New-York tribune., 1879-09-02
THE A B G. OF FINANCE.
Kill.
HOW MORE MONEY CUTS DOWN WAGES.

HOW MORE MONEY CUTS DOWN WAGES.
The idea that cheap money brings high wages
deceives many laborcrs. Sharp experience should
have taught them. long ago, to look behind the
number 10 the real value of the dollars paid. 1t is
not in flush times" as bank records prove, that
labor add, most to its savings II il not at such
times that strikes and iaborers oontented.
Labor never really prospers. except when the cost
OF living is low, aud but little changed from month
20 month Then only can workmen get wages
enough TO meet their needs. and to leave them some
thing besides for 4 rainy day. Then only do care
aud thrift prevail For the workers. there is inev-
table mischief in all sharp changes. The cost OF
living alters suddenly. but wages change slowly
Sudden changes tor the better breed habits of ex-
travagance. surely warm, moist weather starts
weeds in g neglected garden With sudden changes
for the worse labor il pncbed and strikes in which
il loses both time and savings, at once become fro
quent. How can labor thrive. under the violent
changes which cheap money surely brings As well
expect andsmen at sea to have quiet stomachs dur
ing storm.
Would 81 900 a day in Confederate notes be high
wages OF course not, for the paper would buy
nothing. Wages do not mean bits of paper, bnt
bread and meat, clothing and rent Capitalists can
put away doubtful dollars in safe. and wait IN the
hope that they may become good. But laborers
have to use their dollars at in buying, and II
they buy little wages are low, no matter how many
bits of paper called dollars may be paid High wages
in the true sense. mean wages that VIII buy large
supply of the necessares of life. Bnt men who want
cheap money want it on purpose to make high
prices General Ewing 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 workngmen. Mr.. Chase finds fault be-
cause, from cattle such as his, workingmen get
steaks Mt 20 cents pound, and wants to go back
to cheap money. that they may have to pay 40
cents. With other things To match, that would re-
duce 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. Experience has been teaching the lesson
for seventeen years, that cheap money always 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 Commissioner of the Revenue.
and of the Bureau of Statistics on Labor in Europe
and America, give the facts in n vast body. They
prove in brief that wages 60 per cent with in
aton from 1860 to 1867, but retail prices rose 80
per cent After brief contraction the initiation con-
tinued until the crash in 1873 though the paper
dollar became more valuable with Republican We
tories aud the rising credit of the nation. Bat in
1872 wages were 3Gl2 per cent higher than IL 1850,
while retail prices nearly "a per cent higher.
Now have returned 10 the haru-montY OASIS.
But wages are 24l2 per cent higher than in 1860.
while retail prices are only 14l2 per cent higher.
The meaning of these figures is this II the wages
paid In 1850 would buy 10000 pounds of articles
embracing all the nocessares Of life, in proportion
as ordinarily used. then the Of s67 would
buy only s,i21 pounds. in like proportion, and the
wages of $40 would buy Only 0ssO pounds. while
the wages ot 1870 would buy 10, $50 pounds. That
is the workimgnen could buy Oa,-cighh less, in
quantities of things needed, with the higher"
wages of 1867. and nearly oae-ftird less with the
higher wages of 1872. than with the wages Of
1860 But they can now buy. with I" lower" wages.
over oaehccljth 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 workingmen
one-sixth by 1867, and one-third 10y 1872. No
wonder the panic came! And yet some working
men hope.that cheap money will give them higher
wages again." Hard money has really raised the
pay Of wOTkingmen, in the quantities of supplies
which wages will bug more than one-th,rd since
1872 No wonder the hope aud energy of labor are
now roviving. Yet there are some who want
money aud less bread.
This cutting down of wages by cheap money, il is
well TO see, is largely because of the wider gap
which cheap money makes between retail aud
wholesale prices. According to the records Of Inc
JOMrEel Of Commerce, which embrace wholesale prices
OF about sixty chief articles of commerce, the sum
required mt different times to buy like quantities of
them all would have been 500, May /, 1850;
TlS9, May /, 1867; $13S May l. 1872, and ISL,
November l. 1873 But the retail prices as gathered
from the reports above named. compare thus: