The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-05-24
CARLISLE ON SOUND MONEY.


parts of the country, no changes had been
made in the monetary systems of the
| world for many years, the United States
was using gold as the measure of value,
just as it is now, except that there was
no legal tender silver in circulation as
there is now, the people were prosperous
and the prices of commodities and the
wages of labor were fairly adjusted with
relation to each other. At the time when
this investigation was made all the legis-
lation in regard to silver now specifically
complained of had been accomplished,
| and if
PRICES OR WAGES
had fallen there was as much reason to
attribute the reduction to that legislation
then as there is now. Ample time had
| been afforded for it's effects if it had any,
upon prices and wages to be felt, and the
fact that the investigation was not made
for the purpose of influencing legislation
| upon the silver question adds to the value
of its results
| In the first place, the committee unani-
mously selected .a32 articles in common
use which 1T was agreed constituted the
great bulk of the consumption and ex-
pendltures of the people, and these arti-
| Giles were separated into eight classes or
groups; that is, clothes and clothing, fuel
and lighting, metals and implements,
lumber and house building materials,
drugs and chemicals, house-furnishing
goods, and miscellaneous commodities
1t was found that the prices of articles
used for food, taking them altogether
had fallen less than 10 per cent, since
1873, while the prices of clothes and
clothing had fallen 80 per cent fuel and
light nearly "A per cent. metals and i'm
| nlnmnI1tc non Inn hon md hill
ing materials, nearly 20 per cent house
| furnishings goods, 81 per cent. ; and mis-
cellaneous articles 10 per cent The prices
for the year 1850 being taken as the
standard were represented by 100, and in
| creaseS and decreases were shown by de-
viations from that number up or down,
| as the case might be. The investigation
showed that at the time it was made arti-
| Giles of food stood at 1889 or nearly per
cent higher than in $780, clothes and
clothing at 81 fuel and lighting at 81 :
metals and implements at 749; lumber
and house building materials at 122. !;
drugs and chemicals at Sc. 3; house fur
nishing goods at 70. l, and MISCELLANEOUS
articles at 90. 1. These results If the in
yestigation establish three facts u which
have an important bearing upon the
present controversy. The first fact estab-
lished is that the prices of articles of food
which are the products of the farms, gar
dens, orchards, and diaries of the coun-
try, were about per cent higher than
| they were in the year 1850, long before
the silver legislation now complained of;
the second is, that the fall in the prices
of these farm products since the year 1878
has been much less than the fall in the
prices of the commodities the farmers
have to buy and the third is that the re-
auctions in prices have not been uniform
either as to particular articles or groups
nj ,rfI md how h.,
buted to one and the same cause-to the
appreciation of gold for instance The
conclusion is inevitable that various in
f1uences have operated to produce these
changes in prices some affecting one
group of articles and some another and
doubtless some affecting all but to no
one influence can the whole result be at
tributed.
COTTON AND WHEAT
are the commodities most frequently re-
ferred to by those who contend that the
fall in prices is due to the appreciation of
gold but there is nothing whatever in the
methods of producing those articles or in
transporting or selling them or in the
character of the money received for them
which would make the appreciation of
gold affect their prices more than it
would affect the prices of other commod-
tiles produced by our people. In addition
to the various causes which have more
or less affected the prices of all articles
the prices of these two products have
been seriously affected by the enormous
| increase in their production since the
year 1872 which was the last crop year pre-
ceding the legislation in regard to silver
The production of cotton in this country
in 1S72-73 was 2, 974, 351 bales containing
an average of 439 pounds net weight
while the production in 1894 was 7,549
S17 bales containing an average of 474
| pounds net weight or an increase of near
| ly 200 per cent. in this country alone be-
sides the great increase that has taken
place in competing countries; and in
1o94-5 the production here was much
| larger, being nearly 10, 900, 600 bales Ac-
cording to the statistics of the Agricultu-
raj Department the production of wheat
in this country in 1872 was 249, 997, 100
bushels, and in 1894, 460, 267 416 bushels
or nearly twice as much, and there has
also been an enormous increase of pro-
duction in competing countries But
gentlemen, notwithstanding the great in
crease in the production of cotton and
wheat here and in other countries and
| the consequent decline in their prices, a
given quantity of either of them will
now purchase in our own markets and in
the markets abroad larger share
of many other useful commodities than
it would have purchased in 1872 or 1873,
SO that, in fact, as compared with many
other things, the values of cotton and
wheat have appreciated.
The one thing which has been less
affected by the changes in the relation be-
tween supply and demand, by improve
ments in the methods of production and
distribution and by the other influences
which produce fluctuations in prices of
commodities generally, is labor, and it is
by far the most important single source
of income possessed by our people, a
much larger amount being expended
every year in the payment of wages than
for any other one purpose. The cost OF
| labor in the manufacturing and mechani-
cal industries alone during the census
year 1889 was 81, 2S3, 216, 529, which was
nearly two and one-half times the value
of ali the wheat and cotton produced in
this country; and if we add to this the
amounts paid for farm labor, for clerical
and other work in mercantile establish
ments, for domestic service and for work
on railways of all kinds, on water craft,
on streets and other improvements in the
cities, and in the many other occupations
which give employment to our people, we
would have a sum almost, if not quite,
equal to the value of all our agricultural
products, 1t is evident, therefore, that il