Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1879-09-18
How Money Cuts Down Wages.

experience SnOulu nave Taught them,
long ago, to look behind the number to
the real value of the dollars paid. 1t is
not in Flush times" as bank records
prove, that labor adds most to its sa-
wings. 1t is not at such times that
strikes are rars 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 workman 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 mis-
chief in all sharp changes. The cost of
living alters suddenly, but wages change
slowly. Sudden changes for the better
breed habits of extravaganza, as surely
as warm, moist weather starts weeds in
a neglected garden. With sudden chan
ges for the worse, labor is pinched, and
strikes, in which it loses both time and
savings, at once become frequent. How
can labor thrive, under the violent chan
ges which cheap money surely brings?
As well expect landsmen at sea to have
quiet stomachs during storm.
Would $1,000 a day in Confederate
notes be high wages? Of course not,
for the paper would buy nothing. Wa
ges do not mean bits Of paper, but bread
and meat, clothing and rent. Capital
lists can put away doubtful dollars 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 if
they buy little, wages are low, no matter
how many bits of paper called dollars
may be paid. High wages, in the true
sense. means wages that will buy a large
supply of the necess2ries of life. But
men who want cheap money want it on
purpose to make high prices, Gen. Ew-
ing for lands, coal and iron, and Solon
Chase for steers and hogs, beef, pork,
grain and vegetables. That is, they
want to cut down the wages of work
ingmen. Mr.. Chase finds fault because
from cattle such as his, workingmen get
steaks at 20 cents a pound, and wants to
go 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 to
escape loss. This is no theory. Expert
ence has been teaching the lesson for
seventeen years, that cheap money al
ways puts up prices more than wages,
and thus makes wages really smaller.
Official reports of the Labor Bureau of
Massachusetts, of the Hon. d. A. Wells
when United States Special Commits
sioner of the Revenue, and of the Bu-
| reau of Statistics on Labor in Europe
and America, give the facts in u vast
body. They prove, in brief, that wages
rose 90 per cent with imitation from 1850
to 1867, but retail prices rose 90 per cent.
After brief contraction, the imitation
continued until the crash in 1878, though
the paper dollar became more valuable
with Republican victories and the rising
credit of the nation. But in 1872 wages
were 3G15 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
2415 per cent higher than in 1860, while
retail prices are only 141@ per cent high
er. The meaning of these figures is this
II the wages paid in 1860 would buy 10,-
900 pounds of articles embracing all the
necessaries of life, in proportion as or
dinarily used, then the wages of 1867
would buy only S,421 pounds, in like
proportion, and the wages of 1872 would
buy only $3.50 pounds, while the wages
of 1879 would buy 1866 pounds. That
is, the wOrkingmen could buy One-eighth
Tess, in qantities of things needed, with
the "higher" wages of 1867, and nearly
One-third less with the "higher" wages OF
1871, than with the wages of 1860. But
they can now buy, with "lower" wages
over One-treLfh more than they could
buy with the wages Of 1860. In these
few figures is given the meat of many
elaborate official reports. Cheap money
actually cut down the wages of work,
ingmen one-sixth by 1867, and one-third
by 1872. No wonder the panic came.
And yet some wOrkingmen hope that
cheap money will give them "higher
wages again" Hard money has really
raised the pay Of workingmen, in the
quantities Of supplies which wages will
buy, more than one-third since 1872. No
wonder the hope and energy of labor are
reviving. Yet there are some who want
more money and less bread.
This cutting down of wages by cheap
money, it is we'll to see, is largely be-
cause of the wider gap which money
makes between retail and wholesale pri-
ceS. According to the records of The
Journal of Commerce, which embrace
wholesale prices of about sixty chief ar
ticles of commerce, the sum required at
different times to buy like quantities of
them all would have been 500, May 1,
1860: $3.50, May l, 1867; $13S, May 1,
1872, SS1, November 1, 1878. But the re-
tail prices, as gathered from the reports
above named, compare thus:
1860. 1867. 1872. 1878.
Wholesale 800 $3.50 S13s.OO $500
Retail go. 100 100 I96.OO 114.5O
Though the cost of articles fell 27 per
cent, from 1857 to 1872, the cost to the
buyers at retail actually increased. This
illustrates the exsreme difficulty of get
ting any reduction in retail prices, as