Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-12-07
MANNING'S REPORT.
Silver and the Tariff Dis
cussed.
THE FREE COINAGE OF SILVER.
Reduction of the Old War Times
Taxes Earnestly
Advised.

Especial to the Hearld by the Associated Press
WASHINGTON, December 6.-The re-
port of Daniel Manning, Secretary Of
the Treasury, is devoted very largely to
the consideration of the silver question,
one-half of the printed report being
given up to it. The Secretary argues
against the coinage, and says: "To stop
the purchase of silvor is our only choice,
our duty and our interest. 1t will stop
a wasteful and injurious expense and
the taxation which defrays it. 1t will
commence and promote reform in the
sum and methods of Federal taxation.
1t will recover to the United States an
equality of postion-the non.coinage
with foreign powers, which will give US
due influence in negotiation. 1t will in
duce negotiation. and negotiation to the
end of relief, and not for the purpose of
delay"
He continues on this point: "If to
manufacture and store or distrib.
ute the coin of deprecated metal
could stop its depreciation or relieve the
depression of trade, or improve the
money circulation or call out into use
for the employment of labor more of
the tenable capital or arrest the drop in
price the the treasury trouble and tax
burden would have. some offset, but it
dots the reverse. 1t inspires the own
ers, borrowers and employers of capital
who organize work for workingmen to
do so with an utterly incurable distrust.
1t is reasonable distrust which every
man who has earned and saved five dol
lars that he would like to employ or
loan, as capital knows as well as those
who have saved thousands of dollars
from their earnings. Every wage earn
er too knows as well as they that silver
initiation has not stimulated and
does not stimulate industry or trade.
Silver has never been as low as
this year, AZ pence. although the
Treasury has bought and stamped $780,
100000 of it in the last eight years.
Prices of all commodities range lower
than in any previous year of the nine
teenth century"
He finally says: eff the law was re.
pealed which makes compulsory treas
ury purchases of silver, and if that re-
peal was accompanied by a declaration
of Congress that the United States now
mold themselves in readiness to unite
with France, Germany and Great Britain
in opening their mints to the free coinage
ofssilver and gold at rates fixed by inter.
national agreement, it is the deliberate
judgement of the undersigned that
before the expiration of an
other fiscal year this international
monetary location might be corrected
by such international concurrence the
two monetary metals restored to their
old and universal function and the
standard measure of prices for the
worlds commodities the depression of
trade and industry be relieved and gen.
eral prosperity renewed. Besides the
repeal of the Silver Purchase act he
urges, the repeal of the act for the COM
pulsory part of redemption of the issue
and reissue of legal tender notes coin
not promises is fit for legal tender.
The tariff on raw materials is attacked
by the Secretary, who says the field of
Federal taxes is lind, not incomes,
but things here consumed. With in
land and seaport collections of taxes is
the declaration of principles in relation
to taxation and protection is not at.
tackled. Where trade is free as within
all the ununited States of Europe as it
is among the United States of America,
the great surplus products of our indus
try, including the manufactures, would
have the pick of foreign markets, for
the reason that our labor, being most
highly p,id, and insuring the very
largest. percentage of labor the cost
would everywhere surpass our rivals.
Great Britain would follow next, for
next to our laborer hers is the highest
paid, therefore the next in effecting, by
a low: percentage of labor cost of
her chief products. France and Ger
many would follow next and command
the unsupplied markets, and last of all,
at the foot of the list and quite unable
to compete with single rival in what
ever that rival choose to produce,
would come the pauper labor of Europe
aud Asia. Low wages of pauper labor
signify the least efficiency, which is but
another name for the highest percentage
of labor cost in the product.
Other things being equal it is
obvious that high wages can never be
paid unless it is profitable to pay them,
and it can only be good business to pay
the highest wages, because the efficiency
of those who earn them vindicates its
superiority by the reduction of labor
cost in the product. High wages to la
Dor and cheaper products are correlative
terms. Low wages to labor and costlier
product are correlative terms. One i'm.
plies the other Whenever labor com.
petes with labor upon otherwise equal
ground what pauper stands any chance
of competing with intelligent artisans?
The "pauper labor of Europe"
cry is bugaboo except that in truth
our war tariff taxes favor "pauper
labor" at the expense OF American labor.
Its products are not fenced out by our
tariff laws, they come in because we our
selves destroy our own easy power of
competition, even in our home market
by tariff taxes on raw material. We
fence in our own surplus products, max
ing them cost too much to compete at
home and of course too much to compete
abroad with manufactures from untaxed
81