St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-24

loaded with a debt contracted in
times when prices were abnormal,
and depending upon the sale, of pro-
ducts at greatly reduced prices for
the payment, falls a very easy victim
to the lure of the silver monomet-
allist. The whole strength of his
argument lies in the premise that
depreciation of products is due ITO
the appreciation of gold. If this is
not the case, then the reduction in
the price of product must be-traced
to some other cause, and the whole
argument erumbles. However I'm
fortunate the result may be to those
who contracted debts on a higher
priced scale for their products, it is
one Of those accidents, like fire or
affiiction or death, that are beyond
the relief of human effort
The advocates of silver monometal-
Hsm-for that is what their scheme
would give us-have been vainly
challenged to make proof of the as
sertion upon which their whole argu-
ment depends. The challenge has
gone unaecepted while the statement
is repeated with endless iteration.
But the proofs of it's falsity are not
wanting, and are easily found by any
one who seeks information with
desire to get ait the truth. Gold beng
and having been for over a genera
ton the one standard by which all
values are measured, it follows in
evitably that, except as to the fiuetu-
ations in the value of some product
caused by an oyer or under supply,
the value Of all products would have
been diminished proportionately, and
nearly equally, had gold risen in
value.
Ali forms of money dependent upon
gold and convertible into gold, it
would have followed that, with the
increased value of gold, there would
have been am increase in the price
asked for the use of money just as,
for illustration, if horses be-
come scarce there is an
increase in the price asked
for use of horses. Instead of this
following the asserted rise in the
price Of gold, there has been every
where a constant reduction in the
price asked for the use of money, or
in other words, in the rate of in
terest. Again, the wages of labor
have been steadily advancing and,
though temporarily depressed as a
result of the financial depression of
'93, are now being rapidly restored to
their former place, Notwithstanding
the enormous supply of labor in the
country
This is most conclusively demon
strated by the tables compiled by Mr..
Sauerbeck. from the investigations
conducted by the senate committee
on finance, which covered the prices
of a large number of products in
Guiding wages, from. 1S45 to 1890.
Taking the year 1860 as one which
was as nearly normal in economic
conditions as possible, as the COM
parative point, and representing the
average prices as 100, the table shows
a steady increase in wages as in
Dictated by their purchasing power.
Compared with 100 in 1850, they were
l43.1 in 1865, 1922 in the period of in
fation in 1870; 1854 in 1875, falling
to 141.5 by 1880, rising to 1907 in 1885
and to 1883 in 1890. go
Here then are. two products, each
of the first Importance money; the
object Of universal and continuous
demand, labor the largest single eofn.
modify offered on our markets, the
course of whose values, over a range
Of years preceding and subsequent to
decentralization, refutes the funda-
mental assumption on which the
whole silverite theory rests Inter
est has fallen; wages have risen.