Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1895-02-02
Cute, but FalIaciOuS,


protection" fallacies:
The News undoubtedly ought to be listed
among those papers that believe, for instance
that miner can buy more So flour with an
income of 80 cents a ton than of SO flour at
40 cents.-JoURNAL.
To meet which it says
Now let us indulge in little calculation for
the benefit of the paper that is not always
great, and see if miner cannot better afford
to buy So flour at an income of 80 cents a ton
than 50 flour at 40 cents
At 80 cents ton, supposine him to work
26 days, loading cars each day, he would
have S52 for the months work. Deduct So
for barrel of flour would leave him S47
Now suppose that he works the same num-
Der of days and loads the same number of
cars in the month at 40 cents a ton. He
would have S4l60 for the months work.
Now deduct 50 for barrel of flour and he
would have $500 left. Is it not quite clear
that he can better afford to pay So for
barrel of flour when receiving 80 cents ton
for mining than So when only receiving 10
cents?
According to the democratic theory, which
is the JOURNALS, he is better off with So
barrel of flour in the house and $40 less in
his pocket than he could possibly be with
So barrel in the house, and that much more
money at command. Like all the JOURNALS
illustration, and its absurdity is apparent.
The critical reader has probably
noticed that Cd it takes 6oom in mining
to produce the result the Ne,cs figures
out (2) that it overlooks the fact that
whether mining be active or sluggish,
the quantity of flour, irrespective of its
cost, needed by the miner, is regular
and indispensable, and CD that the JOUR
NAL was not writing so much of sacing
money as of the miners ability to buy
more flour.
And, although the JOURNAL was
speaking of flour, it was only as a type
of the several commodities necessary
to good living. the start of the con.
troversy originating in ''clothing IS
per cent. below Mckinley prices"
which the Ners derided Flour was
then selected, because that article is
already selling at an average of at
least 40 per cent. below normal rates-a
fact which the Neeos could not chaff.
So that we may admit the boom and
It's result, both for the miner and
farmer, but what will the IS. 10 profit
them II they have to take 81 of it to
buy u cents worth of meat So to buy
$l.43 worth of clothing, and so on
How long will IS 10 last at this rate
We will tell.
1t will be wholiylost in the purchase
of $2l worth of high tariff goods
But the $40 is not the balance TO
discount. The true remainder is S47.
which, under the Nens' Arcadian plan,
will buy just 1887 worth of goods.
while, under the 40-cent rate for min
ing and 10 per- cent. less living costs.
the miner will buy the very same goods,
pay for them and have $5.O3 in his
pocket, each dollarersmpt from discount !
The Ners gets itself "completeIv
compluded" by quitting all its eggs
IN one basket and-acatchingM that basket ?,
1t staked its all on the barrel of hour
forgetting that much more than all
gained in buying it at normal price
would be several times lost in invest
ing the remaining ST. in other goods
at abnormal prices.
Again-this thing of mouey. the
measure and the medium of exchange.
throws papers like the Ners off the
track. Money is desiderutum only for
what it will obtain. We NAV. there.
fore, take the $S 10, so material to the
Ne''s' practical illustration" and,
accepting Its reply as literal answer
to the proposition it quotes from the
JoURNAL-ecdot is 1t but -four? Indeed.
what is the whole $50 but foure Or
the whole $4l.6O? Nothing else, be-
cause the JOURNAL intimated with
dlstinctness that the Ne,cs cannot mis-
understand that miner can buv more
So flour with wage earnings al 40 cents
ton than of S. -four at so cents.
The proof from the Ne,cs' own figures
ls-that while the 50-cent-$5 rates earn
hS"iiJ io2 UdtIelS, the fU-Ctnt-T.j rates
earn more nearly II!
And although in each case the Mems
has had but one barrel purchased for
the time being, it has offered no proof
whatever that the money equivalent
OF the remaining 13 will not buv AS
much of other necessarles as that If
the remaining o..
Beyond the impression which the
News' plausible ''calculaton" will
make upon superficial readers and
shallow thinkers, it will do little harm,
Thence the calculation" will ioin
such discredted bric-a- brac as 'hich
wages produce cheap goods and 1.-The
foreigner pays the TAX" IN the limbo
OF high projections diversified array
OF short-lived and exploded bloviations.
ACommon Gospel.
In his last encyclical letter to the