Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1898 — DEMONETIZATION [ARTICLE]

DEMONETIZATION

pared by tbs United States department of agriculture, and include the whole oountry, 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 have suffered by the deoliue in the price of farm products, to give each year from 1878 to 1898, nor, iudeed, to select the most disastrous years to farmers, but to iotroduoe authorstive date# of a number of years calculated to pro duce and rivet conviction that the de monetization of silver in 1873 has been productive of disasters to the farmers of IndLma so enormous in their sum total as to tax credulity and amaze the people. Wheat. Indiana is a wheat producing state, and it would be interesting to show the snm total of the produot of the great cereal fgf all the years since 1873, bat ripce that c&qnot be done for the want of space £Bd the neoessary data it mast suffice to introdnoe ihe produot of only a limited number of years, showing the decline in prices as oompared with 1878, when silver was demonetized. Tables showing the deoline in wheat in 12 years, consequent chiefly upon the demonetization of silver, which declined from $1.02 in 1878 to 47 cents in 189 f:

Of Silver and What It Has Cost Indiana Farmers. Compreheoafva Tables Showing What They Should Have Received nod What They Did Reoeive u a Reward For Their Toil Blooe 1873 Total lon on Whoat, Corn and Oats Amounts to the Enormous Sum of 8413,902,113. Indiana is pre-eminently an agricultural state. In 1690, according to the oensus report, Indiana had 198,167 farms, rained, including fenoes and buildings, implements and machinery and livestock, at $869,992,787. It would be a conservative estimate to say that Indiana now has 200,000 farms and that their total value, inoluding 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 population are directly associated with the farms of the state ia 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 somuoh is said, capitalized or “watered” as they are, as an investment do not exceed $160,000,000. So mush ** merely prelaotory, designed to substantiate proposition, that agriculture, or farming, is the one great, overmastering interest of Indiana. The Demonetisation of Silver and Prices of Firm Products. It has been asserted and demonstrated beyond proof to the contrary, that the demonetization of silver in 1878 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 1878 have prevented them from receiving many millions of dollars which ought to have rewarded them for their toil and anxiety. The question ia so momentous and so far reaching ip its consequences as to lift it far above partisan clamor, for it is partisan only to the extent that parties may seise 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, eta, but which in no wise modify the startling facts, that with the decline of silver consequent upon demonetisation, farm products, keeping step to the mournful musio, have as steadily declined.

TOTS I i 2. § YEARS l s* 5 * flv j :p:5 #8 : b.^a.9? iB6O. 4H~W,088 * )5’575877 lt*a.... 46,928,648 l.isaMiifl.ft 1884.. 40,531,31X1 1.15 64.550.$ 80,492,206 12g4„. -8,750,784 1.15 92.0123,0 IXI 58.306,798 1.15 83.9 31.1 18,183,102 1892. 41,130,144 1.15 03.0 53.0 21^*^ 1891.. 57.792,6* 1.15 49.1,65.9 1895. e.o'TLOOU 1.15 50.6 te.O M4*,lop 1897 -*4,574,863 1.15 72.8 42A. 1898..

Total loss to farmers of Indiana in 12 years M 198,61**®*® 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 1878 oonld have been obtained for calculations, the snm total would have approximated $300,000,000, and as “dear money,” makes farm products cheap, farmers may feel assured that with the establishment of tiie gold standard and the permanent demonetisation of silver, still greater loaaes are in store for them. But the losses sustained by the decline in wheat is but a portion of 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 deoline of prices in corn, as shown in the following tables. Table showing that the decline of silver from $1.02 per onnoe in 1878 to 47 cents in 1897, oost the farmers of Indiana $184,708,470 in the deoliue of corn lor the years tabulated.

ft! iltef tears. ;! |i° != |s.| fl | !i f mm • : 7 ijl is ; IRggl 1680.. 80.9W1.696 48 39.6 5.4 4,378,447 1884 89,139,799 48 35.7 12.3 10,966,655 1885.. 115,154,914 48 32.8 15.2 17.532.506 1386.. ...... 108,217,200 48 36.6 11.4 12,i*).7»0 1888. 128.436,284 48 34.1 13.9 17.852,843 1869. 106,542.161 48 28.3 19.7 20,988,805 1891 135,092.649 48 39.) 8.9 11,184,145 1896. 132.106,105 48 25.3 22.7 29,987,485 1890. 148,578,898 48 21.5 28.5 32,884,662 1898. 143,301,404 48 130.0 18.0 26,730.362

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 looses they have anitained by the decline in the prioe of their products sin— 1878 will be in order. It is not contended, nor is it to be denied, that other agenoi— have been in operation whereby the price of farm products have declined, bat that the demonetisation of silver, and the consequent decline of that metal has been the chief factor in producing the misfortunes of the fanners of Indiana is assarted, and the facts warrant the conclusion. D—llae In the Pel— eg Ml— and Farm Prod not#. From 1878 to 1887 the prioe of silver declined from $1.09 per out— to 47 cents per ounoe. a fell of 86 cents per ounce, or 88.96 per oenL Daring the years from 1878 to 1898, wheat deolined from $1.16 per bushel to 89.8 oents a bnshel, a fall of 69.7 oents a bnshel or 45.36 per oenL From 1878 to 1808 com deolined from 48 oents a bnshel to 10 oents a bushel, a fall of 18 oents a bnshel or 87.06 par oenL From 1878 to 1896 ante deolined from 87.4 cents a bnshel to 99 oents e bushel, e fell of 16.04 oents a bushel, or 41.17 per oenL From 1878 to 1896 rye declined from 76.8 oents a bushel to 40.8 oents a bnshel, a fall of 36.6 oanta a bushel, or 46.6 per cent. Daring the same period barley declined from 91.8 oente a bushel to 83.8 oents a bushel, e fell of 69.3 —nU e bnshel, or 65.7 per oenL From 1878 to 1897 bey deolined from $18.65 per ton to $6.69 per ton, e tell of $6.98 per ton, or 61 per oenL From ls7s to 1806 potatoes deolined team 70.5 Cents per bnshel to 96.0 oents per basheL e tell of 48.9 oents a bushel, or 61 per oenL The— figures, relating to the prioe of farm product* for the periods stated, are taken chiefly from estimates pre-

Total loss to farmers........ *184,708,470 It will be seen by reference to the foregoing table that the farmers of Indiana in the 10 years tabulated have lost by the deoline in the price of corn, M compared with 1878, when silver was demonetized, the enormom snm of $184,706,470, or an average of $18,470,847 S year. That the deoline in the inice of oern was owing largely to the deoline in the prioe of silver is shown in the fact that while silver declined from SI.OB per onnee in 1878 to 47 cents in 1897, corn declined from 48 oenta a bnshel in 1878 to 80 cents in 1898. Table showing that the decline in oats for the yean tabulated, consequent chiefly upon the demonetization of silver, resulted in a loss to Indiana farmers of $80,688,977.

f{! §|P!f YKABS. • § i ! I ; | sfFalri;? I I PI llr \ jMfcHi 1879 11.804,040 87.4 83.1 4.8 807,878 1860.. 1M0\832 37.4 86.1 1.1 169,464 1883.. 19,567,789 37.4 88.7 4.7 9)9,685 1884.. 24.576.11? 87.4 27.7 9.7 *,*86,878 1885 55J580.03; 87.4 28.5 8.9 M 47.92! 1888.. *8,330.11* 87.4 *9.8 7.6 2.168,1*7 1888 *7,498,857 37.4*7.8 2.6 *.639,410 1880 *8,710,985 87.4 **.9 14.5 4.103,066 1801 *8,123,189 37.4 81.5 5.9 1,669,968 1808.. *4,6)1,831 87.4 19.9 17.5 4,806,320 1806.. ....... 23,680,234 87.4 18.7 18.7 4,439,886 1888 88,490.4*4 *7.4 22.0(16.4 5.157,604

Totar toss to rarniers on oats in 18 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: Loot sustained by the decline In wheat •198,614,666 Lose sustained by the decline lu corn 184,708,470 Lose sustained by the decline in oats. 30,638,977 Total loss for the years named *413,963,113 When it is considered that less than one-half of the years Bince 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 I admitted that the sain total of losses, if i all the 'year® were included of losses, I woold reach at least $900,000,000. We have iif years in which the product of barley is given in statistical tables, showing the sum total of the produot at 5,639,399 bushels. In 1873 the price of barley was 91.5 cents a bushel, and it declined to 32,8 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 $1,5§4,671. The rye produot of the state for 12 years, for which statistics are available, amounted t»8,552,183 bushels. The decline in prioe from 1873, when it was 76.8 cents a bushel, to 40.§ Qents a bushel in 1896, the loss was 85.6 cento per bnshti, assuming bushel was the average, the loss to the farmers amounted to $1,513,731. The facts stated indioate clearly that the prioe of farm products in Indiana have kept pace Witp the decline of eilyer since 1873, and that while there have been occasional reactions in prices, such for instance, as short crops at home and abroad, the downvy&rd M* earned, aS Soon &si*uHlo»B 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 standafd and the outlook now, with wheat at 62 cents a bnshel, and that a gambling prioe on change and bncketshop 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 oonntry, for nntil the farmers are prosperous it were folly to indulge the idea that the country is prosperous.