The Texas Miner, Volume 2, Number 18, May 18, 1895 Page: 5
24 p. : ill. ; 32 cm.View a full description of this newspaper.
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THE TEXAS MINER.
WHY PRICES DECLINE.
IN an article in the October Forum upon '-The Downfall of
Certain Financial Fallacies," Mr. David A. Wells denies that
the appreciation of gold had caused the general decline of
prices of commodities. It is hardly necessary to explain that a
certain theory is not a "fallacy" because Mr. Wells gives it that
name, or that a theory has encountered "downfall" simply be-
cause he thinks he has disproved it. In this particular case
some of the highest authorities maintain the doctrine repudiated
by Mr. Wells. Mr. Goschen, late chancellor of the British ex-
chequer, for example, said, so long ago as 1883: "The fall of
prices comes from the rise of gold." Lord Beaconsfield said in
1879: "Gold is every day appreciating in value, and as it ap-
preciates in value the lower become prices." Sir W. Houlds-
worth, British delegate to the Brussels International Monetary
Conference, said: "It is said that the appreciation of gold has
never been proved. If there has been a general fall of prices
that is proof." Columns of this paper could be filled with such
expressions of opinion from high authorities. The most respect-
able economic sentiment of the world is dead against Mr. Wells.
But probably he does not mind a little thing like that.
I he fall of prices which has been continuously operating for
twenty years began when silver was demonetized in 1873. It is
at least remarkable that the beginning of the downward move-
ment should have been exactly coincident with the world-wide
rejection of silver. From 1849 UP to ^73 prices of staple com-
modities appreciated about 30 per cent. The rise stopped when
silver was thrown out as a money metal by the civilized world.
Mr. Wells and all of his friends, we believe, admit that full re-
monetization of silver would be followed by an advance of prices.
They complain of remonetization upon that ground, because, as
they say, it would be unfair to creditors. But if . emonetization
will put up prices, is it not equally certain that demonetization
must have put them down? How is it possible to accept one
conclusion and to reject the other? Mr. Wells contends that
overproduction and mechanical improvements account for the
depreciation of values. But in that case values would not be
seriously affected by restoration of^ilver. The gold monometal-
ists cannot contend against such restoration as unfair to credit-
ors, if improved processes and excessive production depress
prices, because the improved processes will still be employed
under bimetalism.
Will Mr. Wells seriously assert that prices would not fall if
half the gold in the world should be thrown out of use? Every
intelligent grown person knows when the volume of mcney shall
be reduced one-half, the value of everything measured by money
will fall. The reason, of course, is that money will then become
scarcer, and any man who wants it*"must pay for it with an in-
creased quantity of commodities. No other result is possible.
Now, in 1873 one-half the money metal of the world (the silver
halt) was thrown aside, and the consequences which might have
been predicted at once appeared; the prices of commodities be-
gan to fall. As the commerce of the world, expanding vigor;
ously in time of profound peace, required continuously increasing
amounts of gold, the metal steadily appreciated and other values
as steadily declined. Theory and fact exactly fit each other in
this case.
That which is true of the precious metals is true of other com-
modities. Annihilate the cotton crop of the world and the price
of wool will rise, as the price of gold rose when silver was dis-
carded as a legal tender metal. Forbid the use of beef as food,
and mutton will have enhanced value. Stop the culture of the
sugar beet, and cane sugar will double in value. Dry up the
petroleum wells of the world, and all other kinds of oil will gain
in price. Stop making bricks and every stone quarry will have
higher value. Close the coal mines and firewood will bring huge
prices. Plant no more wheat and the growers of corn and rye
and rice will obtain more money for their products. The abund-
ance of cotton keeps down wool. The cheapness of bricks
cheapens the .tone that the builders use. In precisely the same
manner silver, used as a full money metal, would bring gold down
to a lower level than that upon which it is now found.
Thus not only are the high authorities in opposition to Mr.
Wells upon this question, but he has arrayed against him the ex-
perience of the world, and the theory which is based upon com-
mon sense and upon experience. It is, however, not surprising
that Mr. Wells should struggle hard to make out a case against
the appreciation of gold. When the wealth producers of the
world fully realize that the demonetization Of the silver robs them
by forci g down prices, they will put an end quickly to gold raon-
ometalism, and bury Mr. Wells, and the other men of his school,
deep under the waves of their indignation.—[New York Press.
A WAIL FROM ENGLAND.
AN article in the Iron and Coal Trades Review of London,
dealing with the losses of the British iron masters, com-
mences with:
It is almost sickening to read in every paper that one takes up
ot the threatened loss of colonial and foreign markets to British
trade.
I his threatened loss is due to manufacturing in other countries
—countries that on the Cobden plan were to be free trade coun-
tries and live by exchanging raw produce for the manufactures of
Great Britain. They have declined to do so. The result is that
the Review writes:
That this should have happened in a country where the rate
of wages paid is understood to be 25 to 30 per cent, more than
our own is one of those curious economic problems that are ex-
ceedingly difficult of solution. But the effect of the fact is that
the American wire manufacturers are making havoc with our
English wire trade in Central and South America, and are doing
considerable business in Canada. * * * Unless English
manufacturers can keep up to their rivals in cost oí production
they will inevitably go to the wall. Hitherto we have prided our-
selves on having reasonably cheap and highly efficient labor; but
it would seem as if that day were now past. Manufacturers of
experience assure me that American workmen in steel works, al-
though nominally receiving higher wages, are really considerably
cheaper than our own, and we know this to be the case in both
Belgium and Germany.
Our wages in the iron and steel trades are, as a matter of fact,
understood to be from 75 to 100 per cent, more than those of
English laborers in the same trades. Mentioning this fact, how-
ever, would tend to increase the present desire for higher wages
in Great Britain, so it is put 25 to 30 per cent.
American workmen do receive higher wages and turn out more
finished products per man in many branches of manufacturing.
There are two reasons fpr this. Their higher wages enable them
to buy more meat and they are better fed, so that an Englishman
here is more efficient than at home. The other reason is that
American manufacturers stock their mills with better machinery,
and more of it, than those of any other nation. As a conse-
quence much more work is turned out with less physical exer-
tion.—[American Economist.
A
tion.
BILL NYE TELLS A STORY.
VERY attractive and gentle mannered woman called to see
the President on an important matter, but he was very
busy, and the secretary said it would be out of the ques-
So she laid her case in extenso before Mr. Thurber in order
that he might present it to the President. The matter involved a
good deal of detail, and the secretary saw at once that he could
not trust his memory with it. So he asked her to be kind enough
to write out the case as clearly and succinctly as possible for his
convenience.
"But could you not remember it yourself, Mr. Thurber?" she
inquired, with big, blue, appealing, childlike eyes.
"No, madam,'' said he. "With the volume of other matters
and the great variety of widely different affairs that I am obliged
to keep in mind from day to day I am sure that I could not rely
upon myself to retain all these details. It would be a physical
impossibility.''
"So you could not keep the matter in mind without a written
memorandum?" she asked.
"No; I am quite sure I could not."
"Well, then," said she as she drew herself up to her full height,
"all I've got to say is that you've got a d—d poor memory!"
With this terse remark she turned the blinding glare of a big
diamond on the astonished secretary and floated away like a
beautiful dream.
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McAdams, Walter B. The Texas Miner, Volume 2, Number 18, May 18, 1895, newspaper, May 18, 1895; Thurber, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth200508/m1/5/: accessed May 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Tarleton State University.