If Not Silver, What?Bookwalter, John W. (John Wesley)
History
If Not Silver, What?
Bookwalter, John W. (John Wesley)
Silver question
Another class threaten us that a great mass of securities will be
"unloaded on us." Well, Great Britain, Germany, and Holland, all gold
countries, are the nations which hold practically all the American stock
and bonds held abroad. Of course they did not invest expecting to be paid
principal and interest in coin, for they know that there is not enough in
this country to pay it; it is in commodities that we must pay. So far as
these securities are bad, as we are sorry to say very many are, foreigners
having been badly "plucked" by some of our operators, they will be
returned anyhow. In fact, they are coming back now. As to those which are
good, being held against property capable of earning a steady and reliable
income, they will not be returned. Held in gold countries, the interest
and dividends on them will be paid in our products measured in the
currency of those countries, no matter what our monetary system may be.
But suppose the "prophets" of evil are correct to this extent that silver
and securities will be "dumped" on us to the amount of a billion or two.
Will the foreigners give us all these good things? Assuredly not. They
must all be paid for; and with what? Manifestly with agricultural
products, for there is little or nothing else. The farmer must furnish the
stuff, and he is ready and willing to do it--yes, anxious. At least
three-fourths of our exports are agricultural, and of the new exports
probably seven-eighths would be. We find, moreover, that in 1891
55,131,948 bushels of wheat exported brought us $51,420,272, and in 1892,
157,280,351 bushels brought us $161,399,132, while in 1894 the 88,415,230
bushels exported brought us only $59,407,041, and in 1895, 76,102,704
bushels brought us but $43,805,663. Similarly it may be shown that our
largest cotton exports have brought us the least money; but this is an old
story. It goes without saying, that to the farmer there are three great
factors in the present situation: a ruinously low price for his products,
a tremendous surplus left over from last year, and an immense crop for
this year now adding to the surplus, with no possible home consumption to
give an adequate outlet. Suppose then the "dump" should come and the farm
produce go--what then?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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