The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-10-27
IN THE ARGENTINE.
Minister Buchanan Makes n Report
of the Department of State.

Minister Buchanan Makes n Report
of the Department of State.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 26.-Mr. w. l.
Buchanan, United States minister to
the Argentine Republic, in report to
the department of state on money and
prices in foreign countries, says:
A majority of those who have written
to me from the United States regarding
wages and prices have invariably
asked me to give them the result of
my observations with regard to the
practical workings of the cheap money
system of this country as it has af-
fected and affects the farmer and wage
Garner.
On this point let me say that from an
extended and careful personal observa-
ton, l am convinced that, with posi-
bly, a few exceptions, all classes of
worl1men here are today receiving less
wages, the purchasing power of their
money being considered, than they
were ten years ago.
1t is true, and easily understood, that
as long as gold was rising, the farmer
who was selling his products, as he had
always done and continues to do on a
gold price, fixed outside of the country,
was steadily receiving higher paper
prices for all that he had to sell, and
was in consequence a direct gamer by
the high gold. 1t is equally true that
he has been the gamer in other ways;
he has paid but little more rent, if any,
for his land than he paid five years
ago. Strange as it seems, he has paid
and is today paying but a trif1e more
to his laborers than when gold was on
par ten years ago, and as he pro-
duces on his farm the meat, vegetables,
ETC., necessary for his food, he has the
lions share of the gain in the rise in
gold. On the other hand, the workman
found it very difficult to get an increase
in his wages, as gold advanced. 1t re-
quired four years for him to
get an average increase OF 20
per cent in his earnings, while
the farmer had been receiving the
benefits of an increase in the gold
premium averaging more than 80 per
cent for the same period. In the mean
time the merchant found it easy and
profitable to increase the price of his
goods, in consequence of the rise Rents
likewise increased, although more
slowly, and as the prices of all COM
modities rose, the laborer found himself
daily made poorer. Agitate as he would.
he could not get his salary increased
in any reasonable proportion to the in
crease in the premium on gold. Strikes
were resorted to: all sorts of efforts
made to bring about an increase in his
receipts, until finally the last year
reached what we may call wage high
water mark
Since then, gold has steadily fallen.
The first person to feel the decline has
been the farmer, who is complaining
bitterly of the relatively low sprices he
is receiving for his products, while he
finds himself obliged to pay the same
prices for what he buys as he did when
he received $3.50 more for every one
hundred kilos of wheat than he now
receives.
Low gold does not induce the mer-
chant to mark down his goods with
the same good will he manifested when
he advanced their prices. Notwith-
standing the decline in the employers
income, as gold falls, the workman will
not, in all probability, consent to a de-
crease in his present wages without a
bitter fight; nor can he do so unless
there is q sharp decline in rents and in
the cost of living