de- l creased S1, 1890, ,6S7,770. The population l to know is what happened to the busi- 1 ness, labor, wages and prices during those ten years. There were 47,66S business failures. The losses to credA itors from the above failures was $1,- 422,9e0. Labor was thrown out of em- ployment, causing wages to fall, as natural as for water to run down hill.
 During the '70s the cry was raised of overproduction, but that soon ceas- ed, because people were hungry be- 1 cause they had too much to eat. They l were ragged because they had too | many clothes to wear. It is about this 1 time that the farmers that were back ! on the farm burned their corn for i fuel, because they could not sell it for | enough to buy the coal in Pennsylva- | mia, where the miners were starving | for the corn that was burned for fuel | in the west. But, says some one, l those times have gone by. Very true, ! but bear this in mind, that like causes | produce like results, no matter where | or when. There may be a. little varia- | tion, but the result is the same. To | cap the climax, the above mentioned | conditions were the result of acts of congress. Congress authorized the . contraction and destruction Cby burn ing) of that $1,390, ,6S7,77O of United 1 States money. Money owned by the | people. Congress also authorized the i issue of the bonds to take the place ] of that money. For all that we have had men tell us that congress issued ! the bonds to borrow the money Will | Mir. M. or someone else tell us what the money was borrowed for? The war was over in the spring of 1865. There was no war from '66 to '76.
 J. C. NALLETTE.
 North Franklin, Conn.