The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-04
some Fact. for the Chronicle.

D
I in discussing II. Did II never occur to the
/ Chronicle that the ignorance and unfair
ness might be found nearer hcme? We
throw out. this suggestion. not that we
wish 10 insinuate that the Chron-
icle is either unfair or ig-
. norant. but as a reminder that the
use Of such terms shows an irritation that
does not usually accompany success in
a controversy. nor does it leave the i'm
preston that those who use the terms
are on the right side Of the question I'M
der consideration. In an article we pub
lished day or two ago. in reply 20 some
thing that appeared in the Chronicle, We
said:
a dollar to-day will not purchase more
labor than 10 did twenty or forty years
ago. nor viii it purchase more corn, or
beef or pork or lard and a vast variety
Of other articles. There are some arti-
Giles that are cheaper now, but il is easy
to explain why they are cheaper without
any reference to silver
To the foregoing the Chronicle says:
We challenge the News TO produce the
authority in support OF its claim that
dollar buys no more to-day of labor and
the products OF labor than IL did twenty
years ago.
II will be noticed. of course. that We
have made no claim that a dollar buys
no more to-day of labor and the prod
ucts of labor than it did twenty years
ago" If the Chronicle is anxious to get
the truth before the people it viii quote
us correctly in anything it may have
to say on this subject in future. What
we did say was this. namely. that a dol
lar will purchase no more labor to-day
than II did twenty or forty years ago,
nor will it purchase more corn. or beef or
pork or lard. and a great many other
articles This is a vastly different state
ment from that attributed to us by the
Chronicle. We are well aware that there
has been a fall in the prices of many
products Of human labor, and there are
has been. but there has been no fall in
the price of labor. nor in the prices of the
articles which We mentioned We are
inclined to think that it is the Chroni-
gets it into trouble. Now, for our author
ity for the price Of labor: We quote from
a report Of the United States Senate
committee on finance, submitted March
3, 1893 1t is unnecessary to go into AL the
details furnished by that committee in its
report, but the conclusion the commit
tee arrived at was that starting from
1860 as a basis and taking the average of
54S distinct series of quotations, of twenty
one general classes of Industries, the wages
of labor, measured in gold, have risen COT
per cent. while the prices of things which
the labor buys. embracing food, clothing
and fuel, etc, have fallen rs per cent.
From this it appears that between 1860 and
1891 the purchasing power of a days la
Dor increased nearly 10 per cent. Is there
anything wrong with the foregoing fig
ures? If there is not. will the Chronicle
admit we are right in saying that dollar
will purchase no more labor to-day than
it did twenty or forty years ago? In fact,
it will not purchase anywhere near as
much, because from the figures given
above, the price of labor between 1860 and
1891 rose more than 60 per cent. and,
this. too, in spite of the fact that silver
was demonetized. In this connection it
might be well to inquire of the Chronicle
why. If gold has appreciated so much. the
price of labor has advanced so greatly
instead of declining.
Now, as to the prices of the products to
which we called attention. We said a
dollar would not purchase at this time
more corn or pork or beef or lard than it
would twenty or forty years ago. We
haven't the figures for beef or
lard of so long ago but we
hardly think, in view of the cry about
the high price of beef. that there is any
question about the prices of beef and lard
being as high as they were twenty or
forty years ago. Let us see about the
price of corn and pork, two staple farm
products Of great value From the Stats
teal abstract of the United States for
1894, we find that in 1873, in gold, the av-
tIdSS pilCt u COfli was fl0 cents per
bushel and the price of pork $l4,14 per
barrel. In 1894, the last year for which
the table furnishes prices, the average
price of corn was 45.7 cents per busheI and
the price of pork was Sl4.1S per barrel. On
May 1. in Chicago corn was a little
higher than the figures quoted for 1894,
and the price of pork a little lower
We think we have met the Chronicles
challenge squarely and sustained our po-
sition. We hope the Chronicle will not
think us either ignorant or unfair if we
ask another question, namely, doesn't the
Chronicle think it ought to brush up
on it's facts a little?
A Richmond correspondent of the New
Orleans Times-Democrat denies in that
paper the report that the Confederate
white house in Richmond is used as
school house. Some two years or more