New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-06-19
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lGES OF CAPITAL.

The bids for bonds of the City OF New 0rk,
orencd on Thursday. amounted to %l3,-
500, 900, though the city wanted only
SO. OOO. 900. The rate of interest offered was
only per cent, and yet, 1T appears, nearly
seven times the amount of money wanted was
offered to the city. and the premium bid Tor the
bonds ranging from l to GIG per cent was in
effect an offer to lend the money at less than j
per cent. Thus the arrangement is an excellent
one for the city, and shows that its credit
stands high. but it has at the same time a
broader meaning which should not be over
looked.
The workingmen and socialistic theorists
ought not to pass unconsldered TINS evidence
that capital is getting very small returns. ii
they will open their eyes, they will realize In
the light of these transactions how the COM
petition of capital ia steadily reducing the
wages of capital here as in other countries.
Only few days ago the French GOvernmen
opened bids for a new loan. and 1t appeared
that the amount of money offered to the Gov
eminent was forty or fifty times the amount
wanted. But the change in the rate OF interest
in this country has been greater than any where
else. All remember that twenty years ago the
Government borrowed at 7.30 per cent, and
twenty five years ago, when the last Democratic
President WAS about to go out OF office, money
could not be borrowed at any rate. mat may
he attributed to the disturbed political con-
dition of the country, but before the war, IN
times of peace and prosperity, the rate OF IN
terest was rarely below per cent Now SIX
and three quarters times the amount OF money
wanted by the City of NcwYork is offered to
the city by capitalists at less than 3 per cent.
TINS it appears that the wages OF capital nave
fallen during the past twenty-five years over
80 per cent and. reckoning since the close OF
The war; about GO per cent. But have wages oil
labor also declined On the contrary, every
body knows that the wages of labor have
largely advanced, in all parts of the country
and in all branches of industry. Disputes there
are as to the rate of advance IN some branches
of industry and in some States it has been higher
than in others. But beyond dispute the adj
vance in wages generally has been at least 20
per cent.
Nor is this ALL The purchasing power of the
dollar paid has largely increased SD that every
dollar received in wages is worth more than IT
was in 1866 or 1850. 1t is estimated by COM
petent statisticans that the increase in the pur-
chasing power of money since 1850 has been
fully 20 per cent that is, the worker who gets
81 day can buy just as much of the comforts
and necessaries OF life with that money as ht
could have bought in 1850 with 81 20. But
instead of receiving 81 in 1860 the worker
now receives 81 20 at the least Such has
been the gain to the working people. On the
other hand the returns for capital invested
bove heen rnducpd nv connection more than
80 per cent Yet there are theorists who COM
plain, even in these days, that capital is " eat
ing up all that the country produces; that
labor does not get its fair share; and that some
sort of social ovcrtlrning is inevitable.