Staunton Vindicator

THE VOLUME OF MONEY DON'T MAKE PRICES.

The two papers from which we make the extracts given below are both journals of influence, and in view of that influence their teachings which are relied on should be accurate. The Leesburg Washingtonian has this:

The crop reports in this country, in South America and in Europe, do not indicate an average crop, and, as a natural result prices should be higher. Under present conditions of the crop outlook, if we had the currency we had before the innovation of 1873, wheat would to-day bring from $1.00 to $1.50 per bushel.

Well, let us look at it. Before "the innovation of 1873" the total money, coin and paper, circulation of the United States was less than $800,000,000-to be exact, from the year 1866 to the year 1873, it varied between $754,000,000 and $774,000,000. On the 30th of September, 1894, the latest Treasury report, the amount of money—coin and paper—circulation of the United States was $2,421,461,747; just three times as much! The population in 1873 was 41,677,000, and the per capita was $18.04. The population in 1894 was 68,397,000 and the per capita was $24.30—about a third more. Our figures are obtained from the office of the Secretary of Treasury at Washington.

The Charlottesville Progress tells the Norfolk Landmark that the free coinage of silver would make it possible for farmers to incur the expense of road-building—in other words if there was more money in the country. It says:

In 1873 corn yielded to the farmers of this county a return of $11.41 an acre; in 1893 only $5.50 an acre. Oats in 1873 yielded to the farmers an average of $10.37 an acre; in 1893, only $6.26. In 1893, although the number of milch cows had greatly decreased, their value had fallen off 40 per cent. from that of 1873. In 1873, although the quantity per capita was greater than in 1893, wheat yielded an average return of $14.59 per acre; in 1893 the value was $5.08 per acre.

Now let us look into the figures of the Progress!

In 1873 the coin and paper circulation of the United States was $774,445,610, a per capita of $18.04. In 1893 the coin and paper circulation of the United States was $2,323,402,392, a per capita of $23.85. If "more money" which is the meaning of the free silver cry, would have any effect, there taking the ratio given above the farmer ought to have gotten in 1893, the sum of $16 an acre for his corn; $15 for his oats; $21 for his wheat, and his milch cows ought to have brought more than in 1873 instead of falling off. As these things did not happen in 1893, as the free silver theory called for: as the low prices of these products were caused not by the scarcity of money, but by the scarcity of demand, and as the prices of products have improved in 1895 when there is no more money in circulation than there was the year before our two friends must revise their instructions and teach what is the true explanation of low prices. And that is that prices are regulated by supply and demand, and not by the amount of money in circulation to buy them. The statistics of the United States that we give above show this, as do those of every civilized country on earth.