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The Conservative *
\ A ST11ONO VOICK J-'OU SOUND
[ KCONOMICS.
i SAN FRANCISCO. CALIF. ,
| . Mny 20 , 1899.
i EDITOR THE CONSERVATIVE ,
Nebraska City , Neb.
Noting in your No.I ! } , of Mny 4 , first
pnge , under the head of "Money Circu
lating in the United States" this item :
"The Hon. W. J. Bryan remarked in
a speech made at Lincoln , Neb. , on
September 8 , 1896 : 'My friends , all the
) , ' trusts together fall into insignificance
when compared to the money trust.1 "
It. seems to me the following letter ,
written for the press hero , the latter
part of 1897 , is pertinent to the subject
and worthy of reproduction :
Economic Conditions.
Wo know by experience , only too
well , that when the economy of a coun
try is vitiated by unsound legislation
the discontent which ensues is generally
directed , justly or unjustly , against
those in power. The masses are ready
to clamor for reform , but to construct
the new program is left to so-called
leaders. These are generally men of
action , fluency , and pronounced politi
cal views. Such men seldom have the
tiniP , patience or taste for the study of
economic and sociological questions.
They are generally tempted to seize on
some specious political shibboleth , the
advocacy of which requires no special
training , and which in itself is of a kind
to capture the fancy of the masses.
Such political reforms appear all the
more promising when the way in which
they are to benefit the people cannot be
clearly defined and the process by which
they are to be attained is left in a neb
ulous and chaotic state , which affords a
wide scope for the imagination.
litihor-IStiyiiiK Gold.
Mr. Bryan , like other silverites , seems
to have no conception of intrinsic eqxiiv-
alency in a standard of value , and as
serts that silver will now buy as much
of anything as ever before. I assert
without fear of successful contradiction
that within the period of twenty-four
years , 1873 to 1897 , human labor in the
gold standard countries would buy as
much gold and the gold buy more of the
necessaries of life than in any other
similar period known to history. Fur
thermore , an ounce of gold will not buy
more labor today than it would twenty-
four years ago and an ounce of silver
( not interchangeable as coin with gold )
will not buy half so much labor in gold-
using countries as it would twenty-four
years ago. Considering all qualifying
conditions whatsoever , including recent
depression , the consequent number of
unemployed and reduction in wages ,
etc. , it is reasonably certain that in the
past thirty years xindor the gold stan
dard , while capital earnings have fallen
forty per cent labor earnings have in
creased over fifty per cent.
Chvnp Cash messing * .
As to the alleged benefit of "cheap
money" to agricultural debtors of this
country in regard to the payment of
obligations : The labor bureau of the
United States issued last year the fol
lowing table of indebtedness :
Railway companies $5/00.4:11,114 :
Business and homes lots 'I.SlU.iWl.f.nJ
Farms , He 2f'U.S'.VJ ? /
Public debts of all kinds 2,027,170,54(1 (
National banks 1.0UJl'i7 , 51
Other Vaults 1,17M8,415 :
National , state and local tJixes . . . l.U40,47iOKi :
Crop liens fioO.OOO.WH )
Street railway companies 182,240,754
Canal , turnpikeiind bridge com
panies , etc 114.203.078
Public water companies 80,127,489
Gas companies 7rUOOUOO
Electric and telephone companies 40.002,5(15 (
Telegraph companies 20XXiUUU (
Other debts , private 1,212,701'M
$20.227,170,540
Oiif-Xinlli Only.
It will bo soon the farm incumbrances
are only about one-ninth the total debts
of the country. Here the fiatists can
observe where their crusade for cheap
money would lead to. Nor has the half
been thus told. If the payment of
twenty-two hundred million dollars of
personal farm laud mortgages in ' 'cheap
money" woiild bo good for those debt
ors , what would be the effect of having
the earnings of the twenty-two million
wage workers , some seven thousand
million dollars annually , paid in the
same kind of "cheap money ? "
The Pacific Coast.
The fact that this coast has for almost
fifty years been the unfaltering adher
ent of a standard of value of intrinsic
equivalency renders the remarkable
frenzy in California for the unlimited
free coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1
all the more extraordinary. In 1894
the state republican party committed
itself to that form of fiatism and in 1896
reaffirmed the folly , and the delegates
to the national convention in St. Louis
last year went forth shouting for
the free coinage of silver at 16 to 1 , only
to reverse themselves on twenty-four
hours' notice from the national conven
tion. The acuteness of the craze was
amazing. Editors , politicians , alleged
statesmen , democrats as well as repub
licans , utterly lost their heads and filled
the air with their wild declaimiugs and
calamity howlings. It recalled the
aphorism of Socrates , that half the
trouble of mankind is duo to the reck
less use of language ; and one of Vol
taire's cynical remarks that this world
of ours is the mad-house of the universe.
The present junketing tour of the com
missioners to promote international bi
metallism is not likely to produce any
more tangible result than the vaporings
of the free silver enthusiasts. Goethe
says : "Tho greater part of all the mis
chief of the world arises from the fact
that men do not understand their own
aims and undertake to build a tower and
spend no more labor on the foundation
than if it were a hut. "
Sliver mill Wheat.
During the recent presidential cam
paign one of the favorite exemplifications
of the silverites was to show how the
"white metal" controlled the price
of farm products , especially wheat.
While it is true that the two commodi
ties fluctuated at periods in about the
same ratio , it was simply a coincident ,
not an effect. Lot us examine how they
have compared during the present year :
Silver was worth in June , 1896 , per
ounce , 70 ? ; August , 1897 , per oz. 58'- ;
wheat was worth in Juno , 1896 , per 100
1IS. 07f ; August , 1897 , per 100 Ids.
$1.44 ; a change down and \ip in the re
lation between them of 58 points , or , in
per centages in round figures a fall of
silver of 18 % , a rise of wheat of 49 % .
Silver has no more to do with the price
of wheat than it has with the price of
water. The prices of commodities , in
cluding silver , move in obedience to nat
ural and inherent causes , independent
of circulating money quantities. The
economic phenomena of the past fifty
years demonstrate this conclusively.
The quantitative theory of money is a
fallacy.
A cry of the silverites is : "Look- how
failures continue ; where is your pros
perity ? " It should always be borne in
mind that in the wake of a financial and
commercial crisis and the depression and
stagnation it has caused , liquidations
continue long after current business has
appreciably improved. This is inevit
able.
Noii-Polit ical Prosperity.
Certainly no democrat , and probably
no republican not blinded by partisan
bigotry or prejudice , believed that the
election of Mr. McKinley to the presi
dency could bring prosperity to the
country. What gold standard demo
crats ( of whom I am one ) did believe
has been well expressed by Editor Rich
ardson , of the California El Dorado Re
publican , as follows : "The writer
voted for William McKiuley , not be
cause of a belief that a protective tariff
insures a country against hard times or
oven tends to permanently remove that
condition , but because the entire policy
of the republican party on the tariff and
finance was likely to give a temporary
social stability that would enable work
and business to be resumed as fast as
conditions of supply and demand would
permit. Prosperity , as people call it , is
not poured out of a bottle into this na
tion by any political doctor , McKiuley
or otherwise. "
The Origin of Prosperity.
The real prosperity of a country
comes only from the industry , frugality
and pntienco of its people , under a gov
ernment intelligently , honestly and eco
nomically administered ; and that this
country has enjoyed prosperity is in