The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1896-09-24
me Republican Journal Thursday Morning. September a. 1896
Gold, Silver or Paper.

AcCelNeu IN wages worth us assumed
purchasing power when the wage Garner
endeavors to convert it into the necessaries
and comforts Of life. Certain countries
of the world keep their currency at a geld
standard, others at silver, and others still
on paper basis. The gold standard ma
lions are:
The United States, Great Britain, Ger
many, France, Belgium, Switzerland,
Roumania, Bulgaria, The Netherlands,
Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Turkey Aus
tralla, Egypt, Canada, Santo Domingo,
Chill, Venezuela, Uruguay and Hayti
The silver standard nations are:
India, China, Japan, the Straits Settle
ments, Persia, Mexico, Central American
states, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador.
Those on Paper basis are:
Italy, Greece, Austria Hungary, Russia,
servia, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Argen-
una, Paraguay and Colombia.
1t will be seen from the above showing
mat the leading nations, those where the
standards of living are higher than in
other parts of the world, have, almost
without an exception, gold standard
currency. There are few of the minor
NATIONS also included in this group. Such
as turkey, Santo Domingo and Uruguay,
oot thelr presence does not initiate against
me statement that, as a rule, it is in gold
uatlons only that the wage earnerS are
FOUND living in satisfactory condition.
Inc situation of the countries having a
paper currency is in some respects better
than those that have silver as a basis for
Their circulation, because with Italy and
Austria the paper dollar is worth only a
llttie less than the gold dollar; that is, at
the first OF this year gold in Austria was
at a premium of only l per cent. SO
that That country may now be said to be
upon gold basis. In Italy, gold was at
premium OF about per cent, which was
not sufficient to materially influence the
conditions of trade. But, even throwing
these countries out of the gold classical
ton, as at the first of the present year
they might have been thrown, and it still
! remains that the great nations of west
efn Europe and the United States which
| nave gold as a standard, with Canada and
Australia, are 50 far ahead in the industrial
prosperity OF their people that it can be
sad OF their wage earners that they receige
for their labor in gold quite as much, and
often more, than the wage ealners in the
silver and paper using countries receive
IN their deprecated forms Of currency
! Chill, Venezuela and Uruguay are tile
countries in South America where bust
ness conditions are equal if not superior
| w lllpHt loul1i III INC OluGT tSOuLn a llGII-
can States. At the first of this wear tile
paper currency in Brazil was only worth
81 per cent. of its nominal value; III
Argentina it was worth but - per cent. Of
its assumed value, and in Colombia 80
| per cent. in gold of its alleged value.
! Speaking OF the latter country, the init
! ed States minister wrote a short time
| since
In 1885, when gold was at premium
of 20 per cent, wages of workngmen on
| the plains of Bogota We're forty cents a
day, and i'll the hot country sixty cents a
day. AT the present time wages are sixty
and ninety cents, respectively, an advance
Of 30 per cent. All provisions have in
creased in cost about 200 per cent. Meats
in 1888 were selling for from twelve to
| fifteen cents per pound at the present
time they are selling at forty and fifty
| cents. House rents have increased from
| 100 to 200 per cent. Small tenements,
such as poor people occupy, could be had
i'll 1880 at 50 a month; now the same tene-
ments bring s.. In 1884, s. the Protestant
minister of Bogota occupied house for
which he paid $50 a month; at the pres
ent time the same house brings 500 a
month. In 1885 table board could be had
at the hotels for 81 a day; now it is 3 a
day"
Here we have practical illustration Of
the effect upon wages and commodities Of
deprecated form of currency. The
merchant marks up the price of his goods
to correspond with the advanced premium
on gold, and, in order not to be on the
wrong side, he does not take chances, but
endeavors, if he can, to exceed that pre-
MUM in the charges that he makes. I'm
less the workingman can do likewise, and
mark up the value of what he has to
sell-that is, his labor-he cannot fail to
be sadly left in the lJlrch. Is such mark
ing up possible? Undoubtedly it can be
carried out to certain extent, unless
there is such a financial crash as to send
many thousands of individuals and corpor-
ations into bankruptcy, and thus demon
alize and paralyze industry. In that
event, the wage Garner might consider
himself lucky if he obtained in silver
the equivalent of what he is now get
ting in gold. But, assuming that we
pass through this revolutionary change
even without such a general catastrophe,
with premium on gold varying from day
to day. in concurrence with fluctuations
in the silver bullion market, the manu-
facturers and other employers of labor
cannot afford and are not going to pay
those whom they engage the equivalent in
silver Of what they are now paying in gold.
Business will become then much more
speculative than it is now, and capital
does not take speculative risks unless it
receives larger returns than accompany
ordinary business transactions. This is
the case at the present time in the silver
using nations of the world. 1t has been
pointed out that the mill owners in Mexi-
co and Japan are getting larger dividends
than the mill owners in New England. Of
course they are, for the good and sutfi-
cient reason that they take to themselves
the entire, and more than entire, advan-
tage of whatever change there is in the
| silver market. This was the case in our
own countfy during the civil war, time
when our manufacturers as rule made
more money than at any other period in
their experience, and this simply because
wages were never brought up to gold
basis. Boston Herald.