Saturday press. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1880-1885, 1885-01-10
pRUrTyYJTH TfEyyy.

nY noN - -cAsflt

5 "s fffT ann ffsetbefft fHsf "UH Ifes=
sm. rnbite aud Personal
nv uos, 5. y. cAsttr.
Much has been said and written of
I late of the hard times A cyclone OF
commercial disaster has swept over the
world, d,eauying ruin in It's course to insti
tutons and houses supposed to be be
yond the reach OF disaster and scarcely
mail arrives but brings us intelligence
of new failures unlocked fot, and often
reaching into the millions of in.
dusrics suspended and thousands
thrown out OF employment and OF suffer
ingand want 1t seems strange, ,paradoyi
cal, that this state of things should
seem to grow out OF the great abund
ancc and low prices of every thing cs.
senlial to the comfort Of lie. The earth
has brought forth It's products in such
abundance, and the manufactures also,
during the past period Of prosperity,
have turned out their goods so abund-
antly,-that every market is overstocked
and prices forced so low that It is loss
and perhaps ruin to the producer He
is compelled to cut down or stop his
production and IN so doing has to dis
miss or diminish his working force. And
so, in the midst of plenty, and with
prices at the lowest ebb, and with super.
abounding wealth, mutltudcs are made
to suffer because they can find nothing
to do
Horace Greeley said, a generation
ago, when on committee for the re.
lief Of the destitute in New York City,
that those who had, had abundance; but
there was nothing more distressing than
to see man in the strength Of his man
hood, too proud to ask aims, suffer,
weep even, because he could find moth
ing to do to earn what he must have to
support life. recently read of a man
in the city of Dayton, Ohio, in the
midst of abundance who died Of starva-
ton, because he could get nothing to
do, and his destitution was not suspected
until it was too late Wheat, it has
been said,has not been so low in hun.
dJed years in Great Britain as it is now
but in referring to figures the average
for 1880 was $r.o8 per bushel, the price
now is $i.o2 per bushel. Yet, as Q
matter of fact, it is doubtful if all the
articles which 60 to make up the nee
essaries and comforts and luxuries o
life in food and clothing and housing
were ever as cheap in the history Of tn,
world as they are to day
ColW. NJ Grosvenor says Of aNartitle
eonsamed$ic2 20 will buyas much toda,
as $raa.a3 would buy in 1860 or a diff
ference of $40. SO per cent in favor o
the present time Yet labor receive!
larger wages in money (2S. SO per cent
than were paid for the same in 1860
Thus the worker is helped at both ends
He gets more for the labor he has to
sell, and pays less money for the thing.
he has to buy. U, S. Senator George
of Mississippi, says that having FIRE
quen,ly found his objections TO the mod
ern increase of official salaries met b,
the broad assertion that it cost three
times as much to live as it did whcr
the government was founded, he de
termned to find out exactly how far i
was true. He delved amongst the book
ofthe congressional library and the con
clusion reached was that all the substan
tials offood, fuel, clothing, etc. ,weredeare
fromI7e5 to 1885 than since then, ,excep
rent in large cities. Since 1860 the
Average advance in wages in the Unitee
States has been IS. 60 per cent and tht
acreage decline in the cost Of all thu
necessaries Of life, Io. 81 per cent
These figures represent the acreage 0
adDan6s in wages from the reports o
Carol D.Wright, the statistician of labo
, of Massachusetts. And the aeeline il
the cost Of all articles of living are taker
from the tables published in connec
ton with the late speech of Col. w. M
Grosvenor before the Union League o
Philadelphia. The articles of livelihood
represented in the tables are ITO ii
number and embrace, apparently, ever.
conceivable thing required for man!
necessities, and while few, such a
meat, spirits and tobacco, are littl,
higher now than in 1860. The aoeyag
cost Of the a,hole is now 1897 per cen
less than in the United States. So tina
the laborer or salaricd man receiving
: a8. 36 per cent more for his work ha
! about 20 per cent less to pay for th'
same necessaries than he paid in 1860
The advance of wages added to the de
cline of prices will enable the receive
who lived up to his wages then and no1c
to live 48 per cent more expensivel
a nozO than then. If these statistics, whlc
e appear reliable, are SO. the plea, SO oi
, ten made for increased compensation
on account of increased expenses, fo
the same articles Of necessity, is fallacious
!, But it is no doubt true that as mean
e increase, and prices decline, we indulg
S more freely in those comforts OF which
with less means and higher prices, "
, have felt obliged to deny ourselves, an
= habit becomes necessity. When aG
l. versity comes we find it hard to go bac
to the necessities Of life, to which W
were shut up before our more prosper
n Gus days, which perhaps were more simpl
(, but stillample for vigoroushealth withou
luxury. The tendency Of all men is t
> live up to their income lift be moderat
and to keep out Of debt; so when III
!. income is small, we forego luxuries. A
s il increases we indulge in them accore
= ing to our ability, and We accept III
: assertion that "it costs more to live
y without asking why; to find that Il "
{ lived as simply as We did before our il
e come was increased it might cost eve
S less than it did then.
/. The expense is greater now not b.
cause the necessaries Of life are highe
but because we live more luxuriousl,
. The laborer, the skilled artisan and Ii
e clerk, who lived comfortably on the
a eala v,ae In ,Qh<, An mot cave anvth,r -