97 



" The investigations of Mr. Atkinson show that ' whilo 

 one-half the present effort to sustain life consists in the 

 effort or cost of obtaining food, that effort, great as it still is, 

 is so much less than it was prior to 1860 as to make it 

 almost incapable of expression in specific terms. In I860, 

 the greater part of the wheat now consumed in Europe could 

 not have been moved & hundred and fifty miles without ex- 

 hausting its -value ; now wheat is moved half-way round the 

 world at a fraction of its value.' The preservation of food 

 by artificial methods, which to an extent is equivalent to 

 its increase supply, has also been to a very high degree 

 perfected." 



" In the production of materials for clothing, vast areas of 

 new territory have been added to areas formerly occupied for 

 the production of cotton and wool ; while, in the case of 

 cotton, the change from slave labour to free labour alone has 

 greatly reduced its cost of production in that country whose 

 supply determines the price for the world, ' In the con- 

 version of cotton and wool into fabrics it can be proven that 

 one factory operative can do four times the work that one 

 corresponding operative could accomplish between the years 

 1840 and 1850; while the invention and application of the 

 sewing-machine has reduced the time and labour cost 

 necessary for the conversion of cloth into clothing in vastly 

 greater measure.' " 



"In the case of the useful metals, iron, steel, copper, lead, 

 tin, and quicksilver, the revolution which has occurred in 

 consequence of the discovery and opening up of new mines, 

 the application of new methods of smelting, and the facilities 

 for transportation at law cost, have unquestionably reduced 

 the cost (price) of all these products to as great an extent as 

 that of any other class of commodities." 



Mr. Wells then concludes his argument as follows : — 



" To suppose, now, that a change in the relative value of 

 the two precious metals— gold and silver — a change which 

 has not in any degree restricted their natural supply or 

 diminished their monetary or industrial uses, has exercised a 

 concurrent superior and predominating influence in respect 

 to the prices of all other commodities, or services, would seem 

 to be almost incompatible with the clear exercise of one's 

 reasoning faculties." 



I am glad to be be in complete accord with the views so 

 admirably set forth by Mr. Wells, and I am, at the same time, 

 fully convinced that any cause which tends to check 

 the influences which have beneficially cheapened commodities 

 to consumers, also tends to check the world's progress in 

 material welfare. 



