n...—
IS OVER.
NOW is' he TIME
AND
(Both Pacers Sent to one Address
for $1.00 a Year '
iTHE EVENiNc.qg
nouns SPEECH.
A Complete Answer to Congress-
man Towne’s Great Speech.
Every Important Point of Towne Befuted.
' History, Science and Common Sense All
Argue For Honest Money—Clearest Pos-
sible Demonstration That There Is No
Connection Between Silver and Average
Prices—Why Some Prices Have Fallen
\Vhile Others Have Risen—An Excellent
Short History of Coinage—Real Interest
of \Vorkingmen and Farmers—Need of
Good Money Illustrated by..a Circus Per-
formance.
On Feb. 8 Congressman Charles A. Towns of
Minnesota made in congress what is considered
by all as one of the best free coinage 'specches
ever made in the house. On Feb. 12 Congress-
man James T. McCleary of the same state made
a reply to the speech of his colleague, which, in
its turn, is considered to be the best anti-free
coinage speech ever made in congress. Both
of these speeches are in great demand and are
being distributed by the hundred thousand in
many congressional districts. The great length
of McCleary’s speech makes it out of the ques-
tion for us to reprint it in full. In a. few in-
stances we have had to omit whole sections of
his speech. His excellent discussion of the ex‘
HON. JAMES T. McCLEARY.
perience of France and the Latin union with
bimetallism does not appear here. But most of
all do we regret that we could not find space
for his exposure of the “horrible crime of
1873” and the Ernest Seyd myth. We advise all
who actually believe that silver was the victim
of a stealthy demonetization act in 1873 to send
for his full speech. It (:"11 be had free by ap-
plying to Congressman McCleary.
The following extracts from Mr. McCleary’s
great speech will give a fair idea of it. After
‘ complimenting most highly both the speech
and the personal qualities of his friend and
colleague, and after telling the story of the
blind men of Indostan who went to “see” the
elephant, Mr. McCleary continued as follows:
If 1 were called upon to characterize in a
sentence the speech of my colleague. I should
say that it lacks comprehensive grasp 'of the
several topics considered. It offers a superficial
view of many things, but does not indicate
thorough study of any. We are given a little
(and sometimes very little) of the truth on
many points, but not enough of the truth on
any of them to warrant one in drawing impor-
tant! conclusions. To carry out the figure of
the poet we are asked to Judge of the appear-
an: o of an elephant by grasping its tail, to
for: 1 our conception of a camel by seizing its
leg 1 nd so on through the menagerie. And in
lieu of further information on any point we
are regaled by having a flower of rhetoric held
beneath our nose, under the soothing influence
of whose fragrance we tein orarily forget that
we are long on fancy and s iort on fact.
1 shall show that the gentleman’s funda-
mental positions are based on half truths,
which every one knows are more dangerous
and misleading than utter falsehoods.
Silver and Prices.
By means of a chart he endeavored to prove
three things:
1. That, beginning with 1873, there has been
an “unexampled and ruinous fall” in the
prices of commodities.
2. That there has been during the same years
a practically parallel fall in the price of silver,
and that silver is, therefore, an almost ideal
measure of value.
3. That this “fall in prices” has been the re-
sult of the so called “dcmonetization” of sil-
ver, and, by inference, that "rcmonetization"
of silver would “restore prices” to their for-
mer level or thercabouts.
The trouble with my colleague is one that is
common to the whole tribe of free silver men.
The year 1873 is to them what the year of the
hegira is to the lVIohammcdan-r—it is the point
of time from which everything is reckoned.
But no legitimate inference can be drawn in
relation to these matters without examining
also the course of events before 1873 and mak-
ing a fair comparison of the two series of facts.
The chart to which I now invite the atten-
tion of the committee. is one that I drew since
the speech of my colleague was delivered. It
shows the course of average prices by ten year
periods from 1818-27 to 1885-94, inclusive. The
table from which it was drawn was prepared
by Augustus Sauerbeck, one of the authorities
quoted by my friend in another part of his
speech. Indeed in the first rehearsal of this
speech, as delivered by him in‘ Duluth last
Au ust, and afterward in other places, the
gen eleman printed this table. But by a singu-
lar oversight he did not put it into chart form.
This was a very unfortunate omission, for had
my friend appreciated the great importance of
those figures, had he given them enough study
to become impressed with their real signifi-
cance and had he then put them into chart
form and placed. the chart in juxtaposition
with the one considered by us a moment ago,
he would have saved himself and his readers
from grievous error. _
Mr. Sauerbeck’s standard of comparison. or
100 per cent line is “the average price in Lon:
don of 45 principal commodities for the period
1867-77”——-that is, for a ten year period having
1873 as its middle point. ‘
Even the most casual examination of— the
chart will reveal three facts which are exceed-
ingly important in this discussion—namely:
1. That in the period extending from ISIS-fl
to 184352, 25 years. the fall in average prices
Was practically the same as that which has
taken lace since 1873. And had the table ex-
tende back ten years further the former fall
would be seen to have been much the greater,
for prices ranged much higher for some years
before 1818 than in that year. A glance at the
chart will substantiate this statement, for the
Erica line in 1818 shows that itfinarks, not the
egiuning of a fall, but one which had been for
some time in progress.
Thus we see. Mr. Chairman, that our recent
fall in prices is by no iiieuns“unexainpled” in
either sco e or duration. It was greatly ex-
ceeded in oth respects by the fall in . prices
near the beginning of the century. during the
so called "bimetallic” period. And thus dis-
ap ears the chief foundation of my colleague’s
en ire argument and of the whole free silver
contention. ,
2. The chart is equally severe on another very
touching argument of the free silverites. Sil-
ver and its advocates are very sympathetic,
very anxious to ameliorate the sad Condition
of men. Silveris claimed to be able and willing
to "restore prices." But it is Well Worthy of
note, Mr. Chairmanhthat during the long pe-
riod from 1809 to 1865, aperiod marked first by
a tremendous fall and then by a great rise in
med but slightly. Though silver advocates fre-
quently beast or Lhzs uniformity in the prion
prices of commodities, the price of silver var
orsuver they never put it in connection with
this other fact. Thus it is never revealed by
them that during this long period, when silver
had “free access to the mints,” it held itself
aloof from other commodities. impotent alike
to prevent their fall or to promote their rise.
3. We note, in the third place, that the re-
cent fall in prices did not begin in 1873, but in
1865. When those who are trying to foist upon
this country the unlimited, coinage of silver
as a panacea for all our ills, real and imagin-
ary, seek to establish their position by statis-
tics of average prices and by' giving the
prices of certain great commodities like wheat
and cotton, why, in the name of candor, do
they not go back at least a few years further
and show that, in relation to some of the most
important items quoted. the fall in prices be-
tween 1865 and 1873 double, discounted any-
thing in the way of a fall that has taken place
since 1873, that it was greater in those eight
years than in all the years since? Why, for ex-
ample, don’t they remind the cotton planter
that the price of middling cotton fell from
$1.015 a pound in 1864 to less than 17 cents in
1871? Do they not possess adequate information
on vital points? Or are they willfully suppress-
ing a portion of the truth, having a lively ap-
preciation of the fact that this simple state—
in cut would be sufficient to overturn their en-
tire contention?
And now, Mr. Chairman. having shown by
my colleague’s own figures that the fall in
prices about which he and other free silverites
say so much is not the only one or even the
great one of this century; that it did not be-
in in 1873, and hence is not due to the cause
'0 which they ascribe it: and that “free sil-
ver,” having demonstrated in the past its in-
‘competency to affect prices (even if that had
been shown to be desirable), cannot reasonably
be expected to affect them in the future—thee;
things having been proved, Mr. Chairman, our
side can fairly rest our case and demand the
judgment of all candid men.
EVhat Caused the Two Great Falls ,In
Average Prices.
Taking the century as the period for inves-
tigation, and reverting again to my chart
for the course of prices. let us try to discover
the reasons for those mighty changes in the
level at" prices.
We 2:: first of all that there have been in
this {marry two periods of very high prices
: ml in. 1 . riods of gradual fall in prices. Can
: My 15911511019. or law be discovered in accord-
: "me with which these changes in price levels
wok place? If so, it is very pertinent to this
discussion. .
Let us see if the two periods of high prices
have anything in common. The first of these
I‘I,-I‘IOdS extended from 1789 to 1814, with its
highest point at 1809. It is very important to
remember that these were the years of the
Napoleonic wars, which cost Europe so much
in blood and treasure. It is noteworthy, also,
that the second period of very high prices cov-
ers the years of great wars, the Crimean in the
early fifties, our own mighty conflict in the
early sixties, followed in the later sixties by
the war between Prussia and Austria and in
1870 by the Franco-Prussian war.
Now war is a great destroyer of property,
while at the same time it takes from the ro-
ductive industries vast numbers of their est
workmen. It is a time of abnormal demand
coincident with abnormally restricted supply,
hence a period marked by great wars is always
a eriod of abnormally high prices.
- hat, on the other hand, is the natural and
legitimate effect on prices produced by a long
period of peace?
Every person within the sound of my voice
has as one of his proper ambitions the ac uire-
ment of a competency for his old age. J. ow.
Mr. Chairman, what is the rational basis of
such ahope? In its ultimate analysis it is this:
That each month and each year the person en-
tertaining such a hope shall produce more
than he consumes. This is the basis of increase
in‘wealth, personal and national.
Now price depends chiefly on two things: 1,
the relation between demand and supply, and,
2, cost of production. It therefore follows that
in a long period of peace, when production
naturally exceeds consumption and when the
wit of man is free to exercise its ingenuity in
devising new and better methods of produc-
tion, prices naturally fall. Thus it has been
through all the a es, and thus will it ever be.
Following the apoleonic wars at the begin-
ning of the century. and following the France-
Prussian war of 1870, came long periods of
peace, accompanied by the usual fall in aver-
a e prices. .
f peace conditions are normal, three inci-
dental results should appear, and all of them
have agpeai'ed:
1. T ere should be improvement in the
standard of living. This implies
2. That a given amount of labor should bring
larger returns in the comforts of life. and
3. The demand for more and better things to
eat should show itself in sustained prices for
those better foods whose production cannot be
increased indefinitely.
\Vhat Soetbeer’s Summary Shows.
Pushing this investigation a little further,
let us find out what articles have Dec-) most-
affected by the fall in prices.
The mice tables of Dr. Adolph Soot-beer, the
great ‘crman statistician, are justly regarded
as high authority. Let us see what they show
when considered, as he himself sums them up,
by groups. The numbers in the following table
are his index numbers, with 1847-50 prices as
a base or 100 per cent.
LEGS-1870. 1881—1385.}
.‘I
Products of agriculture, etc..,...l37.74 13
Animal and fish products ....... 136.35 « 150.65
Southern prodi 1s. etc ......... ,121.54 134.41
Tropical products ............... 118.32 119.91
Minerals and metals ............ 95.47 81.55
Textile materials ................ 129.17 96.65
Miscellaneous .................... 105.90 91.11
Fourteen British manufactured
articles ........ . ................ 130.55 103.28
Dividing the above table into two e ual
parts, we observe that the prices of the rst
four (which are chiefly food. products) were
marvelously sustained and even advanced,
while the prices of the second four (in the pro-
duction of- which labor saving machinery are
largely used) show a marked fall.
The Soetbeer tables evidently do not war-
rant the statement so often made, with them
as alleged authority, that “there has been a
general fall in prices,” if by that expression is
meant that all articles or groups of articles
have fallen largely and in a measure equally.
Prices Not Governed by Volume of Money.
It- is accepted as axiomatic by many that the
volume of mm: 111 a country governs prices
there. and, at ism-t glance, this seems reason-
able. But even a little study of the subject
shows that such a view is untenable.
In 1800, when we had a period of high prices,
our volume of money in circulation was $26,-
500,000. As our population was then 5,308,483
we had only $4.99 per capita. Iii 1847,'whyen
prices were much lower, we had money in cir-
culation amounting to $10.59, or more than
twice as much proportionally as in 1800.
In 1865, when we had inflated war prices,
the volume of money in circulation amounted
to $20.57 per capita, while in 1894, when aver-
age prices were much lower, the money in cir-
culation was $24.28 per capita.
The total volume of money in circulation in
France today amounts to $35.77, while that of
her neighbor, Switzerland, is only $9.97 _per
capita. Does any one believe that the prices
in France are four times as high as in Swit-
zerland? Taking gold money as the basis
of com arisen, France has $22.19 per capita,
while zreece has only 23 cents per capita.
Does any one believe t at prices in France are
a hundred times as high as in Greece? As a
matter of fact, they are almost identical.
Tooke. in his monumental work on the “His-
tor of Prices, ” truthfully sums the matter up
as ollowsa _ ‘
“There is not, as far as I have been able to
discover, anysingle commodity in the whole
range of articles embraced in the most exten-
sive list of rices, the variations of which do
not admit 0 being distinctly accounted far by
circumstances peculiar to it. * * * Circum-
stances do frequently operate with such force
as to reduce prices in the face of an expand-
ing currency and to advance prices when the
currency is diminishing. In point of fact, the
expansion is frequently rather an effect than
a cause of enhanced prices.”
Prices That Do Not Need “Restoring."
The United States Statistical Abstract de-
servedly ranks high as an authority. Opening
the latest edition (1894) at page 417, I find the
iagfiort price of mess beef quoted at 7 cents in,
2., at 8.9 cents in 1882,.and 5.7 cents in 1892.
Butter in 1872 is given at 19.4 cents, in 1882 at
18.6 cents, and in 1892 at 19’cents. Prices of eggs
for the same dates are 20.3 cents in 1872, 20.9
cents in 1882, and 23.2 cents in 1892. Other great
staples, like corn. pork and lard, show equal
firmness. The prices of these articles don‘t
seem to need any “restoring.” .
But perhaps the tree'silver men would like
to a ply their “restorer” to the price of re-
fine sugar. which cost12.6 cents a and in
1872 and only 4.6 cents in 1892. Or per laps they
would like to relieve the poor, suffering 0:1
ma natcs, whose product was quoted at 23.5
cen vs a gallon in 1872 and had “fallen” to 5.9
cents in 1892. It may be that their tender sym-
pathies go out to the manufacturers of bar
iron. whose product commanded $97.63 a ton
in 18'1'2'and only $29.96 in 1894.
Perhaps they don’t want poor men to be
squandering their substance in building homes.
and to that end would ”restore the price" of
nails, whose Philadel his Agree fell fi‘bm $5.46
a keg in 1372 to $1. in l , and of window
glass, which fell from $3.40 a box in 1873 .
$1.70 in 18:91. And possibly their philosophic
souls rebel at the idea of a poor men having a
carpet on his floor. so they would remove
temptation by “restoring the price” from 48
cents a yard in 1890 to $1.14. as it was in 1878.
Then. if the poorfellow in whose interest they
are working is not completely happy, they
might restore the price of his wife 5 calico
dress from 6 cents a yard in 1892 to 12 cents, as
it was in 1573. v
And while they are in the restoring business
r
‘marvclous new forces which men are harness-
they might come to the rescue. of. the poor
manufacturer of steel rails, whose product be-
gun to be made here in commercial quantities
in 1867, at which time it commanded $166 a ten,
but in 1894 had fallen to 8.3-} a ton. This would
enable the railway (11.1‘1‘7‘1111111‘5 to find some jus-
tification for restoring their i’rcight rates from
.92 of one ccnt per ton pcr mile. in 1891 (the
lowest rate in the world) to 1‘. cents per ten per
mile, the "good old rates” that prevailed in
1873. Nor would these iéSf-orcrs of prices over-
look the steamboat men, who. though they now
haul wheat by lake and canal from Chicago to
New York at a rofit for 4.44 cents er bushel,
were in the ha it of receiving 24. 7 cents per
bushel in 1873.
Here is revealed, Mr. Cl~ .irman, the delu-
siveness of an ar ument ounded on “aver-
ages.” It fails to iscriminate the individual
facts that go to make up the average.
The Increase In Wages.
There is another serious omission in my col-
league’s alle ations of fact.;aThere is one com-
modity whic stands out by itself so pre-emi-
heat that even his disdain of details should not
have ignored it, a commodity which is the
truest and best measure of value ever discovj
ered, surpassing in this respect wheat or cot-
ton, iron or cop er, silver or gold, and that is
a given unit 0 human labor. And my col-
league was somehow blind to the fact, thou h
it is exhibited in v-ne of the tables to which 0
referred, that the wages of labor have been on
the average largely increased in the last third
of a century, the increase from the old “bi-
metallic” wages of 1860 to those of 1890 being
58 per cent inmoney and 72 per cent in pur-
chasmg power.
In 1892 a day's work of skilled labor would
buy more of any staple commodity of human
desire. more and better food, more and better
clothing, more and better transportation, more
and better tools and machinery, more and bet~
ter heat and light. more comforts and luxuries
of every kind, more silver and more gold than
at any time before 1873 in the history of the
world.
Any honest and intelligent man who has the
time to study in detail any reliable table of
rices covering the last 50 years will find that
'he pricesof those things in the production of
which anythin like the same amount of labor
must be expen ed have held their own or have
increased, while things, and these are very
numerous, in the making of which labor sav-
ing inventions and machinery have been intro-
duced have greatly fallen in price. This ac-
counts for thefall in “average prices,” about
which so much has been said.
Mr. Hopkins—Your argument, then. is that
the things which ought to have been reduced
in price since 1873 have been reduced. while
the things that ought to have increased in
price have increased.
Mr. McCleary of Minnesota—My friend fr0m
Illinois has, with his usual clearness, stated
the case tersely and well.
The lower prices result from the reduced
cost of product-ion. There is not the slightest
evidence that the so called “demonetization”
of silver had anything to do with it. And the
sure proof is that the reduction of cost of pro-
duction has been accompanied by an increase
in the wages of the producer.
The Cause and Result of Lower Prices.
The great staples of the world are cheaper
because it takes less human labor to produce
them. “D‘cry new railroad and steamboat,
every labor saving machine and improved proc-
ess of manufacture. increases the grasp which
labor holds on the desirable things of the
world.”
And thus we see, Mr. Chairman, that the
great fall in prices of manufactured articles
during the last third of a century has been in
the main perfectly legitimate and that its ul-
timate result will be most beneficent. Taken
in connection with the rise in wages, it meas-
ures man’s vastly increased command over the
forces of nature.
These wonderful results have come as the
beneficent fruitage of man’s inventive genius
in devising labor saving machinery, of the
ing for the service of the human family, of the
remarkable imprevemcnnt in modern facilities
for transportation and of the stoppage of the
tremendous and cruel waste of war.
What will a day’s work produce? This i“- the
true test of progress. As prices decline com-
pared with thc reward of human labor the
condition of the people is elevated. This is a
process of natural law and a phase of evolu-
tion. Men struggle against it only because
they do not understand it. Like all move-
ments onward, it brings temporary hardship
to individuals here and there. But for the vast
mass of ‘humanity it is bringing emancipation
from want and the promise of that golden fu-
ture when a minimum of time will be required
to provide for the necessities that are simply
physical and temporal, thus leaving time and
opportunity for the cultivation of those ele-
ments in our nature that are spiritual and
eternal.
PRODUCTION OF GOLD AND SILVER IN THE
WORLD SINCE THE DISCOVERY 013‘ AMERICA.
[From 1493 to 1885 is from a table of rscrages
compiled by Dr. Adolph Soetbeer. For the
years 1886 to 1894 the production is the annual
estimate of the bureau of the mint.]
F—GOLD-fi r‘—~SILVER.-—-fi
Annual average Annual average
for period. for period.
Ounces, Ounces, Coining
fine.‘ fine. value.
1493-1520 ...... 186.470 1,511,050 81,954,000
1521-1544 ...... 230,194 2,899,930 3,749,000
1545—1560 ...... 273,596 10,017,940 12’952'%
1561—1580 ...... 219,906 9,628,925 12, ’0,
1581—1600 ...... 37,267 13,467,635 17,413,000
1601—1620 ...... 273,918 13,596,2 17,579,
1621—1640 ...... 266,845 12,654,2 6,361,
1641—1660 ...... 281,955 11,776, 5 15,226,000
1661—1680 ..... 297,7 1 £34,550 ,008,
1681-1700 .. 346,095 ,992,0 5
17 01—17 20 ...... 412,163 11,432, 540
1721—1740; ..... 613,422 13. 63,0
1741—1760 ...... 791,211 17,140,612
1761—1780 ...... 665,666 20,985,591
1781—1800 ...... 571,948 28,261,779
1801—1810 ...... 571.563 .746, 2..
1811—1820 ...... 367,957 14 ,385, 755
1821—1830 ...... 457,044 14,807,004
652,291 19,175,867
60,502 5,090,342
6 410,324 28,488,597
. 6,262 29,095,428
5 949,582 35,401,912
6,270,086 43 051 583
78. 775, 602
4.7 94, mo 92,003,944
,135.679 93.297. 290
5,116,861 96,123 586
1083273606
120,213,611
49, 306 126, 095,062 163,032,000
6.320.194 137,170,919 117,352,300
7,102,180 153,151,762 198,014,400
609, 242 165,165,876 213,547 . 800
94 ........... 8,705,836 166,601,995 215,404,600
From the foregoing table it will be seen that
the production of silver in the whole world
never but twice reached 330,000,000 3. year be-
fore 1841; that by 1866-70 the annual production
of silver had become almost double that
amount; that by 1876-80 it had passed the $100,-
000,000 mark, and that now the annual produc-
tion of silver is almost seven times what it was
half a century ago. During that time the .pop-
ulation of the world has not quite doubled.
That is, sir, while the world’s 1.“. ulation has
increased at the rate of about per cent a
year, the annual production of silver has in-
creased by 500 per cent. In other words, to use
a favorite method of theirs, the “per capita”
of silver has increased enormously, so we
would naturally expect an enormous fall in its
price.
The following chart. prepared by m distin-
guished friend from North Dakota [ r. John-
son], exhibits to the eye the increase in its
psrcgduction and the decrease in its price since
7 : ,
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Address, World's DisPensary Medical
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nummm
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Norwalk Chronicler