THE GOLD STANDARD WITH ITS FALLING PRICES COMPARED.

1865. Individually the people are comparatively free from debt."

1890. The burden of debt was $1,594 per family, with an annual

THE AWFUL EFFECTS OF FALLING PRICES.

67

except as they should mortgage or sell their little properties, and those who could not do this were obliged to subsist upon charity. The idle habits engendered and the loss of manhood and virtue which in other ways resulted, will continue to curse the people of the United States for generations. "The sins of the parents shall be visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generations." Furthermore, we will show to you that the panic of 1893 was caused by the great creditors of Europe and the United States as a means of securing monetary legislation favorable to themselves. THEY SECURED IT — the unconditional repeal of the silver purchase law AND PRICES CONTINUED TO FALL, FALL, FALL,

AND AS A RESULT THE CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY, BY SPRING OF THE YEAR FOLLOWING, WAS WORSE THAN DURING THE PANIC OF THIS YEAR (PAGE 532 BELOW). HAD THE VOLUME OF MONEY BEEN INCREASED THROUGH THE UNLIMITED COINAGE OF SILVER AND GOLD AT 16 TO I WE SHOULD HAVE EXPERIENCED THE BENEFICENT EFFECT OF RISING AND THEN STABLE PRICES.

Rises in General Prices occurred in the spring of 1895, and you remember how full employment returned and then wages went up. That is what rising prices accomplish. The cause of that rise we will show you was principally due to a concerted movement on the part of a few of the great creditors of Europe and the United States, and their object. was twofold: To kill the silver craze"-kill the desire for rising prices and at the same time enhance their wealth by purchasing property at the lowest price and afterwards selling it when the high point should be reached. The way they raised prices was principally through the directors of the Imperial German Bank issuing large quantities of paper money and lessening the bank's gold hoard (page 581 below). Isn't it about time that you begin to look into the cause of the changes in the measure of exchange value? The maintenance of a comparatively stable measure can be secured if you want it.

Let us present to you another comparison: You can remember, many of you, the close of the Franco-German war and how the French people promised to pay the Germans an indemnity equivalent to 1000 million of dollars in gold. It was an immense debt to assume, and we all admired the noble way in which the French people took up this great load and freed themselves from the domination of their neighbors. And yet this great sum was only about one-eighth the amount which the debtors in the United States had "shouldered" upon them during 1893 and 1894 BY THE LEGISLATION WHICH FURNISHED THIS SHIFTING MEASURE OF VALUE.1 Truly, then, may it be said that the pen which writes a

1 The 1,000 million dollars of gold in 1871 is the equivalent of 750 millions dollars of gold at the beginning of 1893, owing

to the increased exchange value of gold which at that time had occurred. 750 millions is one-eight of 6,000 millions.

law creating an appreciating measure of value is mightier than the sword. In two brief years the debtors of the United States are bur dened with a liability EIGHT TIMES AS GREAT AS THE GREAT FRANCO-GERMAN WAR INDEMNITY. (See opposite page.)

Another comparison of the loss which debtors suffered in 1893 and '94 is this: At the close of the Civil War the public debt, including greenbacks and fractional currency, amounted to 2,800 millions of dol lars. The exchange value of this amount in 1865 was equivalent to 1,150 millions of dollars of the exchange value of those in use at the beginning of 1893. This amount, compared with that which the debtors of the United States had thrust upon them IN TWO YEARS by laws which shifted the measure of value, IS LESS THAN 1-5TH. IN OTHER WORDS, the legislative shifting of the measure of exchange value DURING TWO YEARS gave to creditors the right to collect from their debtors an amount FIVE TIMES AS MUCH AS THE GREAT WAR DEBT (See illustration page 70.)

This is stealing on a pretty large scale, isn't it? In accomplishing this theft the great moneyed interests strangled the producers of this country by shutting off the "blood of commerce" (the money supply). until they surrendered and repealed unconditionally the silver purchase law which was adding to the volume of money 54,000,000 of dollars each year. The kicking and beating which you received when you were being forced into agreeing (?) to the unconditional repeal of this law you have not yet gotten over; the fearful losses you suffered in 1893 and which have flowed from causes then put into operation will stay with you, many of them, as long as you live, and your children will suffer because of the lost opportunities during those "hard times." But neither you nor wish to retaliate, we only wish to secure IN THE FUTURE a stable measure of value (stable general prices); we wish to return to the more stable bimetallic standard which existed for hundreds of years previous to 1873. In getting back to the standard which existed previous to '73, an incident will be a rise in general gold prices amounting to about 25 per cent, but this will secure greater justice than injustice, for it will simply shove the measure back to the size it was at the beginning of 1893Surely this is highly desirable!

We will next consider the effect on Prices Fixed by Law of an ap preciation in money of 100 per cent during the past 23 years over the average of the 11 years 1867-77. We here take the exchange value of money in the United States, as the prices fixed by law during the years 1865 to 1879 were on the basis of the money then in use.