The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1878-08-23

tempt to msnufacturs sentiment against the
Resumption Act. by Saving it will help the rich
and hurt the poor, they are Overwhelmingly
answered by the facts.
suppose you undo the work that Congress
has attempted-to resume specie payment
what will result? You will depreciate the
value Of the greenback. Suppose it falls 10
cents on the dollar. You will have destroyed
10 per cent. OF the value Of every deposit in
the savings banks, 10 per cent. OF every life in
surance policy and fire insurance policy, OF
every pension to the soldier. and Of every day
wages OF every laborer in the nation
! JAMES FREEMAN CLARK.
In a sermon by this distinguished clergyman,
delivered at the Church OF the Disciples, Bos-
ton, Sunday. October II, 1875. on the imitation
Of the currency, he said
This evil always falls most heavily on the
poor. The rich can take care OF themselves.
! Blu. the poor man finds that the purchasing
power of his dollar is diminished one-half. He
receives, perhaps, two dollars day, instead OF
one and half-but then he can only buy half
a. much for dollar as he could before.
1t is often said that the rich people are the
lenders, and the poor the borrowers. This is
not true. The whole laboring class are lenders,
not borrowers. Those who work for wages,
unless they are paid in advance all belong to
the class OF creditors. not OF debtors. They do
not owe money. a. traders do. They are not
living on borrowed capital, and spending 1t -
il it were their own. Their employers owe
them money six days IN the week, and are out
Of debt to them only on the seventh. The
working people suffer first, and suffer most,
from imitation. They first ind that the pur-
chasing power Of their dollar is less than 1t was.
Everything else rises in value before labor
except where 1t is very much wanted-as in
| great fire. where labor cannot wait. Then
man with his cart Is worth $500 an hour, for the
supply OF labor does not equal the demand.
But the imitation OF prices INJURIES the laboring
class most OF all. This is one OF the evils OF
! imitation.
wM NJ GRosvENoR.
VIM. NJ. Grosvenor thus presents the subject
IN a speech made BY him IN Cleveland. August
II. 1875
/ Many fancy that much currency means high
wages. They forget that inflated prices hurt
more than inflated wages hurt them. In times
Of fuctuation. wages OF all things go up last
ard least, and fall first and lowest Money
! can combine to resist increase Of wages. Labor
can never combine to resist increase Of prices.
Elaborate reports Of the Massachusetts, Labor
Bureau supply data which prove that the cost
Of living in 1902 was fully 81 per cent. higher
than in 1860. The census returns and the re-
port OF the Bureau OF Statistics closely sustain
this estimate. Not all OF this increase was
caused by the currency but large part doubt
less was Now the average OF wages paid in
1860 to all hands employed in manufactures
was &2ss. "a in gold, but in 1870 only s317.59 in
currency. The nominal increase in wages was
80 per cent.-only have the increase in prices.
This great body of workmen received wages
which would buy only as much as 1924 at the
prices OF 1860, when they received $3.50 each.
The average loss, then. was S55 each. Some
we're indeed more fortunate. One-ffth OF
them. being thus employed in nine important
industries, gained 81 per cent. in wages. Their
net loss was small But the remaining four
fifths gained only "a per cent, while 81 per
cent was lost. We have 100000 workers for
wages in this country. Certainly less than half
OF them gained as much in wages from 1860 to
1870 as the men employed in manufactures If
their average, by excess OF advance in prices
over advance in wages, was s55 each. the loss
TO the labor OF this country was S440.000.000
yearly. Yet this was when manufactures pros
pered aud wages were high Workmon OF the
very classes then best paid have been most
sorely tried since. Not abundance nor scarcity.
but uncertainty of currency, brings great loss
10 labor. To either quantity OF currency. ii Of
steady value, wages would finally adjust them
selves. But Senator Schurz mentioned mer-
chants IN New York who had changed prices Of
their goods six times in one week, to cover
changes in the value of currency. Did wages
ever change as often? Tell me, when sudden
speculation forces up the price Of -four. cloth
or coal, do you not pay more for what you buy.
but get no higher wages? When the demon Of
disaster Expresses prices, 1t also closes shops
and mills, and frightened capital flies from in
dustry. Are the many who get no wages able
to buy food for nothing? Even for those who
have work. do not wages q. such times fall
more than prices? This is true Of wholesale
prices-how much more Of retail? Go to the
nearest store; when the market declines, does
not the seller charge the same price as long as
he can? But when it rises, lie he not quick to
mark up his goods? Ne wonder that the en-
bassy from Japan, which came to this country
hoping to open trade mutually profitable to
us and to 950OOOOO OF people who need our
products, found that shilling would buy less
here than in any other civilized land.
This is the market in which the farmer and
laborer buy But the one sells his wheat or
corn, pork or cotton, at prices fixed in gold at
Liverpool. The other sells his labor at prices
fixed in the worlds labor market. IL his wages
rises, the labor Of other lands comes here to
compete with him. Paper promises, and the
gambling Of Wall street, and the slow response
OF retail prices to downward changes OF the
market, have been robbing our labor OF Its
fnr fap