The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1872-10-09
strikes and Prices.
CORES. Of the London Times, Aug. ~

The controversy which now prevails between
employers and operatives suggests for the consId-
Grafton of the political economist, whether soce
ty is or is not in danger Of putting hasty con-
struction upon facts, of adopting wrong view
and thence q wrong remedy for only transient
disturbance Is it overlooked that we have had
strikes before and high prices before, and that
these have subsidized aud fallen, or, in plain Ian
guage, found their level 10y an inevitable and nat
ural law the action Of which it is desirable on all
sides not to interrupt by over exercise of art-
fcia means
Let US, for instance, take the price Of Goals
here The rise has been very sudden. and at
usual season of the year, which is a mitigating
circumstance. The very poor are not able to in
dulge in coal fires, and those who occupy the
next superior strata of life will discover, if they
have kept household books, that Goals were for a
period much dearer than they now less than
twenty years ago. Obviously ths most pleasant
alternative to the consuming operative for dear
ness of fuel is to obtain a corresponding gift or
rise in salary from his employer such as will en-
aUle him to consume the same quantity of Goals
as before without thought of economy or sub
stituies, the same quantity Of jaunty cOthiBg for
bis family in place of what would be cheaper and
warmer, and the some quantity of meat requiring
to be cooked, in place Of changing his dietary
somewhat, or buying the cheaper meat from Aus
tralia, which is already cooked-vege,ables and
all-if he peases II employers do this out OF
good nature, or out of the superhuOus profits, or
out Of profits not entirely their own, which in
these days of joint-stock companies they under
take to administer for Others, what happens
Why. beyond doubt that the inconvenience OF
high prces in Goals. in meat and in sumptuous
clothing is prolonged until for many Of the con
sumers dearth approaches TO total abstinence or
famine, and when many of the employers, how
ever unconsciousy to themselves. will have as
sisted in creating tumifed tariff of wages or
salaries for those more humble members Of their
craft who had difficulty enough already to make
both ends meet.
Oh it is answered, you forget that Mr.. Jevons
and NJ. Chevalier have told US how since gold
has become permanently cheaper commodities
have become permanently dearer, and hence the
proprieiy, if not necessity, of new relations be-
tween employers and persons engaged by them
al ixed payments in money. Notwithstanding
these professional authorities, take leave TO /
assert another doctrine. | contend that as gold /
falls in price by reason Of its abundance, the same
rule applies TO it as to-any 1ther commodity in
this, that labor fees frSfn ii and seeks new |
point of occupation. | All. prepared for any ex
travagant propositions, such as 10 suppose a
mountain of gold or a fountain of gold they are
but creations of the fancy, not to the purpose
when we are speaking Of things which are the
result of continuous labor and industry, and not
to the universal law Of supply and
demand. A paragraph 10 your paper Of three
days ago tells US that the yield of Australian
gold for the first seven months of this year has
been less than IN the same seven months of 1870
and 1871 Treating this. however, as nothing in
the argument, venture to say that if commod'
ties Of one variety are dearer than they were
quarter Of century ago, another variety is
cheaper. and that, by law analogous to that of
Nature. which orders mean Of moisture, or a
mean Of temperature, it is impossible to be other
wise, except for periods of not very long dura-
tion. Against the dearuess of Goals, meat, and
house-rent, oppose the cheapness of tea, sugar,
fish, and conveyance; corn and rice ere neither
iearer nor cheaper.
| would not be understood to deny that gold
is somewhat cheaper than it was, because the re-
ease Of large masses of it by the forced employ
ueut of paper money 10 pOpulous countries
,uch as France, Italy. and the United States,
,oupled with the continuous, however diminish (
no. streams from the producing places, must
ave a certain effect. ] only urge that when we
ire told of general rise in the gold-price of
of 25 to 30 per cent the effect is
enormously exaggerated. am more disposed to '
,alculate the rise by estimating the ancient and
he existing relations of gold towards corn or
liver. We know that for the first fifty years OF ,
he current century pure gold towards pure silver
vas in the steady relation of to l51k. as ascer-
aimed by the double or shifting standard in those
Proportions at which the French Mint was
bunaautly supplied with either Of the precious
METALS The relation Is lower now, bot not yet
o low as 10 Is. Judged Of BY this criterion