The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-11-06
A FALLACY EXPOSED.
THE GOLD BUGS BIGGEST GUN
SPIKED.


so fallacious as the argument that gold
has not appreciated when measured by a
days labor.
A days labor has ceased to be longer a
reliable unit of measurement, and when
ever you hear a man claiming it as such
mark him, he is a gold bug. When
ever you hear that man deny that the
general trend of prices of commodities in
dicates the rise or fall of gold, again you
may know your man as a gold bug. He
may be a gold bug from principle; there
mostly ashamed of it, More likely he is
gold bug from interest, and is creditor
annuitant, salaried man, landlord, mo-
nopolist or in a trust! He ought to be
gold bug from ignorance
But let us look at his day labor unit.
In primitive times anti-dealing labor I'M
lens and improved machines and COM
bined capital, a days labor may have
borne some fixed relation to the value
or monetary unit. When the shoe
maker exchanged direct his products with
the tailor, the halter and the farmer, no
doubt each estimated days labor as a
fixed and controlling factor in the eX-
change. There can be no doubt that
when gold and silver were first used as
money, the cost of production measured
by a days labor entered into the question
of the value of the monetary unit. When
the value of days labor was unaffected
by labor unions and strikes; when days
labor was not raised in value by strike
or lowered by lockout or combination of
capitalists to cut wages down, then a
days labor meant something; then a
days labor had fixed and determinate
value; then might we safely use a days
labor as a unit of measurement. But
how changed are present conditions.
Capital has combined to raise prices by
limiting the output or product. 1t must
be plain to every thinking mind that such
combination has changed the relation be-
tween days labor and it's former COM
modify required. 1t must be plain that
relatively days labor is less valuable
and will not purchase so much of la
boris product Again, improved ma
chimes and limited production have
thrown upon a labor market thousands
of discharged employees 1t must be
plain that this, too, has reduced the value
or exchange power Of a days labor rela-
lively to all labors products. Edward
Atkinson, the gold bugs most approved
and extensively quoted statistican, at the
instigatiOn of monopoly, has attempted to
prove general rise in wages since 1873.
And let us see how he does it. He goes
through the mills and factories of New
England and learned that the wages paid
individuals for each days work actually
performed is as much or more than was
paid the same man for the same kind of
work in 1873. With Edward Atkinson
and with all gold bugs, that settles it,
and rise in wages is conclusively prov
ed.
But suppose we admit that days la
Dor at any particular service in Massa-
chusetts brings as much in money now as
in 1873. Let us look at the next step in
the labor problem. Let us suppose 10
men in 1873 making sewing machines re-
ceved per week the aggregate sum of
$12O for full weeks service, or the sum
of $40 each. The factory running full
capacity in 1S73-six days each week
and unable to find enough help. In 1898
the factory is running only three days per
week, 20 per cent of the help have been
discharged, so. per cent of the best help
have been retained and their wages kept
the same or perhaps advanced 10 per
cent. The company's pay roll each Sat-
urday night is $50 for "a three days run
yet Edward Atkinson says the wages of
the laboring man have been largely in
creased since 1873
When Edward Atkinson thus publicly
reasons with a nation of hungry out-of-
works few there are who dare to say pre-
varicator. If the ordinary man should
dare to claim that three days cut in the
running time of factory and discharge
OF 20 per cent of the help was not in fact
a reduction in wages the world would
brand him a liar.
When a factory owner wishes to cut
wages so per cent what difference does
it make to him whether he cuts the wages
of all his employees so per cent or dis
charges half his men; what difference
does it make to him whether he runs his
mill three days only per week at the
old high wages or runs six days and cuts
all wages SO per cent? In either case the
employer pays but so per cent of former
wages; so per cent only of former wages
goes to the laboring classes, the former
purchasing power of the laboring COM
munity considered as a unit has been re
duced one-half One-half of all business
has been suspended one-half the business
community been paralyzed or all been
made to suffer. Eastern employers have
kept the individuals day wages at or
above the wages of 1873. Labor unions
have been efficientin keeping wage scales
up. Labor unions have been failure in
preventing factories running on half
time and discharging half their men,
Under competition and by the aid of i'm
proved machinery mill owners have
maintained or increased their output
while at the same time they have by run
ming part time and discharging part of
their help largely reduced their weekly
pay rolls. If this be not reduction in
stead of raise in wages then what is it?
Are we to measure the rise and fall of
wages by the daily wage paid a few Sc
lected workers employed on half time, or
shall we take a broader view and con-
slider the loss of half time and the dis
charged out of-wOrks? When we meas
ure wages by the former fallacous meth
Cd of Edward Atkinson and the gold bugs
wages have kept pace with gold and both
have acquired largely increased pur-
chasing or exchange power over cOmmo-
dities; when we measure wages by the
latter or true method wages have steadily
declined with the prices of commodities,
and gold is proved to have alone appre-
cated. In the midst of the present in
dustrial depression, the distress, low
prices and out-of- works how can men be
SO shameless as to insist that there has
been rise in wages or that gold measured
in labor has not appreciated?
A sensible man drinks Onlv the hest