Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1924-05-17
CONGRESSMAN 7. ALAN COLDSBOROUCH
MAKES FORCEFUL FINANCIAL ADDRESS
Speaks Before Maryland Bankers Association At Atlantic
City.-Argues For Stability Of Prices. Emphasizes
Necessity Of Reducing Business To Pre.War Basis.

was constantly going back; and that
since the beginning of the century
and up to 1914 the position was ex-
actly reversed, although the farmer
for other reasons, has always occu.
pied q relatively unfavorable position
Finally it appeared to me that various
social phenomena had resulted and
were resulting from these varying
conditions. The gradual fall in prices
from 1873 to 1896 eliminated in the
Bryan free silver campaign which, il
successful, would have resulted and
was intended to result in the paying
OF debts with cheap money, that is,
in the partial reputation of obliga-
lions. In the period from 1896 to
1914 we heard no more about free
silver but wave of unrest began to
spread among those with fixed in
come, the clerk, the school teacher,
the salaried man Of every class be-
gan to feel with ever increasing pres
sure the gradual rise in the cost OF
living. Labor unions were formed,
strikes became common, radical legis.
lation OF all sorts was offered in Con-
gress; some of it was passed. We be-
gan to hear of capital as distinguish.
ed from labor and labor as disting.
uished from capital, as if our peopl.
occupied two armed camps, each bat.
thing against the other. And then
the World War came on. Providen-
TALLY, just prior to that time the
Federal Reserve Act was passed,
which increased potential credit many
times. We have seen the period of
imitation in 1919 and 1920 with gener-
al commodity prices rising to about
Y and One-fourth times what they
were in 1914; and then the collapse OF
the latter part Of 1921 and 1922, and
the conservative, careful period of
1928.
What does it all mean, and is there
any solution after we find out what
it all means? When went to Con-
gress in 1921, with some opportunity
to investigate these things which l
had been wondering about for so long
l began to null around and one day
in the Bureau of Labor Statistics /
was shown curve of prices based on
the Bureaus Index number and as
ran my finger along the line of fall
ing prices from 1873 to 1896, and of
Using prices from 1896 to 1914 be-
gan to see why it was that the first
period was one of prosperity for the
man, of fixed income, the mortgage
and the bondholder, and why the last
period was one of relative prosperity
for the producer, the business man
and the stockholder, each period caus-
ing social misunderstanding, unrest
and misery to that part of our people
not on the right side of the price
trend. Now, there was a reason of
course, for these long periods of ris-
ing and falling prices and remember
ing that we were on a gold basis it
then occurred to me that gold began
to be produced in South Africa and
the Klondike just about 1896. BY this
time it seemed there was little light
Just ahead and that the foundation OF
our changing economic conditions had
been either scarcity or a plentitude
of gold. And now, what is the an.
swer?
| Careful economists tell us that
there is a constant equation between
the volume of production and its
turnover and the volume of money
and credits and their turnover (o1
course, l am speaking roughly SC
that, in order to preserve the relative
positions of debtor and creditor
mortgagor and mortgage, bondhold.
err and stockholder, seller of goods
and seller of money, a means should
be devised to preserve this ratio SO
that the, volume Of money and credit
| Will SApouO WHY III Illc SdIIlc pFOpOc-
ton as production and turnover sub
sides. In the March number of Har-
per's Magazine there is an article en-
titled Establishing the Dollar" which
analysizes this subject in very sat-
isfactory way and which incidentally
speaks favorable of certain legisla-
ton now pending in Congress and in
troduced by me. I mention this fact
as indicating two things, first, that
the sterilization of purchasing power
is becoming matter Of public inter-
est land second that ] am discussing
a question in the solution of which ]
am attempting to assist in a practical
way. In the Bureau Of Labor Sta
tistics in Washington there is kept an
index number of wholesale price lev
els made up of a composite Of some
thing over 400 commodities, each
weighted in accordance with what ex-