Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-08-20
SILVER AND WAGES.
HOW FREE COINAGE WOULD AFFECT
 THE LABORER.

to India Silver wages-Profits of Elm
 ployers Will Re Advanced-silver Ques-
 ton In Nutshell.
 The following is an extract from Free Coinage Dissected," recent number of Sound Currency, by the Hon. John De Witt Warner:
 But there is another way to look at it. We have seen how appreciation of gold means higher wages to the laborer Now let me show you what this so call ed appreciation of silver means. I short ly since heard very pleasant gentle man, Mir. Cannon, a delegate ill the next congress from Utah, expound the silver side of the free silver question, and he went on to explain, first, that prices of goods were low here because they were measured in gold, and then that, on account of our wages here be- ing paid in geld-which was costly and wages in India, China and Japan being paid in silver - which was worth only one-haf what it had been- they had 50 per cent advantage, and that therefore there was great danger of manufacturers being driven from the werld's markets Do you see what that means? That their wages are so much lower than ours on account of the appre- citation of gold here; that, unless our wages are made equivalent to theirs, in that respect at leaSt-unless prices are inflated here i'll this country so that our gold wages will buy no more than their silver wages-their labor will tend to drive our labor out. In other words, the proposition to appreciate silver is prac- tieally proposition to cut the wages of the laborers of this country squarely in half in order to increase the profits of their employers.
 Three months ago, though I should have argued this--for I believe it to be true-I should not have ventured to state that it was the serious contention of the free silver advocates. But have not merely heard it put forcib1y by the gentleman I have mentioned as speak ing for that cause, but I have it in an- other statement Sir Henry Meysey Thompson is one of the leading silver advocates. He offered large prize for man who would write the best essay explaining how it was that China and India and other silver using countries were getting an advantage over Eng land, and great many people competed for that prize. MT. Jamieson, the Brit ish consul at Shanghai, wrote so good & paper that he was awarded the prize and that essay is now the chief stock in trade of the British agitation for the restoration of silver. Now let me read you something from it. Sir Henry Meysey Thompson IS proud of it. Here it is: aWages ill the gold using coun- tries have, through the appreciation of gold, become 100 per cent dearer than they were relatively to silver wages, and the manufacturer in the silver stand ard countries can obtain his labor at half the cost which he formerly paid" hence "while old established industries in England are barely paying expenses new industries in India are arising broadcast and paying handsomely /" And the remedy proposed by silver ad- voeates in England is to correct this ap- preciation of gold and raise prices, so that the British workman, though get ting the same nominal wages, will get only half the real wages he gets now, and the British manufacturer thus be enabled to compete with the Indian manufacturer.
 A similar view is taken by Senor Romero, the Mexican minister at Wash ington, in his article i'll The North American Review for June, when he asserts that the depreciation of silver has favored Mexican capitalists by low ering the actual wages of their em- ployees.
 There is the silver question in a nut she'll. It is simply the question as to whether our wage earners are getting too high wages, They may as we'll face the question. If wage earners believe they are getting too high wages, and that this country is suffering in conse- quence, all they have to do is to take lower wages, or if they prefer a round about way they can favor free coinage of silver, and they will get their wages cut down half without any further trou- ble on their part, and we will be bless ed as are India and China