Why You Lack Money

Because of un avorable conditions aearly half of ou. people-the farmers -are deprived of a large part of their ability to pinchase the products of other industries; manufactures and commerce suffer; railroad earnings are lessened; milis, factories and furnaces are of ten idle; wage-workers earning less lose the power to purchase, and a general shrinkage of business is the result. The cause is in sight. By the census of 1890 about 45 per cent., or 30,000,000 in all, of our people lived on farms. In twenty years the loss of ability to purchase by this large class has fallen fully 50 per cent. As prices of farm products have deelined, reducing the purchasing power of the great producing force of the nation, so has waned the prosperity of others, except the money-lending class. This has not come about through a relative increase of our farming population. The census of 1870 showed that 52 per cent. of our people lived on farms; in 1880 the proportion was nearly 49 per cent.; and in 1890 about 45 per cent. Twenty-six years ago farm products brought satisfactory prices, so that 52 per cent. of our people had ampie reverme; their purchases of manufactured articles were so liberal that milis and factories ran f uil time; mili owners, producers of raw material, merchants, transporters -all engaged in production, distribution and construction - were remuneratively employed, and the result was general prosperity. Money was plenty. In 1S66 a law was enacted to contract the currency by burning $4,000,000 a month. It brought on hard times and was repealed in 1868. In 1869 an act was passed "to strengthen the public credit," which declared that all war bonds, payable by their terms in "lawful money" - greenbacks were "lawful money" - should be paid in "coin." in 1870 a funding act was passed that made all bonds issued under it payable in coin. Gold and silver were coin. In 1873 a coinage act was passed which dropped the silver dollar, provided for a trade dollar and smaller coin and making silver money a legal tender for orily $5 in a single payment. Thus all the war debt became payable in gold. Jan. 1, 1879, this country resumed specie payments on a gold basis. Soon after that date the decline in price of farm lands and farm products commenced. Every Michigan farmer who stops to think will realize that the decline has taken place under the gold standard, for the law of 1873 made, for the flrst time in our history, 25.8 grains of Standard gold "the unit of value." For eighteen years, from 1878 to 1896, all of our great agricultural Staples have declined in price under the gold unit of value. This is indisputable. While there have been liraited periods when the price of some product, as wheat for example during the Russian famine four years ago, has been higher than for the preceding year, the general trend, ever since the resumption of specie payments on a gold basis, has been downward. Take-Sauerbeck's table - excellent authority - showing the average prices ot eilver and wheat from 1872 to 1893 in the United States- wheat having been a staple cash erop of Michigan farmers: TEAIt. SII.VER. WHEAT. YEAR. SILVER. WHEAT. PER OZ. PER BU. PER OZ. PER BU. 1872 $1.32 $1.47 1883 UI $113 1873 1.29 1.31 18S4 101 1.07 1874 128 1.43 1885 1.06 .88 1875 1.24 Ui 1836 .99 .87 1876 1.15 1.24 1887 .97 .8? 1877 1.20 1,17 1888 -93 .8 1878 1.15 1 4 1889 .93 .90 1879 118 1.07 1890 1.04 .83 1880 1.14 1.25 1891 .9J .to 1881 1.13 L111892 .80 .80 1882 1.1! 1.191893 .72 .88 This shows that from 1872 to 1893 silver and wheat, their prices measured by gold, declined with remarkable regularity. Both went down together. In other words, gold appreciated from year to year, and it required larger quantities of these products to purchase it. By demonetizing silver the demand for gold was increased and this inevitably enhanced its value, the evidence of which appeared in a general depression of prices of other commodities. Since 1893, when the further purchase and coinage of silver was discontinued, prices have fallen still lower, as every Michigan farmer is painfully aware. This is not theory. It is an indisputable fact. Prices of farm Staples have fallen below profitable production under the gold Standard. This tells the whole story. " "White this decline of prices has been going on the cost of production has not been much reduced- statisticians placlng it for twenty years at only 5 per cent. - yet prices for staple farm products averaging 82 per cent. more for the five years ended with 1875, than during the last five years for which returns are given. This is especially true of the five great Staples- wheat, corn, oats, hay and cotton - which occupied 195,000,000 of the 206,000,000 acres of crops in 1893. Taking the five years- 1866-70- and the average coin price of the five prod-ucts named was $15.67 per acre; for 1871-5 it was $15.19; for 1876-80 it was $11.88; for 1881-5 it was $11.28; for 188690 it was $9.81; for 1895, according to the official report of the department of agriculture, the value of wheat per acre was $6.99, of corn $6.91, of oats $5.87 per acre. These official figures reveal ir a startling light the downward trend of prices under the gold measure of vaiues. Bear in mind at the same time that 1866 witnessed the first contract;on of the currency; that in 1869 the war debt, by its terms, 'payable in "lawful money," was made payable in "coin;" that in 1873 silver was demonetized and gold made the sole "unit of value;" that in 1879 the resumption of specie payments on a gold basis took place; that while there was a limited coinage of silver as token money from lS7b to 189S, any further supply of silver moiwy was stopped by the repeal of the Sherman silver purchase aet ín 1893; and ihat during all these years gold has nieasured the valué of farm Products- their average value per acre shrinking more than one-half, and the only dependence now for remunerative prices is drouths and famines. The averag-e value of wheat per acre for 18 1 9, the year resumption of specie payments on a gold basis took place, was $15.27, and for 1895 only $6.99; corn shrunk from $10.93 in 1879 to $6.91 per acre in 1895; oats from $9.28 to $5.87; barley from $14.11 to $8.88; and other Products in the same or larger proportlon. Horses, cattle, swine, sheep. wool, pork, beef, etc, have experienced the same blighting inftuence, as eveiy Michigan farmer knows, and it ha) occurred under the gold measure of values. Statistics are not needed to prove the decline of prices. It is a matter of common knowledge. They Ilústrate its extent. They confina what all know. If present prices cover the cost of production, say $8.15 an acre, it is evident that the purchasing and debtpaying power óf farmers as a class has been wiped out under the gold standard. Thirty million people live on farms. Under the present conditions, the result of money legislation, silver having been demonetized and gold made the so'.e unit of value, thus reducing the value of primary money one-half, they receive less, after allowing for the cost of production, than ordinary wages. and have lost fully one-half of their wealth in the depreciated value of their farms. Had their wealth been in gold, they would have gained; being in property, they have lost; for the effect of an appreciated measure of values is always seen in the debasement of property. The average revenu e for each acre In staple crops, commencing with 1866. when currency contraction began - the total circulation then was about $50 per capita, some tables placing it at $56.76- comparing each five-year period with 1893, was greater per acre by the following sums and per centages: 1866-70- $7.59, or 93 per cent. 1S71-75- $7.04, or 86 per cent. 187G-80- $3.73, or 46 per cent. 1881-85- $3.13, or 38 per cent. 1886-90- $1.74, or 21 per cent. These comparisons are for the periods named with prices per acre of staple crops In 1893. For example, the annual average amount received per acre for the five years of 1866-70 was $7.59 more than for 1893, and so on for each period. This gradual and great diminution of the revenue of our farmers tells the story of business depression, increased number of failures, and general discontent that have accompanied the gold unit of values. But the enormous yearly aggregate of loss is more clearly seen by multiplying the acres devoted to staple crops by the declines in acreage value since 1866. As already stated, 206,000,000 acres were devoted to crops in 1893. It follows then that the purchasing and debt-paying power of American farmers that year was $1,563,000,000 less than it would have been if they had received the prices paid in 1866-70; less by $1,450,000,000 in 1893 than the annual average for 1871-75; less by $768,000,000 in 1893 than the annual average for 187680: less by $645,000,000 in 1893 than the annual average for 1881-85; less by $385,000,000 than the annual average for the flve years ended with 1890. This shows the dwindling revenue of our farmers. Michigan has about onethirtieth of the population and the same proportion of farmers in the United States, and on this basis their loss of revenue would be over $52,000,000 a year, or about $12,000,000 more than all the taxes paid by the people of the state a year under national and state authority. Doublé the price of wheat, making it $1 to $1.30 a bushei, the price it brings in silver countries where the monetary unit has not been changed, and not only would several million more bushels be raised, but this with the enhanced price would make the total erop worth some $30,000,000 a year instead of only about $10,000,000, as last year. Give the same conditions to the rest of the country, with wheat at $1 a bushei and other farm products in proportion, and there would be fewer idle factories, and wage-earners generally would be vastly better off than they now are. ■ Values! Prices! What creates them? Of course there is supply and demand. But this is not all. Money is made by law a measure of values - a "unit of value" the law says referring to 25.8 grains of standard gold - as well as a medium of exchange. Professor Walker calis the standard dollar "the common denominator of all values." By it prices are determined, subject to the slight annual fluctuations of supply and demand. We know that the monetary unit was changed in 1873. Prior to that time our monetary units were of gold and silver; the two metáis coined into money measured values; since then gold alone has performed that function. Restore silver to free and unlimited coinage as primary money, at the 16 to 1 ratio with and on the same ternas as gold, and the number of monetary units would soon be doubled, prices would advance, there would be more buying and selling, and prosperity would again come to our farmers and through them to all other classes. The law of 1873 first dropped the silver dollar out of our coinage system; it was partially restored in 1878; again it was dropped ín 1893; and we appeal to the common experience of our farmers to verify the statement that since the final succéssful raid on silver three years ago tines have been harder than ever. "Dollars or units," as provided by the coinage act of 1792, are not composed of 371% grains of pure silver; but existing law, enacted in 1873, declares that the gold dollar, "at the Standard weight of 25.8 grains shall be the unit of value." Silver was thus deprived of its character as a price-maker, which had existed for eighty-one years, and not being full primavy money is not. jointly with gold, a measure of values. Gold alone has been "the unit of value," as the law of 1873 declares, for .the past twenty -three years, and so f ar as mony is concerned is the dictator of prtces today. Under the present law- an abundantly efficiënt cause owing to the increased demand for gold as a monïy metal- the serious decline in prices of farms and farm products has taken place, 'ittailingr au enormous loss of purchaslg power by the 30,000,000 people who live on farms, and causing general business depression. Money is bought with tho products of labor. Henee Thomas H. Benton said: "All property is at the mercy of the money power." The experience f Michigan farmers proves this. Demonetiiing silver increased the demand for gold and enhance lts value. Twenty-five andeight-tenths grains are worth about twice as much as they were twenty years ago, and henee Wlll buy twice as much land and its products. We have, therefore, as inevitable consequences of the gold standard, a decline in prices of all staple products of the farms and a similar decline in the valué of the farms themselves, until crops have fallen ln price below profitable production, the land has ceased to be desirable security for money, and all kinds of dependent business are reduced in value. "ÍVith farm products again restored to prices that would atïord fair remuneraUon for labor and capital employed in production, as would be the case with a fairer and honester measure of values than gold caí! furnish, owlng to the large demand for it and its limited supply, ihe increased purchases of goods for the 30,000,000 people living on farms would aid materially in keeping the spindles in factories busy; labor in cities would fir.d larger employment; money would be more abundant; confldence would be restored, and a new era of prosperity would awaken to new and vigorous effort the energy and enterprise of our people. Farmers of Michigan! the decay of your prosperity has come upon you and has increased urder the gold Standard, and the only hepè of its revival lies in the restoration of silver to its equal partnership with gold as a money metal. This is the supreme question, to toe decided by your votes, in the present presidential contest. Gold and depression you now have; the alternative is silver and prosperity.