Morris tribune., 1896-05-20
Observation-Disclosures
TELLS WORKlNGMEN PLAINLY HOW
FREE COINAGE WOULD lNJURE THEM.

When Money Is Depreciating- Expert
ence OF United States, Chile and Mexic
with Cheap Money Wage Farmer
Would Also Lose One-half of All Pas
Savings Deposited In Banks, Building
and Loan Associations. ETC., q Total o
MILLIONS.
Secretary Of the Treasury John Ct
Carlisle made another of his mastery
speeches on the currency question. il
Chicago, ON April Is. 1t was to an i'm
1nense audience composed largely o.
wnrkingmen, many of whom, especially
IN the beginning, were skeptical as tt
the blessings Of 100 cent dollars. The
ssecretary's argument as to the effects OF
cheap money on wages was most con-
giRcing and effected notable change in
the attitude of his auditors. We quote
part of his speech on this point
Labor cannot be boarded. The idlf
day is gone forever. Lost wages are new.
er reimbursed, and therefore steady en-
p1oyment 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 I'M
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
Cur industrial enterprises. He cannot
prosper when the country is in distress,
when its industries are Frustrated, its
commerce paralyzed, it's credit broken
down, or it's 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.
i Money received for wages, like money
recl-:-~-d c.: t51-ery other account, is val
liable only to the extent that it can be
exchanged for other commodities, and
At is scarcely necessary to suggest that
dollar worth SO cents will not purchase
as much in the markets as a dollar
worth 100 cents. To call dime dol
lar would add nothing whatever to it's
intrinsic value or to its purchasing pow
4er. If these propositions are correct it
is clear that when wages are paid in
appreciated 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
Onr Experience With Cheap Money.
Congress, early in the year 1862, in
augurated the policy of issuing legal
tender paper, gold was driven out Of
circulation, specie payments were sus-
pended, the currency began at cnee to
depreciate, and before the close of the
year the paper dollar was worth less
than rs cents in gold
In 1862 the wages Of labor, paid i'll
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 laborers 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 deprecated
paper worth about SO cents on the dol |
lar were 101a 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
Ia 1864 the wages of labor paid in de-
preciated paper dollars worth 40 cents
each had advanced % % per cent, but
the prices of the necessaries Of life had |
advanced 9015 per cent In 1866 wages
paid IN paper currency worth 60 cents |
On the dollar had advanced 43 per cent
above the rates previously paid in gold
or its equivalent, but the prices Of com.
2nodities had advanced nearly III per
cent-that is to say, had more than dou-
bled, and in 1866 wages paid in cur
GPncy worth II cents on the dollar had |
advanced fraction more than SO per
cent from the previous rates in gold, or
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
eT things until the year 1859, four years
after the close of the war, when the
value of our currency was II cents on
taae dollar, and it was quite certain that
aao further depreciation would occur.
The wages Of labor, measured by gold
IS they were in 1860, when we had a
sound currency, had fallen about "a per
cent in 1868, more than 10 per cent in
1864, and nearly A per cent in 1865.
when we had deprecated currency,
and, gentlemen, the force of this illus
tration is gre atty augmented by the facts
that these reductions in the rates Of
@3ages occurred at time when several
hundred thousand laborers had been
withdrawn from the field of competi-
tfon, when the government was engaged
ia the pres cution of a great war and
was expanding money lavishly for all
kinds CT supplies for the army and navy,
and when the prices of all the products
If labor had LARGELY increased