The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1919-08-29
SHARP DEBATE ON HIGH COSTS
Congressman Fordney Expresses His
Views i'm Plain English

L DuIHiS Ile ucDdCe III congress lew
days ago on the high cost of living,
Representative Fordney engaged in
the discussion and a perusal of an ex-
tract from the Congressional Record
We think will convince our readers
that our representative gave utterance
to some pungent facts. Mr.. Fordney
and others said:
Mr.. Fordney. Mr.. Speaker and gen +.
tlemen, / will occupy but very little
time, and l wish to say to the House
that for Congress to investigate the
high cost of living and to reduce the
high cost of living quickly is very
difficult problem, one not so easy as il
may appear to be on the surface. In
the first place, prices are always hign
when there is shortage of supply.
When the demand is greater than the
supply you may look for high prices.
am old enough to remember the
Civil War. And after that war the
prices were very high for some years.
l can remember that flour sold at $50
barrel in the United States and
sugar at so cents a pound. 1t is not
quite that high now. Meat is selling
at very high price.
Mr.. Clark of Missouri. Will the
gentleman yield?
Mr.. Fordney. Yes, sir.
Mr.. Clark of Missouri. Well, the
circulating medium in this country at
that time was only about 40 Or 30 or
60 cents on the dollar, was it not?
Mr.. Fordney. Yes, that is right
paper money, greenbacks, worth about
so cents on the dollar.
Mr.. Clark of Missouri. And every
dollar in the United States is a dollar
now.
Mr.. Madden, Mr. Speaker, want to
say in reply to the gentleman from
Missouri that there is not a dollar in
the United States that is worth HIN
dred cents on the dollar.
Mr.. Clark of Missouri. When?
Mr.. Madden. Now.
Mr.. Clark of Missouri. What is it
worth?
Mr.. Madden. About So cents. That
is the purchasing power of the dol
lar.
Mr.. Clark of Missouri. 1t is no
such case as it was after the Civil
War.
Mr.. Madden. If the gentleman will
permit me, of course we have already
expanded the currency about sl3,a00e
100000 by making loans to people
who had to buy Government bonds and
who had not any money otherwise with
which to buy them.
The banks and the Government en-
couraged these people to buy. More
than 80 per cent of the 30,000,000 peo-
pie who bought bonds did not have
dollar with which to pay. The banks
had to loan to them. They had to
take these bonds and put them up as
collateral security with their own
notes and get them rediscounted by
the Federal reserve banks. The Fed
eral reserve banks did not have any
money to loan, and they had to issue
Federal reserve note currency-$13,-
000,000,000 Of expansion.
Mr.. Wingo. The gentleman does
not mean to say that there has been
issued $13,OO0,00O,0OO of Federal re-
serve notes?
Mr. Madden. I mean there has
been that expansion by loans.
Mr.. Wingo. You mean of credits
Mr.. Madden. Yes, of credits. 1t
has reduced the purchasing power of
the dollar today to 4S cents, notwith-
standing what the gentleman from
Missouri (Mr. Clark says.
Mr.. Clark of Missouri. l do not
want to use up the time Of the gen.
tleman from Michigan, but
Mr.. Madden. The gentleman can
get all the time he wants.
Mr.. Clark of Missouri. But the
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Madden)
is clearly off his box.
Mr.. Madden. / do not think so.
Mr.. Clark of Missouri. The propo-
sition that the gentleman from Mich
igan (Mr. Fordney) was talking about
was paper money.
Mr.. Madden. This is paper money.
Mr.. Clark of Missouri After the
Civil War a dollar of paper money
was worth somewhere from 40 cents
to go cents. Now paper dollar is
worth just as much as the gold dol
lar.
Mr.. Madden. We had no gold or
silver in circulation at that time.
Mr. Clark Of Missouri. If the gold
dollar is not the standard now, what
is it?
Mr.. Madden. The gold dollar is the
standard, but it is not circulating. 1t
is the Federal reserve notes that are
in circulation.
Mr.. Clark of Missouri. The FEEDER
al reserve note is just as good as the
dollar. If you think it is not, go
down and try it. The truth about the
whole thing is that the whole world
is on a paper basis.
Mr.. Madden. Yes; the whole world
is on paper basis, and the gentle
man is mistaken when he says that
we are on better basis than any
other country in the world.
Mr.. Clark of Missouri. never said
a word to that effect.
Mr. Eorduev If. tho Oant1a,n on