The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1895-05-30
THE COURSE OF PRICES AND
WAGES

In 1891, 1892, and part of 1898 I had th
honor to serve on a subcommittee charged
by the senate of the United States With
the duty of ascertaining the course Of
prices and wages of labor for as lorc a
period as authentic records would enable
lis to embrace in our investiga ton, and.
after q most thorough and impartial ex
animation of the subject, q report was
made which filled four large volumes
and embodies mass of information llpor =.
these subjects which cannot be foum
IN any other official form. As to the course
OF prices and wages the committee wa
unanimous, though there were differences
of opinion among the members as to tn
causes that had from time to time pro-
duced the changes. The prices of manv
articles and the wages of labor in MANY
occupations were ascertained during
each year as far back as 1910 and for the
purpose of comparison the prices of COM
modities and the wages of labor in the year
1850 We're adopted as the standard. The
suiiiciency of the reasons for selecting
that year rather than any other will not.
l think, be questioned. There was no
financial or other disturbances during that
year, business was in a normal condition
IN all parts of the country, no changes
had been made in the monetary systems of
the world for many years, the United
SldlSS NdS uSluS SOIu us Jue measure
OF value, just as it is now, except that
there was no legal tender silver in cir
culatiOn as there is now, the people We're
prosperous and the prices of commodities
and the wages of labor were fairly ad-
justed with relation to each other. At
the time when this investigation was made
all the legislation in regard to silver now
specifically complained of had been ac-
complished, and if prices or wages had
fp tharn n al
tribute the reduction to that legislation
then as there is now Ample time had
been afforded for its 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 influences legislation
upon the silver question adds to the
value of its results
In the first place the committee unani-
mously selected 232 articles in common
use which it was agreed constituted the
great bulk of the consumption and e..E
of the people, and these articles
were separated into eight classes or groups
that is, clothes and clothing, fuel and
lighting. metal and implements, lumber
and house building materials, drugs and
chemicals, house furnishing goods, and
commodities TWAS 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
30 per cent fuel and light nearly 24 per
cent; metals and implements, 80 per cent;
lumber and building materials, nearly 70
per cent; drugs and chemicals, 81 per
cent; housefurnishing goods, y per cent,
and miscellaneous articles, 10 per cent.
The prices for the year 1860 being taken
as the standard We're represented by 100,
and increases and decreases were shown
by deviatons from that number up or
down, as the case might be. The investi-
CATION showed that at the time it was
made articles of food stood at 1889, or
nearly per cent higher than in 1860;
clothes and clothing at Sill; fuel and
lighting at o. metals and implements at
749: lumber and house building materials
at 1928: drugs and chemicals at STD;
house furnishing goods at 7O1, and mis-
cellaneous articles at 90.1. These re-
suits of the investigation establish three
facts which have an important bearing
upon the present controversy. Inc hfst
fact established is that the prices of
articles of food which are the products
of the farms, gardens, orchards, ana
diaries of the country, were about per
cent higher than they were in the year
1860, long before the silver legislation
now complained of; the second IS, that
the fall in the prices of these farm pro-
ducts since the year 1873 has been much
less than the fall in the prices of the
commodities the farmers have to buy
and the third is, that the reductions III
prices have not been uniform, either rs
to part cular articles or groups of articles
and therefore can not be attributed 10
one and the same cause-tO the appre-
citation of gold, for instance. The con-
cluson is inevitable that various intuen-
ces have operated ITO produce these
changes in prices, some affecting one
group of articles and some another ana
doubtless some affecting all, but to no one
influence can the whole result be at
tributed. Cotton and wheat are the com
modities most frequently referred to ny
those who contend that the fall in prices
is due to the appreciation of gold, DuC
, there is nothing whatever in the meth
DDS 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 II Wouiu
affect the prices of other commodities pro
duced by our people. In addition to the
various causes which have more or less