The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1896-08-20

Mr.. DENLY, our minister in China, makes
the following statement in his report:
In China and Japan.
'"To Japan it was left to discover that
cheap labor and cheap silver formed COM
binatiOn overwhelmingly favorable to man.
ufacturing success" TO this he could have
truthfully added that cheap silver is always
the depressing and burdensOme handmade
of cheap labor. OnIy that kind or labor Is
content to subsist on such a currency.
l will quote what United States Consul
General Jernigan of China, in his report
of April 10, 1885, states on this subject.
These are his words:
IAN intelligent understanding OF the in
| fuential agency of the price or LABOR III
regulating the profits Of manufacturing en-
! terprise may be had from this Illustration:
| In 1873 the mills of the Orient
and Occident were competing on equal
terms and receiving equal returns. Now,
| in 1894, each mill employs the same amount
of labor as it did in 1873, but the owner
of the mill in the United States pays Tor
the labor in gold at the ola rates WINE
| the owner of the mill in Japan pays for the
labor in silver at the old rates also. Inc
Japanese mill owner paid in 1894. as he did
in 1873. from IS to 20 cents DAY LOT
men, and from to 10 cents DAY TOT
women. That meant, In 1913, from Is 10 "
cents in gold day for men and from
to 10 cents in gold a day for women NOW,
during the greater part of 1894. 81 in gold
has been about equal to 81 Of Japanese
silver which makes it clear that on ac-
count of the low rate of standard wages
which prevail in the Orient, the mill
owners of the United States are now paying
twice as much for labor as the mill owners
of Japan" The effect of what the advo-
Gates of free silver ask us to 90 upon the
laboring man is to scale down his wages
after this Japanese style
The chief and controlling factors in the
foI Of hoy hopn modern ingenuity,
modern skill and modern invention. Inc
manufacturing world and the world or
labor have, within the last hair or the
nineteenth century, been In the vortex ana
whirlwind of great social and economic
revolution We are no longer in the world
of the fifties. In those days in place of
this size 5000 people, there would have
been at least a dozen boot and shoemakers,
all busy making boots and shoes. Now
there are only two, and they have nothing
to do but q little cObbling. Our boots ana
shoes are made in the big factories down
East" where a single factory will turn out
in one day all that our people need Tor
whole year. and at nearly half the price
of the olden time. And in those days we
should have had here a dozen wagon and
carriage Makers making our wagons ana
our buggies, while now we have only two,
who merely do a little repairing. and our
wagons and bugges are made by the whole
sale in large factories, with ingenious and
complicated machinery, at rate so cheap,
especially as to buggies and carriages,
as to make the price of the old handmade
article seem almost like robbery. In the
olden time few farmers had or could afford
to have a buggy. Now he who is not
possessed of one is regarded as the poorest
and most thriftess man in the nelghDor-
hood. Our plOws are no longer made by
the village blacksmiths, but at great fac
tories, and he repairs them with factory
,a6o factory made handles and
factory made landsides; and he shoes our
horses with factory made shoes, and fac
tory made nails. And why does he do this?
He will tell you: Because it is so much
cheaper" If some free silver patriot stood
by and were to tell him that it is the
appreciation Of gold that has done all this,
he would rub his eyes with establishment
and be nonpused.
In 1867, the first year we made steel rails
in this country, they were selling at $1G6
per ton in our paper currency. BY means
of new inventions, improved machinery and
new methods, we have, without sacrificing
labor or reducing wages, so
Reduced the Cost of Manufa curing
that steel rails were selling for $50 ton
in 1892, and $24.33 a ton in 1895. In like
manner cut nails have haen reduced III
price from SOC cents per pound in 1867 to
l. Al cents in 1895. The same thing has taken
nlaco with wire nails which were first
made in 1887. They were then worth 315
cents per pound, in 1895 only 1.69 cents. If
we turn to textile fabrics, we shall find
the same remarkable changes Through
new methods new machinery, and new in
ventions, and with increase rather than re-
duction in wages, we have reduced the
cost of these fabrics so that standard sheet
lnSs, which were worth S.13 cents per
yard in 1860 were reduced to 5.74 in 1885:
standard drilling from $50 to $50; bleached
shirtings from 1850 to 9.S5; and standard
fpnYp n To s,,o~ ia,
wages since 1860 in these industries have
more than equaled the decrease in the
price of cotton OF course, all the prices
we have quoted are Wholesale prices
If we turn from the field Of manufactures
to that of agriculture, we are confronted
with wonderful changes and innovations.
In 1852 No. spring wheat fluctuated in
Chicago between 81 and IS cents per bushel.
The farmer then plOwed his land with q
poorer and dearer pillow than to-day. He
sowed by hand, harvested with the cradle,
bound by hand, and threshed with a slow
going horse power machine To-day he
plows with the cheapest and best pillow on
the face of the earth, seeds with a seeder
or drill, harvests with a self-binder, and
threshes with steam cyclone thresher,
which cuts and feeds the bands, measures
and sacks the grain, and stacks the straw,
ana is operated by man who furnishes
the hands and their board, so that all the
farmer has to do is to haul his grain to
the granary, while bis wife escapes all the
drudsery and turmoil of the old time
threshng.
Low as the wages were in 1852, it still
cost the farmer of that day, if he had
to hire his help, much more than now to
seed. harvest and thresh his grain low as
the prices Of 1896 are, yet, considering the
cost of production, it is more profitable
to raise wheat even now than in 1852, and
then there was free coinage, while there is
R,,t v,b;
improved machines, implen ents and meth
DDS have greatly reduced the cost of farm
ing, they have, at the same time, been the
chief cause Of greatly increased and
sometimes excessive production. In other
words, that while improved and new ma.