The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1879-12-19

row uonE MONEY CUTS DOWN wAers.

The idea that cheap money brings high
wages deceiyes many laborers. sharp exper-
fence should have taught them, loug ago, TO
look behind the number TO the real value OF
the dollars paid. II Is not in Flush times" as
bank records prove, that labor adds most to It's
savings IL is not at such times that strikes
are rare and laborers contented. Labor never
really prospers, except when the cost OF living
is low, and but little changed from month to
month. Then only can workmsn get wages
enough to meet their needs, and to leave them
something besides for rainy day. Then only
do care and thrift prevail. For the workers,
there Is inevitable mischief in all sharp changes.
The coat OF living alters suddenly, but wages
breed habits OF extravaganza, as surely as warm,
moist weather starts weeds IN a neglected
garden. With sudden changes for the worse,
labor ia pinched, and strikes, IN which it loses
both time and savings, at once become fire.
quent. How can labor thrive, under the vo-
lent changes which cheap money surely brings?
AS we'll expect landsmen at sea to have quiet
stomachs during storm.
Would 81 ,OG0 day IN Confederate notes be
high wages? OF course not, for the paper
would buy nothing. Wages do not mean bits
OF paper but bread and meat, clothing and
rent. Capitalists can put away doubtful dol
lars in a safe, and wait in the hope that they
may become good But laborers have to use
their dollars at once in buying, and il they buy
little, wages are low, no matter how many bits
OF paper called dollars may be paid. Hugh
wages, IN the true sense, mean wages that will
buy large supply o. the peeessanss Of life.
But men who want cheap money want it On
purpose to make high prices, General Ewing
for landa, coal aud IRON, and Scion Chase for
steers and hogs, beef, pork, grain and vegeta-
bles That ia, they want to cut down the
wages OF woIkiugmen. Dir Chase inde fault
because, from cattle such as his, vorkingmen
get steaks at 20 cents pound, and wants to
so back to cheap money, so that they may have
TO pay 40 cents. With other things TO match,
that would reduce their wages just one-half
But can they get no increase? After time,
but even then never enough 20 escape loss.
This is 10 theory. Experience has been
teaching the lesson for seventeen years, that
cheap money always puts np prices more than
wages, and thus makes wages really smaller.
Official reports OF the Labor Bureau OF Massa
chusetts, of the Hon. ID. A. Wells when United
States SPECIAL Commissioner OF the Revenue
and Of the Bureau OF Statistics on Labor in
Europe and America, give the facts 10 a vast
body. They prove, in brief. that wages rose
GO per cent with Imitation from 1869 to 1867
but retail prices rose 90 per cent After brief
contraction, the imitation continued until the
crash ia 1873, though the paper dollar became
more valuable with Republican victories and
the rising credit of the nation. But ia 1872
wages were 3Gl1 per cent higher than in 1860.
while retail prices were nearly 81 per cent
higher. Now we have returned to the hard
money basis. But wages are 2l1{ per cent
higher than IN 1860, while retail prices are
only 1415 per cent higher. The meaning OF
these figures is this: II tho wages pad in
1860 would buy 10000 pounds Of articles en-
brscing all tho ne;esssties OF life, III proper
ton as ordinarily used then the wages OF 1867
would bay only S421 pounds, in like proper
ton, and the wages OF 1872 woa u BAY only
buy 1866 pounds. That IS. tie workingmen
could buy one-eighth less. in quantities OF
things needed, with the higher wages CT 1867.
and nearly one-third less with the higher"
wages Of 1872, than with the wages OF 1860.
But they now buy, with GLOVER" wages,
over one-twelfth more than they could buy
with the wages OF 1860. In these few figures
Is given the meat of many elaborate Official re-
ports Cheap money actually cut down the
wages OF workingmen oue-sixth by 1867 and
)ne-third by 1872 No wonder the panic came
md yet some workingmen hope that cheap
money will give them higher wages again" {
Hard money has really raised the pay OF work
ngmsn, in the quantities of supplies which
wages will buy, more than one-thrd since 1872.
10 wonder the hope and energy OF labor arc !
low revvng. Yet there are some who want
n ore money and less bread. ,
This cutting down OF wages by cheap money,
is wen to see, is largely because Of the wider
zap which cheap money makes between retail
nd Wholesale prices. According to the records S
u The Journal OF Commerce, which embrace
Wholesale prices OF about sixty chief articles OF
commerce, the sum required at different times i
o buy like quantities Of them all would have c
zen 800, May 1, 1860; $1sa, May 1, 1867
'13S, May 1, 1872, and ssl, November 1, 1878. q
Sat the retail prices, as gathered from the re- I
orts above named, compare thus:
1860. 1867. 1879. 1878. =
Wholesale. 49,. 500 $3.50 313S0OIS s1.00 4