New-York daily tribune., 1854-07-10
CALIFORNIAN GOLD AND ITS EFFECTS.

diplomacy mas carried the anu IL IL 'ei. hhriy
to win at last.
CALIFORNIAN GOLD AND ITS EFFECTS.
We stated recently that the increase in the supply
Of gold resulting from the discovery of the mines of
California and Australia had enabled the tariff of
1916 thus far to work, by giving to manufactures
the protection that has been denied by Gov
ernnent that is now, and almost always has been,
administered in the supposed Interests of the slave
owner ard adversely to those OF the free aborer who
owns himself and sells bis own services. How that
effect has been produced, we propose nov to show.
Whatever tends to increase the facility of producing
any commodity tend. TO diminish The quantity ofother
commodities that must be given in exchange for IT.
By the aid Of steam cloth is produced with far greater
facility than it thirty fifty or a hundred years
ago, and tie consequence is that yard of it will
not commsnd more than fourth, fifth. or perhaps
even tenth Of tie wheat that it would have COM
maIded in the previous periods Were any discovery
low made Of mode Of producing wheat that would
double the product of labor applied, the growers
Of cotton, sugar aud tobacco and the producers OF
cloth iron steam engines. and other commodities,
", ud profit by it because they would obtain twice
az much -four for the things they had to give in
change for il. This Of course, would increase the
value Of their labor estimated in wheat -four. Pre-
cisey similar il the case with regard to gold. The
incrt ased facility with which it is obtained tends to
dninisb it, value in all other commodities labor in-
cuGed. and to raise the prices of ALL
The aborer thus benefits by the increased facility
of producing the commodity called gold but the
proprietor of fixed incomes suffers, because while the
qua nifty of gold that he claim remains stationary
lie must pay higher wages for the labor OF those whom
lie plOys and higher prices for the commodities he
cor sumes-but such is the result of all increase in
tie facility of production. The planning and the brick
making machines have increased the facility OF pro-
ducing houses to the loss Of all those who had ac
cLmuated capital in the form of houses but to the
great advantage of the abOrer who desires to rent
dwelling for bis family The railroad increases the
facilfy Of procuring farms throughout the West to
the injury OF those who have purchased farms in the
East but to the great advantage of all who desire to
secure small homesteads for their wives and children;
sDd thus all improvements in the machinery of pro-
duction tend toward equalization in the condition
Of the capitalist aud the laborer.
Tie receiver of a fixed income has no labor TO sell
snd bis condition tends dow ards that of the
laborer tends upwards because he will not use the
faculties with which he has been endowed to coop
crate with HE fellow man in adding to the fund out
of which all are TO be paid He is the drone in the
hive and suffers because he desires TO live out of the
proceeds of the labor Of others. Such men are gen.
orally paid out of the public treasury and that treas
Try is filed by aid of taxes on the laborer. The
quantity of money required for the payment OF their
divide nos remains the same, but with the increased
facility of obtaining money in exchange for labor and
ts products there is increase in the facility of pay
ing the taxes and thus the discovery Of Californian
and Australian gold tends greatly TO diminish the
burden Of the public debt of Europe. Take for instance
that OF England the interest which requires annually
hundred and thirty millions of dollars about five
dollars per head Of the population of the United King
en-. II the addition to the price of labor consequent
up tie increased facility ofobtaning gold has amount
ed to only ten cents per head per week. it has been
equal to The rholt amount of this interest With the
rse in the price Of labor applied to the production of
coal and iron, and of all the other products of the
earth there has, however been addition of thirty
forty fiy per cent. their gains and every such
advance is equivalent TO reduction in the amount of
taxes required for the payment of interest and for
that to of the fixed Of the royal family the
great fcers Of state, military and naval officers &C.,
&C. ard thus hes the discovery Of large quantities of
gold, at'anabe at little cost, tended much toward
the equalization Of conditions.
We beg our readers now TO remember that all Ais
is in direct opposition to the doctrines of the cheap
lsbor and pro-savery school on both sides of the At
lsrtc. Mr. Peel, as we have shown, greatly raised
the value of all fixed incomes BY going back after
period twenty years departure from it, to the same
STANDARD for the value Of gold that had existed at the
storpsge of tie bank in 1877. 1t was right and pro-
per to resune the payment of gold, but the mistake
consisted in compelling all who had made contracts
in paper TO pay them, principal and interest, in gold
at the old ard high priees-and that mistake woad
have been made had it not been that the re ,ev
ers Of Fixed money incomet-men Ike Sir Robert
Peel-controlled the operations Of the government.
So, too, with Mr.. Buchanan. He conceded that
it was mmateral whether lsborers received twenty
five cents per day, or twenty five dollars, 90 that
the prices Of grain. cloth and other commodities
conformed to this standard: but he either did
rot sec. or did not with to see that every reduc.
tim in -rfrr of inhor an .Tr.nt.co