Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1898 — DEMONETIZATION [ARTICLE]

DEMONETIZATION

Of Silver and What It Has Coat Indiana Farmers. Comprebanaiva Tables Showing- What They Should Have Received and What They Did Receive aa a Reward For Their Toil glace 1878 Total Loss on Wheat, Cora aad OaU Amounte to the EnormotM Sam of •413,962,113.

Indiana is pre-eminently an agricultural state. In 1890, according to the census report, Indiana had 198,167 farms, valued, including fences and buildings, implements and machinery and livestock, at 1869,322,787. It would be a conservative estimate to say that Indiana now has 200,000 farms and that their total value, including fences, buildings, implements, machinery and livestock, is $900,000,000. If it is admitted that Indiana has 200,000 farms, the estimate of five persons to the farm, or a total of 1,000,000 of the state's pop. ulation are directly associated with the farms of the state in carrying forward the great industry will not be controverted. The investment in farms overtops and overshadows investments in any other Industry in the state, and it may be said all other industrial enterprises combined. The railroad interests, about which so much is said, capitalized or “watered” as they are, as an investment do not exceed $160,000,000. So much is merely preiactory, designed to substantiate the proposition, that agriculture, or farming, is the one great, overmastering interest of Indiana. The Demonetisation of Sliver and Prices of Farm Products. It has been asserted ancLdemonstrated beyond proof to the contrary, that the demonetization of silver in 1873 has had a ruinous effect upon the prices of farm products, that as silver has declined in value farm products have also declined proportionately, and it will be well for farmers to take the facts into consideration and see if they bear out the averment. And if they do, farmers have a solution of conditions which since 1873 have prevented them from receiving many millions of dollars which ought to have rewarded them for their toil and anxiety. The question is so momentous and so far reaching in its consequences as to lift it far above partisaq clamor, for it is partisan only to the extent that parties may seize upon the right or wrong involved, the one party asserting the demonetization of silver lies at the bottom of the question of the depreciation of the value of farm products, while the other party engages in obscuring the facts and contending that other agencies have operated in bringing about the decline, in which they talk loudly, but not learnedly, of the gold standard, balance of trade, etc., but which in no wise modify the startling facts, that with the decline of silver consequent upon demonetization, farm products, keeping step to the mournful music, have as steadily declined. A Little Simple Arithmetic. Preliminary to the employment of a litte simple arithmetic to show farmers of Indiana a few startling facts relating to the losses they have suitained by the decline in the price of their products since 1873 will be in order. It is not contended, nor is it to be denied, that other agencies have been in operation whereby the price of farm products have declined, but that the demonetization of silver, and the consequent decline of that metal has been the chief factor in producing the misfortunes of the farmers of Indiana is asserted, and the facts warrant the conclusion. Decliue lu the Price of Silver and Farm Products. From 1873 to 1897 the price of silver declined from $1.02 per ounce to 47 cents per ounce, a fall of 55 cents per ounce, or 58.98 per cent. During the years from 1878 to 1898, wheat declined from $1.15 per bushel to 62.3 cents a bushel, a fall of 52.7 cents a bushel or 45.36 per cent. From 1873 to 1898 corn declined from 48 cents a bushel to 80 cents a bushel, a fall of 18 cents a bushel or 87.05 per cent. From 1878 to 1898 oats declined from 87.4 cents a bushel to 22 cents a bushel, a fall of 15.04 cents a bushel, or 41.17 per cent. From 1878 to 1896 rye declined from 76.3 cents a bushel to 40.8 cents a bushel, a fall of 35.5 cents a bushel, or 46.5 per cent. Daring the same period barley declined from 91.5 cents a bushel to 32.8 cents a bushel, a fall of 59.2 cents a bushel, or 65.7 per cent. From 1878 to 1897 hay declined from $13.55 per ton to $6.62 per ton, a fall of $6.93 per ton, or 51 per centFrom 1878 to 1895 potatoes declined from 70.5 cents per bushel to 26 6 cents per bushel, a fall of 43.9 cents a bushel, or 51 per cent. These figures, relating to the price of farm products for the periods stated, are taken chiefly from estimates pre, pared by the United States department of agriculture, and include the whole country, but may be regarded as applicable to Indiana as to any other state, but the statistics relating to annual products found in the tables are taken from reports of the Indiana bureau of statistics. In this article it is not proposed, in showing the extent the farmers of Indiana haye suffered by the decline in the price of farm products, to give each year fropi 1873 to 1898, nor, indeed, to select the most disastrous years to farmers, but to introduce authorative dates of a number of years calculated to produce and rivet conviction that the demonetization of silver in 1873 has been productive of disasters to the farmers of

Indiana so enermous in their ram total as to tax credulity and amass the people. Wheat. Indiana is a wheat producing state, and. it would be interesting to show the ram total of the product of the great cereal for all the years since 1873, but since that cannot be done for the want of space and the necessary data it must suffice to introduce the product of only a limited number of years, showing the decline in prices as compared with 1878, When silver was demonetized. Tables showing the decline in wheat in 12 years, consequent chiefly upon the demonetization of silver, which declined from $1.02 in 1873 to 47 cents in 1897:

I S? S$ st I YEARS P :51 i : . F■:? jg : to?.1880. 4<>.788.088 1.15 95.1 19.1)$ 8,116,813 1882 40.928,648 1.15 88.2 Jtt.B 12,576,877 1883 31,405,573 1.15 91.9 24.1 7,508,803 1884. 40,531,3)0 1.15 04.5 50.5 20,433,206 1888 -8,750,764 1.15 92.0 23,0 6,612,675 1889 41,541,570 1,15 09.8 45.2 18,776,789 1891 58.3(5,796 1.15 83.931.1 18,133,103 1892. 42,120,149 1.15 02.0 53.0 21,326,858 1894 50,792,620 1.15 49.1 05.9 33,694,136 1895. 22,674,000 1.15 50.0 65.0 14,138,100 1897 24,574,853 1.15 72.6 42.4 10,419,737 1898 51,001,080 1.15 62.3 52.7 26,877,569

Total loss to farmers of Indiana in 12 years.. • 108,614,663 It is seen by the foregoing table that in the 12 years tabulated the decline in the price of wheat consequent upon the decline of silver chiefly, cost the farmers of Indiana $198,614,666 and if the annual product of wheat in the state for all the years since 1873 could have been obtained for calculations, the sum total would have approximated $300,000,000, and as "dear money,” makes farm products cheap, farmers may feel assured that with the establishment of the gold standard and the permanent demonetization of silver, still greater losses are in store for them. But the losses sustained by th’e decline in wheat is but a portion of the calamities which have befallen the farmers of Indiana, consequent chiefly, upon the demonetization of silver, and it is therefore in order to give the facts relating to the losses farmers have sustained in the decline of prices in corn, as shown in the following tables. Table showing that the decline of silver from $1.02 per ounce in 1873 to 47 cents in 1897, cost the farmers of Indiana $184,708,470 in the decline of corn for the years tabulated.

Q T 3 t Ci A ®2 3. st 3. ® 2 hro trsi s» 2. £7*3 O O Q. ft) y as zLca /■ p ® O'® gs ® gs £. YEARS. : c 3 2. 3 g? “ • 2,2 p sc® < ■I : 7 t •awui’P.Sp.P'ao 1880.. 80,93 ,096 48 39.6 5,4 4,878,447 1884 89,159,799 48 85.7 12.8 10,966,655 1885 115,154,914 48 32.8 15.2 17,532,556 1880 108,217,203 48 36.6 11.4 12,336,760 1888 128,436,284 48 31.1 13.9 17,852,643 1889 11)6,542,101 48 28.3 19.7 20,988,895 1891.. 125,092,649 48 39.1 8.9 11,134,145 1895 132,1->t>, 105 48 25.3 22.7 29,987,485 1896 148,578,898 48 21.5 26.5 32,834,062 1898 14 ,501,404 48 30.0 18.0 26,730.252

Total loss to fanners Slß4,7Oß,47O It will be seen by reference to the foregoing table that the farmers of Indiana in the 10 years tabulated have lost by the decline in the price of corn, as compared with 1873, when silver was demonetized, the enormous sum of $184,708,470, or an average of $18,470,847 a year. That the decline in the price of corn was owing largely to the decline in the price of silver is shown in the fact that while silver declined from $1.02 per ounce in 1873 to 47 cents in 1897, corn declined from 48 cents a bushel in 1873 to 30 cents in 1898. Table showing that the decline in oats for the 'years tabulated, consequent chiefly upon the demonetization of silver, resulted in a loss to Indiana farmers of $30,638,977.

O 3 T 5 U -5 ®. g. 2. d3.ts ® ct) fc-js p c • cn (D s,® £—® o < £- : g 5‘ 2-5' a ° g YEARS. g : 5 ’ : : £ f • S ~ ■ » • •£.•q •Js E.S 1 ® 1879 1880 15,405,822 37.4 36.1 1.1 169,464 1883 19,567,789 37.4 32.7 4.7 919,585 1884..., 23,576.117 37.4 27.7 9.7 2,286,873 1885 25,280,037 37.4 28.5 8.9 2,247,922 1886 28,330,102 37.4 29.8 7.6 2,153,087 1888 27,493,857 37.4 27.8 9.6 2,639,410 1889; 28,710,935 37.4 22.9 14.5 * 4.163,065 1891 28,123,189 37.4 31.5 5.9 1,659,268 1895 24,601,831 37.4 19.9 17.5 4,305,320 1896,,, 23,689,234 37.4 18.7 18.7 4,429,886 1898 ~,. 33,490,424 37.4 22.0 15.4 5,157,524

Total loss to farmers on oats in 12 years as a result of the demonetization of silver.... #30,638,977 The then principal cereal crops in Indiana are given in the foregoing tables, and, recapitulated, show the losses sustained by Indiana farmers as follows; Lom zuatained by the decline in wheat #198,614,666 Lon sustained by the decline in corn... 184,708,470 Loss sustained by the decline in 0at5............. 30,638,977 Total loss for the years named #413,962,113 When it is considered that less than one-half of the years since 1873, when the disasters began to accummulate upon farmers of Indiana as a result of the demonetization as the prime factor in the demoralization of prices, it will be admitted that the sum total of losses, if all the years were included of losses, would reach at least (§900,000,000. We have 18 years in which the product of barley is given in statistical tables, showing the sum total of the product at 5,639,399 bushels. In 1873 the price of barley was 91.5 . cents a bushel, and it declined to 32.3 cents a bushel. If we divide the loss and assume that the average loss to the Indiana farmers was 28.1 cents a bushel, one-half of the decline, it is seen that upon this highly liberal estimate the loss was $1,584,671. v The rye product of the state for 12 years, for which statistics are available, amounted to 8,552,183 bushels. The de-

dine in price from 1873, when it was 76.8 cents a bushel, to 40.8 cents a bushel in 1896, the loss was 35.5 cents per basbel, assuming that 17.7 cents per bushel was the average, the loss to the farmers amounted to $1,513,731. The facts stated indicate clearly that the price of farm products in Indiana nave kept pace with the decline of silver since 1873, and that while there have been occasional reactions in prices, such for instance, as short crops at home and abroad, the downward march was resumed, as soon as abnormal conditions disappeared until, in spite of the claims to the contrary, farmers in Indiana as elsewhere, have been the victims of legislation to establish the gold standard and the outlook now, with wheat at 62 cents a bushel, and that a gambling price on change and bucketshop ventures is gloomy. If, however, the machinations of bondholders, trusts, syndicates and gold speculators are thwarted at the polls in November, as the indications warrant, there is good reason for believing that an era of prosperity will come to the farmers of Indiana and to the country, for until the farmers are prosperous it were folly to indulge the idea that the country is prosperous.