Montana labor news., 1937-12-16
THE FALL OF PRICES
The CAUSE AND CURE
By a Former President of
Brown University.

Brown university.
That a very great fall in general
prices has occurred since 1873 is UNI
contested; but the baneful effect of
that fall is not widely seen. Some
deny that fall in prices is an evil,
and deem it an advantage instead.
Some people confuse falling prices
with falling costs, two things which
are perfectly distinct. THE
AMOUNT OF LABOR NECESSARY
TO PRODUCE THE GREAT COM
MODITIES OF LIFE MAY BE
LESSENING FROM YEAR TO
YEAR, AND YET THE PRICES,
THE MONEY VALUES OF THOSE
THINGS. BE INCREASING.
x X x x
l say, first, that falling prices such
as now are occurring throughout the
gold-using world, work outrageous
injustice.
Appalling is the moral wrong
which the fall of prices since 1873
has wrought. THINK OF ALL
THOSE TIME CONTRACTS, which
form SO prominent a feature of mod
ern business. Probably 70 per cent
of the worlds commercial transac-
lions are based on some sort of de-
ferred payment or credit. 1t is esti-
mated that a trillion and a half dol
lars worth of these deferred pay
ments r outstanding at this time.
Approaching money is occasioning
injustice in case Of every one of
these obligations. The business frie-
ton proceeding from this source |
mention presently; HERE I HOLD
UP TO VIEW THE FRAUD OF THE
SYSTEM; HOW INCREASE IN THE
VALUE OF MONEY ROBS DEBT
ORS.
1t forces every one of them to pay
more than he covenanted to pay,
NOT MORE DOLLARS but more
the given number of dollars
embodying greater value at the date
of payment than at time of contract.
In these days debtors must struggle
hard to be able to pay what they
honestly owe. A MONEY SYSTEM
WHICH FORCES THEM TO PAY
10 TO so PER CENT BLOOD
MONEY is DEVILISH INDEED.
X X x X
Between 1870 and 1884 the public
debt DECREASED not far from
three-quarters of a billion dollars,
yet if we take wheat, corn, beef, oats,
and bar iron together as the
standard, and they do not make a
bad standard, THE DEBT DID NOT
DECREASE, but INCREASED not
less than so per cent.
Say, if you please-what is now
and then in a case may be true,
though it is not true generally-that
the larger batch of commodities
now needed to pay a given debt cost
more labor than the smaller
patches which would have sufficed
to pay it long ago. BUT WHERE is
THE JUSTICE OF THE MONEY
ARRANGEMENT WHICH THROWS
ALL THE BENEFITS OF I'M
PROVED FACILITIES IN INDUS
TRY INTO CREDITORS HANDS
AND UTTERLY FORBIDS DEBT
ORS TO SHARE IN THE I'M
PROVEMENT?
x x X x
Falling prices (appreciating mon
cyl set up a special, positive motive
for abstaining from productive in
dustry. This is the impulse to hoard.
Approaching of money tempts hold
ers of money and of titles certain to
be paid in money to cling to these
and not invest in industry. It inten-
sites the demand for BONDS and
depresses that for stocks. The pres
ent is the age of bondholders. That
all are so anxious to invest in bonds
is, from an industrial point of view,
an alarming symptom.
x X X X
Irresponsible, feeble, and ignorant
industrialists, to be sure, go on try
ing to produce unsheltered. SOME
OF THEM, by SWEATING THEIR
WORKERS, HAVE SOME
SUCCESS, THEIR WINNINGS,
HOWEVER, SPEEDILY FALLING
INTO BONDHOLDERS' POCKETS.
One set of weak producers fails, an
other rises and runs the same course.
Always some are making the en-
deavor. The bondholder never fails
of supporters. For l pity the class
of brave, small industrialists quite
so much as I do the men who toll
for wages. They are a sort of serfs.
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