The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1879-05-31
SELECT LITERATURE.
LABOR AND THE NATURAL FORCES
coNCLUDED

BT CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN.
Fi"m IL" .1tI"nt;c Moat'ig.
PRECIOUS METALS.
III 1850 the amount of bank notes and
under six dollars per capita of population
There lad been no great increase of tn,
precious metals for many years. The mines
OF Mexico and Peru still yielded silver and
gold. as they had for three centuries, but III
1919 came the discovery of gold in Calitol-
MIA, then in Australia, together with tic
opening mp of the argentiferous deposits oi
Nevada, Colorado New Mexico, Arizona,
Idaho, and Montana. The vast production
of what in every age has been accepted us
the representative OF wealth i'll a short time
brought about Il universal change OF values.
The price of Il days labor, the product OF
labor, the value of all material things, de-
gan to change the world over
| do not SAY that the rise added anything
to the real wealth. labor alone does that:
the change was relative, but it had the
effect of stimulating men, in the race for
riches, to make larger promises than they
could keep. In all countries there was Il
mania for speculation.
In this country, in 1860, there came the
outbreak of civil VIII, followed by the issue
hy the government of several billions OF
promises to pay. not to mention the prom
iSes issued by States, municipalities bank
ing institutions, and individuals Labor
and capital and machinery were producing
largely, hut the real wealth was becoming
fixed capital in railroads, manufactures,
buildings of all kinds: and it was diSap-
peariny i'll the waste of war Never before
i'll the worlds history had there been such Il
rapid accumulation of wealth: never before
had the products OF labor been so rapidly
Transformed into fixed capital, or annihi-
lated by war and the progress of invention.
In the rise of values, in the wish to accrlmu-
late wealth, we mortgaged cur prospective
earnings for a long period of years The
circulation of grcenbackS and national bank
notes advanced from less than six dollars
per capita in 1880 to more than eighteen per
capita i'll 1876 We built railroads where
they were not needed and from which we
could not hope for any immediate returns,
and for the time being the amount of capt.
tai thus invested became extinct: we laid
ont towns in the wilderness and marked up
the house lots to fabulous prices, upon
which we issued promises to pay; multi
tubes, instead of producing, gave their at
tention to creatin. fictitious values, upon
which they issued more promises to pay:
the nation, States, counties, towns, corpora
tionS, societies, churches, individuals, al!
ISSUED promises to pay. \ piece of land
which before the construction of railroad
was utterly valueless was sold perhaps Il
dozen times, each purchaser giving his
promise tn pay. We bought pictures, horses,
books, pianos, things delightful to have and
paid for them in promises to pay, but they
were all unproductive fixed capital
So long as We could meet our notes by is
suing more promises, there was fair sailing,
and we all con. r:ttulated ourselves upon
the good times we We're having, tlattering
ourselves that we We're getting rich, losing
sight of the fact that everything i'll the uni
verse l., under the domain OF physical law,
and that those laws which govern human
progress and are powerful to baild u III {
equally powerful to destroy. But there
came day when Il firm that hal issued
MANY bonds found itself unable to meet it,
promises, and society, which had been one
rrand mutual confidence association, was
seized with 4 panic. Cur nci-hhorS asked
us to secure Cur notes: we asked them t.
secure theirs: and we all discovered tina,
what We thought good security was worth
less Machinery stopped, because ther,
were no BUYERS for manufactured goods: the
laborer was thrown ont of employment and
:!i,, capitalist into bankruptcy. The labor
or, who had lived up to the limit OF thell
earnings were distressed: those who had
saved their earnings and invested i'll house:
and lands, Which had been marked up il
value. who had paid in part saw their pro
perty disappear like the baSclcss fabric q
Il vision" Then came the clearing away %
the wreck, the stern DEGREES Of the courts o
insolvency, the wiping out of the fictitious
the breaking up of happy homes, "A iookin:
about to find some employment where mel
| might earn their daily bread. 1t Is one o
the s:,,ldcst picture; Of the Einetecnth cen
| turv 1t is not local. from the fact that tn
ca1,s,s We're not local, but universal. The
origin lies far back in the forces Of natul
| and OF human nature,-in the powers of til
new civilization | would not he un,le
stood rs maintaining that the war had nc
thing to do with the present trouble: it ha'
its effect, for il stimulated cotton culture il
India, Egypt, and South America; it st"l
pel the machinery of Lancashire, and start
ed it again, with a great addition of looms
it set boundaries and furnaces in blast i
Great Britain and i'll this country; it swel
American commerce from the ocean, an
| contributed to make Great Britain til
worlds carrier, manufacturer, and banker
The surrender at ArpoinattoN was felt j
every commercial centre, in every bankin
hous,, in the world; Int it is morally certai
that if there hal been no war IN this com
try there would have been, >cuncr or late
a commercial disturbance the world owe
with distress everywhere. The preset
trouble has been brought about through
disregard of the physical laws that underl
progress. There has been commercial sta
nation 1T other periods i'll the past, as the
will be in the future, but it is not prohah
thlt for many years there will be depre
sion so prolonged, intense, and universal ;
that which began in this country in lsI
, and which is now so severe in other land
for like conditions will not exist in the il
mediate future.
THE EARNINGS OF LABOR.
Amid the wreck and ruin there are col
ulaint, that the rich are growing richer Al
the poor poorer: that the laborer has
harder time than ever before. AT the bcgi
ming of this article | contrastcd the havin
of the present and past; now lei us CLAN
, mt th, earnings of laborcrS. Without pc
picking the reader with long columns
L figures | will simply state the results,
| set forth most concluSivcly i'll the late repc
of Colonel Carroll ID. Wright, chief of t
;. | Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics, III viii
:. he shows that while the average cost of Ii
inc has advanced fourteen per cent sin
1860, the wages of operatives have ;,dvanc
e.. twenty-tour per cent.
:, may further say that the books OF
manufacturing company III New lers'
that supplies its operatives with goods
cost, show that in all the staple articles
, IL -. li,.in,Lr IL. finn