Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1896-05-26
CARLISLEATCHICAGO
TELLS woRKlNGMEN PLAINLY HOW
FREEcorNAeE EwouLDINJuRETHeM.


FREE COINAGE WOULD LDINJURETHeM.
Prices Rise Quickly but wages Slowly
When Money Is DepreciatinE-Exper
enee of United States. Chile and Mexico
with Cheap Money = Wage Farmers
would Also Lose one-haIf OF An Past
Savings Deposited In Banks, Building
and Loan Associations, Etc, a Total Of
Billions.
Secretary of the Treasury John G.
Carlisle made another of his mastery
speeches on the currency question, in
Chicago. ON April 10. 1t was to an i'm
mense audience composed largely of
workingmen, many of whom, especially
in the beginning, were skeptical as to
the blessings of 100 cent dollars The
secretary's argument as to the effects of
cheap money ON wages was most con-
vincing and effected notable change in
the attitude of his auditors. We quote
a part of his speech ON this point:
Labor cannot be hoarded. The idle
day is gone forever. Lost wages are new
er reimbursed, and therefore steady en-
ployment and good pay in good money
are essential to the comfort and happi-
ness of the American laborer and his
wife and children, and he will be un-
faithful to himself and to them if he
does not insist upon the adoption and
maintenance of such policy as will
most certainly preserve the value and
stability of all our currency and promote
the regular and profitable conduct of all
our industrial enterprises. He cannot
prosper when the country is in distress,
when its industries are prostrated, its
commerce paralyzed, its credit broken
down, or its social order disturbed. Nor
can he prosper when the fluctuations of
the currency are such that he cannot
certainly know the value of the dollar
in which his wages are paid
Money received for wages, like money
received on every other account, is val
liable only to the extent that it can be
exchanged for other commodities, and
it is scarcely necessary to suggest that
dollar worth so cents viii not purchase
as much in the markets as dollar
worth 100 cents To call dime dol
lar would add nothing whatever to its
intrinsic value or to its purchasing pow
en-. IF these propositions are correct 1T
is clear that when wages are paid in a
deprecated currency the rates of wages
must be increased in proportion to the
depreciation of the money and in pro-
portion to the increase in the prices of
other things or the laborer will suffer a
loss.
But affirm that it is the universal
rule that the rates of wages do not in
crease in proportion to the depreciation
in the value of the money in which
they are paid, and that when the cur
rency is deprecated the rates of wages
do not increase in proportion to the in
crease in the prices of the commodities
the laborer is compelled to purchase.
our Experience With Cheap Money.
Congress, early in the year 1869, in
augurated the policy of issuing legal
tender paper, gold was driven out Of
circulation, specie payments were sus-
pended, the currency began at once to
depreciate, and before the close OF the
year the paper dollar was worth Less
than 76 cents in gold.
In 1862 the wages of labor, paid in
deprecated paper, were less than per
cent higher in paper than when paid IN
gold, but the prices of the 223 articles
used by the 1aborers and other people
in the maintenance of their families
were nearly IS per cent higher than
they were when paid in gold. In 1868
the wages of labor paid in depreciated
paper worth about SO cents on the dol
lar were 1o1& per cent higher than
when paid in gold, but the prices of the
| articles the laborer had to buy with his
| wages were nearly 40 per cent higher.
In 1864 the wages of labor paid in de-
preciated paper dollars worth 40 cents
each had advanced 251S per cent, but
the prices of the necessaries of life had
advanced 90M per cent. In 1865 wages
paid in paper currency worth 63 cents
on the dollar had advanced 43 per cent
| above the rates previously paid in gold,
| or its equivalent, but the prices of COM
modities had advanced nearly III per
cent-that is to say, had more than dou-
bled, and in 1866 wages paid in a cur
rency worth II cents ON the dollar had
advanced fraction more than 90 per
cent from the previous rates in gold, on
| its equivalent, but the prices of COM
modities had advanced 80 per cent. The
rise in the rates of wages never CORE
sponded with the rise in the prices of 9TH
er things until the year 1869, four years
| after the close of the war, when the
/ value of our currency was II cents on
the dollar, and it was quite certain thai
no further depreciation would occur.
The wages of labor, measured by gold
as they were in 1860, when we had {
sound currency, had fallen about "a pen
| cent in 1868, more than 10 per cent II
1864, and nearly a per cent in 1865
when we had a deprecated currency
and, gentlemen, the force of this Illus
tration is greatly augmented by the fact
that these reductions in the rates O
wages occurred at a time when seyera
hundred thousand laborers had been
Withdrawn from the field of competi
tion, when the government was engages
in the prosecution of a great war AM
was expending money layishly for al
kinds of supplies for the army and navy
and when the prices of all the product
of labor had largely increased
Experience Of Chile
The recent experience Of the republi
of Chile furnishes another impressiv
. warning to the wage Garner against tn
evils of deprecated currency. In 1s1l
the peso, or dollar of Chile, was wort
aIo.1t S81k cents IN our money, but u