People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 December 1893 — SUICIDAL POLICY. [ARTICLE]

SUICIDAL POLICY.

Demonetizing Silver Bring* India Into Successful Competition with American Wheat Growers. When England demonetized silver, compelling gold payments, prices of every commodity decreased, cotton sinking in three months to one-half its former price, and within six months all prices had fallen one-half, by reason of the contraction of the currency. The industry of the nation was congealed, alarm was universal, activity ceased, bankruptcies followed, distress was seen everywhere, people were driven from their homes by foreclosures of mortgages and the condition of industry and disorganization of labor led to frequent conflicts between the people and the military and civil authorities. When this country demonetized silver, India received a greater supply than ever before and the prosperity of the United States was transferred to the fields and factories of India. Prior to that time, India was not a factor in the wheat trade, but as silver bullion declined, the wheat trade of India increased until now it has reached nearly one hundred million bushels for export. Had it not been for the demonetization of silver in this country, the wheat trade of India would never have begun, and Europe would have purchased of us in the last ten years four hundred and fifty million bushels more than it did, which together with the cotton and the corn would have paid the debt of this country.—A. C. Fisk.