The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-01-02
B AND PRODUCT.
Why the Wages of the First Increase
and the Prices of the Latter Decline.

why Tie wages vi Tile flfSt lncfedSe
and the Prices of the Latter Decline.
To the Editor of the indianapolis Journal:
Public reports and general observation
are in uniform support Of the fact that
wages have increased for very many years.
There is more than one factor entering into
the reason for this, for it is true in other
countries as we'll as In this. Statistical and
historical statements go to show that about
as general intelligence has increased, or IL
literacy decreased. and equality before the
law has increased, so have wages increased.
Applying this test to Great Britain, 1t has
been seen that as fliteracy has diminished
the franchise has been broadened, and this
has been followed by better wages, because
it involved a better citizenship. We have a
very marked illustration of this truth in the
United States. Before the abolition of slav-
cry the wages Of labor in fifteen States was
not quotable; was merely maintenance.
Since that date, and under wider privileges,
demanding better citizenship, there is a
wage standard, lower thar in the old free
States, it is true. because here illiteracy is
far less and the privileges of citizenship
broader and freer. But under the new or
der the colored man, now free and entitled
- w LII. ID ny Ills DCIIC MoSOo (SAA
ulating beyond Immediate necessity. IheSe
factors of higher intelligence, broadening
citizenship and increasing wages go along
together in every country in a degree ana
to a given extent. The United States has
the smallest illiteracy, the widest dlffused
intelligence and the broadest privileges OF
citizenship of any nation on earth, and here
WAGES are highest. 1t is the high privi-
leges Of citizenship which lie at the bottom
of the highest wages. The former cannot
exist without the latter, no more than a
great ocean ship can make twenty knots
an hour without great boilers and engines
The question which logically follows is, will
it pay to maintain this kind of civilization?
Shall we hold ON to the plane of our citizen
ship? If so, the first fact that eonfronts
standard can do 1t. We have grown away
from any known standard of wages but our
own, just because we have outStripped the
world in the broadness OF our privileges OF
Consider for a moment these matters
somewhat In the concrete. Under the meth
grown. Intellectually, he mas grown TILL mere
primary things will not satisfy. Socially, he
has grown till the log cabin OF rural life
and the novel in the city alley Will not hold
him. A sense of need, of broader. and freer,
and fuller life has come TO him, and his de-
mands have expanded. There he stands, the
for turning him back Is past. General edu-
cation. the press, the ballot, ownership OF
property have taught him his power: Who no
worse for the failure to do 50. Whatever
attempt at combination of movement, by
eommr an or parry 1T ,e %nie eno HNee not i co ont
the fault of this new citizen. What can come
Of an attempt by law to squeeze him back
into his chrysalis state he may De Iorceo
he is now quietly and peacefully doing. That
Is simply proof of his splendid citizenship.
moral nor Sense ~ and has the high impulse of a
citizenship under law. He bideS his time and
suffers. The humanity. and fraternity, and
lot in this same citizenship, and able TO help
him, stir them to divide. They know tina
his skill and industry are constrained under
threats to drive him to compete with an
! other kind of a man, another kind of civil
~ization, and to drive capital out OF produc'
tive industry In some countries despair
comes 10 the wage earnerS. Not 50 here, fol
he is a citizen and we'll clothed with all the
powers OF one. He knows here that In q
few months after the threatened blow may
fall, which he already feels so keenly the
! day of reckoning will come, and the ship OF
state will right itself with his help, and his
type of citizenship be again INDICATED.
Tariffs, and the development or our nome
markets., and the embargo put upon the for
eign industries which seek them. are SIM
ply the necessary incidents of the prime
| factors already named. We enact these to
maintain the standard of citizenship we
| have built up. The latter compels it. This
is both historically and logically true. LIZ
| over one hundred years of our existence We
have not been a dozen without such tariffs
We are impelled to it as much now as ever
\ because our SIanQdTu Is duFdlClhS. IlON
well we are getting on is seen In the fac
that our home trade has attained to $50
900, 100000 annually, whereas the increase o.
| AS we approach symmetrical development
Of all our industries, and as the one be
comes the complement of the other her, an y
all industrial disturbance abroad, while w
remain under the American system.
Why prices of products decline is a fal
smaller question, and easier of answer
Competition and larger transactions are tn
factors in the main. OF course, labor-savins
machinery has at times entered largely int
this. But what shall be said of the fact tina
steel rails were made with the same labor
saving appliances and processes and sol
at $50 per ton and at $50 per ton? Obvious
ly, the profit was greater at $50 than at $50
This is all that can be said of such facts
Profits are always large where there is m
competition. In two or three periods Q
American history, when home. capital at
tempted to offer competition in this an
other industries, the larger concerns o
Great Britain put their products on on
markets at low prices and crushed out tn
home attempts at competition. History re
on these foreign productions which gave tn
certainty of home markets. Prices -wer
higher at first. But this protection led othe
capital into the industries. Competition
grew, larger transactions grew, and in tn
course of time steel rails went down to SCI
then $40, then $50 per ton, and wooden an
cotton goods went down one-half, to one
third, to one-quarter former prices. AN
so with everything else. Composition an
larger transactions were among the chic
factors of this result.
Now, we have spent about one hundre
years in the development of an intelligent
self-governing citizenship, which has NOR
perfectly than w IN else worked on
the problems of increased wages and de
creased prices of products. We have S
evenly developed these industries entering
into the tremendous domestic trade O
$50, 900, 900, 900 annually, that a single domes
tic disturbance at any point is felt by al
The threatened changes by the pendin
tariff policy at so many points, and SO rad
ically, have called such a halt as to GU
off all wages of hundreds of thousands
In turn, these. without pay, cannot buy tn
products, and so Stagnation prevails i
domestic trade. 1t is proposed to reyers
the order of our development. How tn
increase of wages and lowering of price
can go on under 1t is hard to see. Diver
sity of industry increased the jobs for tn
laborers, and made a supply for every de
mand, and kept up fair pay.
one fact more fully noted now than eve
before is that the building trades and all O
the unprotected industries. as well as tn
protected, are in the same condition, nearl
alike, affected by the threatened disturb
ance. These things illustrate how closet
ell industry and m is linked to
gether in one bond-how the disturbance c
one touches and affects all. No one ca
charge any OF this trouble on the Qualit
of the currency, or the amount of 1T. w
have a larger volume than ever before
and every dollar passes at par in ever
quarter OF the Nation.