The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1893-05-21
AN ILLUSTRATION OF HOW DEBAsED
MONEY INJURIES WAGES.

MONEY INJURIES WAGES.
We had an article In yesterdays issue
which aimed at showing those who work
| for hire and wages that II they stand by
and see our currency degraded TO the
| condition OF a sixty-nve-cent silver collar,
the only effect of It. so far as they are
concerned, would be that they would have
10 pay nearly double what they now pay
for all that they buy, while their own
wages would remain just where they are,
because. when the currency becomes de-
based. by the universal experience Of
mankind, wages for labor are the last
thing 20 respond in the way Of increase.
Since that article was Published we have
met with the recent annual report Of
President Reynolds. Of the Mexican Cen
trail railroad. which contains this SEN
tence
''The cost Of labor In the country being
no greater now than when silver was
worth a much higher price, the natural
result will be that agricultural and other
nroductions available for export Will be
very largely increased, as articles eX-
ported. producing the same price In gold,
viii bring a larger equivalent in silver
into the country than If the price Of silver
were higher"
Mexico is silver basis country.
This. then, is a practical demonstration
of what we yesterday said. Silver has
so depreciated that agricultural products
bring much higher nominal prices than
they did before the fall in the value Of
silver took place. But the wages
Of laborers remain the same. They
must receive the same pay, but
that nav buys them much less
of what they need. Everything else has
advanced in price, but labor remains
where It was She farmer, however, VIII
think he sees in this passage reasons
why he should be for free silver. lie
will say It means that with free silver his
crops will bring him more than they now
bring him. This is probably true. But OF
what advantage will the increase be 10
him? Everything that he will have 70
buy will be rateably raised, so that the
increased price which he gets for his
wheat will buy him no more than the
present gold price which he receives 1or
IL. He will have more things Of greater
weight than gold dollars in his pockets
that he calls dollars but he will not be
able TO buy any more yards Of cloth, or
tons of fertilizer than he can with the
gold dollars that his crop will now bring
him. Take one Mexican farmer that Mr.
Reynolds speaks Of, for illustration. He
sends his hides to New York and gets
1000 gold dollars for them. These he
takes to Mexico and sells for 1900 silver
dollars, so that he has 800 silver dollars
more for his hides than he would have
had if the old relation between gold and
silver had been maintained. and he had
sold them in New York for 1000 silver
dollars and brought those silver dollars
back to Mexico. But the same cause that
has operated to make him apparently
get 800 dollars more for his hides than
they are really worth has operated TO
make all other persons seek to get the
same advance on all that they possess.
The Mexican farmer has possessed him
self Of these 1900 silver dollars for some
purpose. He intends to buy something
with them. When he goes into a shop
+ to buy something that his family needs
he finds the price Of the article advanced
about fifty per cent, TO keep pace with
the advance which he has got on his
hides. The merchant tells him that II
hides bring fifty per cent. more than they
used 10 so ought seUine-r1a chimes to no
advanced fifty per cent, since the money
that he must take for his. sewing-ma-
chimes will buy him only two-thirds as
much as it formerly did. The farmer
must see. therefore, that the whole bust
ness is nothing but a piece Of jugglery,
in which the managers are pretending
that they can make something out of
nothing, which his common sense ought
TO teach him is an impossibility.