The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1895-08-25
Telephone No. CO
ro1LpRs OF FIFTY YEARS AGO.

A book entitled Labor and Other
Capital" by Edward Kellogg, was pub
lished in the winter of 13iS-49 In New
York City It is interesting for its state
ments of the conditions prevailing in
the eastern states about half century
poor, as class. did not obtain oven
competence. They did not receive their
share of production and the wealth was
not distributed In accordance with either
the physical or the mental usefulness of
those who obtained 1t. The wealth OF
this nation was rapidly accumulating in
the hands OF a comparatively few per-
sons in our large cities The author
estimated that $4,000 men in the United
States owned as much real and personal
property as did all the rest of the 80
millions OF people, they and their families
constituting but one In forty Of the en-
tire population. He complained that
there was usually an apparent overstock
OF goods and products for which there
Was no ready market, houses that would
not sell or rent manufactured goods ly-
Ing in the stores and which could not
be sold for the cost OF making, and labor
out of employment. Increased facility Of
production by the labor saving machines
that had been introduced since the be-
ginning OF the century seemed to increase
the number and multiply the wants of
those who lived in idle luxury instead
OF affording the desired relief to actual
producers. And much IL not most OF
this trouble is stated to have been due
to the lack Of u good money system.
The unfair distribution of wealth Is
caused by an unjust legal standard OF
distribution. and distribution is regulated
and effected by the standard OF value,
which is money"
II may be observed that these plants
about money were made at time when,
according to the free silver extremists OF
today, the people OF the United States
were enjoying all the benefits Of free
coinage, with the silver dollar as the I'M
disputed currency unit. But Mr.. Kel-
logg thought he saw the imperative necos.
sIty of doing something ito prevent capl-
tai from taking too large a proportion
OF the products OF labor" He sought
to justify his position by drawing a
picture of the misery and injustice rre-
vailing in his day, and IL that picture
was no an exaggerated one the conditions
OF the classes who were willing to work
for wages half century ago was much
worse than anything that has oesn a~-
perienced in the last ten years or the
last twenty-five years. So his book sup
ports the deduction from statistics that
things have grown better since ne wrote
instead OF getting worse.
Kellogg reasoned that reduction OF
the rates Of interest for the use OF money
would cure most OF the evils he piceured
in his book. That reduction has been
effected. But It is interesting to note
that the change has come about In
very different way from that proposed by
him. and that his plan contained no enS
couragement to the free silverites of to-
day He wanted the money of the coun-
try to be paper, based on land, and tried
to prove by the following line of argu-
ment that he could dispense with both
gold and silver: III coins of base metal
were endowed BY law with the properties
OF money-that is were made representa-
tives Of actual value, capable OF aceumu-
lating interest and public tender for
debts-they would answer every purpose
OF money equally well with coins of
pure metal. They could represent meas
ure, accumulate. and exchange property,
and these are the sole properties and use
OF money Therefore they would be
money" He adds that these powers
given to any convenient material by con-
gresslonal enactment viii qualify It for
a medium OF exchange. and sin every
particular constitute 1t money"
These vagaries compare well with those
put forth in the present day by agitators
for nat paper currency and debased
silver monometallism which is wanted by
the Populists only as a halfway step to the
aat paper they claim TO believe would be
panacea for all the financial Ills that
afEllct the body polite and the great
mass OF the individuals who compose it,
But there Is this important difference.
The world should be wiser now than It
was when Kcllogg wrote. AS whole
Il Is so. but the fellows who prate near
the close OF this century that free silver
and aat paper would make people rich.
and fnlsIfy statements about fact TO
prove the necessity OF the change. are
no wiser than he. while they cannot
plead that they live IN the times of ignor-
afce which God once toverloolcnd