People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1894 — SIGNIFICANT STATISTICS. [ARTICLE]

SIGNIFICANT STATISTICS.

A Considerable Chance in Agricultural Values Brought About by the Debasement of Silver. Agriculture is the basis of our national prosperity. When farmers are prosperous, and when the harvests are plentiful and prices good, the effect is felt in every branch of industry —the people are prosperous, commerce is active, and the horn of plenty is big end down. We publish below some interesting and significant agricultural statistics taken from the government reports. Being official, it cannot be said that they were prepared to point any special moral or adorn any tale. They are simply statistics, and statistics are facts. There has been a considerable change in agricultural values since 1870 and the story is best told by the reproduction of the following statistics: The average size of a farm in the United States: 1870 153 acres 1880 133 acres 1890 107 acres Average value per acre: 1870 $56.00 1880 46.00 1890... 28.00 The average value of each farm: 1870 $3,430.00 1880 2,428.00 1890 1,620.00 Value of average acre of wheat: 1867 $23.05 1880 12.48 1892 8.35 Value of average acre of corn: 1867 $18.77 18S0 10.91 1892 9.09 Value of average acre of oats: 1867 $16.05 1880 g. 28 1892 7.73 Value of average acre of rye: 1867 $19.24 1880 10.50 1888 7.73 Value of average acre of barley: 1867 $20.00 1880 14.11 1888 12.57 Value of average acre of buckwheat: 1867 $19.11 1880 10.55 1888 8.36 The value and amount of total productions: BualxcU. Acres Value. 1867 1,329,729.400 65,636,449 $1,284,037,300 1880 2,718,193,501 120,926,283 1,361,497,704 1888 3,209,742,300 146,281,000 1,320,255,398 It will be observed that the price of wheat, together with that of all cereals, has been growing steadily less, and that with more than twice the number of bushels of gross production upon nearly three times the number of acres of land, the money received for the product is practically the same. The value of all cattle has decreased in the same proportion, but the interest and the tax remain the same. Thus it will be seen that it takes double the amount of labor to-day to liquidate an obligation that it took in 1870, before silver was demonetized. The decay of the American farm began with the demonetization of silver in 1873. Prices have been going down, down, down ever since. Gold-bug philosophers are endeavoring to convince the farmers and the people generally that this is the best thing that could have happened, but the people will not be convinced. It is like talking philosophy to a starving man to convince him that he does not want anything to eat. The figures as above given are overwhelming and unanswerable, and all the gold-bug philosophy that can be urged in the newspapers or spouted from the stump cannot explain away the remarkable coincidence which has brought the disastrous tumble in the price of agricultural products every time that silver has been struck a blow and another rivet driven into the hoop of the gold standard. But after a while the people will understand these things, and then there will be an awakening throughout the country.—Atlanta Constitution.