The Portland daily press., 1896-03-24


has lowered wages IN the eastern
silver using countries, and to-
gether they have operated to
increase the cost OF production in Europe
and the United States and diminish it
in India and Japan, this is practically
the claim of MIR. Thaxter and the sill :
Yer men who assert that the existing agri-
cultural and Industrial depression is due
to general characterization of silver. 1t
is undoubtedly true that the manufac-
turer in India and Japan has great adj
vanti &c over the manufacturer of Eng
land and the United States IN the mat
ter of wages. The Indian and the Japan
ese will work for far less pay than the
American or the Englishman. But the diff
ference is due to the nature of the people
rather than to the difference in the kind
of currency. The wants of Indian and
Japanese laborers of all sorts are vastly
less than those of English and American
laborers. They have always been con-
tent with much smaller wages than the
latter and always will be until they
have risen as high in the soci al
scale as the Englishman or Amer
lean. Their cheap labor has al
ways constituted menace to the higher
paid labor of Europe Whenever it ac-
quired the skill of European or American
labor it was inevitable that articles
should be produced more cheaply in the
East than the same articles could be pro-
duced in England or the United States.
1t was inevitable also that that skill
should in process of time be acquired.
In certain industries it has in large de-
gree been acquired already and the effect
of it is beginning to be felt.
1t may be that difference in currency
has increased the natural differences,
but If all the difference due to currency
were eliminated there would still be a
great difference due to different conditions
of the people. Assuming the same skill
on the part of the operative of the east
as the operative OF the west possesses
aud in some branches OF manufacture he
seems to have acquired 1.-THE manufact-
urer of the east has an advantage in his
cheaper labor which the western manu-
facturer cannot meet except by reducing
the wages of his operatives to the level
of those Of India and Japan, and this it
is impossible to do directly, because they
will not submit to it. There are only
two courses open to the latter therefore.
One is to keep the eastern manufacturer
out of his home market by protective
duties, the other is to indirectly reduce
the wages of his own operatives. The
RECOMMENDATION of silver is a means of
doing the latter. Western operatives are
now paid in gold or its equivalent, and
gold, the silver people tell US, has greatly
appreciated by reason of the demonetiza-
ton of silver. If, therefore, silver is re-
monetized, the value of gold will fall and
the wages of the wOrkingman who is
paid in gold fall also, though he may re-
ceive just as many dollars in number as
before. We are aware that some of the
silver men are claiming that the effect of
the reconciliation of silver will be to
bring wages nearer to an equality be-
tween the east and west, not by diminish
ing wages in the west, but by raising
them in the east, but that is not consis-
tent with the theory which they have al
ways held that silver had remained prac-
tically constant, and which they have
frequently demonstrated to their own
satisfaction by showing that silver would
buy just as much Of the staples as it
ever would, while gold would buy
more. If the purchasing power of silver
was not changed by It's characterization
it is clear that it will not be changed
by Its reconciliation. but if gold has been
appreciated by the characterization of
silver, it is fair to infer that it will be
deprecated by it's RECOMMENDATION. Hence
the effect of silver reconciliation would
be confined entirely to gold wages and
would depreciate them. There is, therefore,
if the theory of the silver men is ccorreot,
the best of reasons why the American
operative should object strenuously to
the RECOMMENDATION Of silver as d means
of equalizing the wages of the east and
the west because under this process
the equalizing would be done
entirely at his expense; and the best
of reasons why he should insist
that the western manufacturer
should depend On q protective tariff en-
tirely to shield him from the competition
of the manufacturer Of India and Japan.
The silver mine owner will get direct
advantage from the RECOMMENDATION OF
silver since it will furnish him a con-
slant market. The manufacturer may
find it an assistance to him in fighting
the competition of the eastern manufac-
turer since it will tend to diminish the
price he has to pay for labor, though
this benefit is likely to be more than off.
set by disadvantages in other directions.
1t is natural enough, therefore, for the
silver mine owner to favor this policy. Il
is not strange perhaps that the manufac
turer whose vision is narrow and who sees
but one thing at time, when his atten
tion is fixed upon the effect of this policy
on wages, should favor it too. But the
operative, the man who works fol-
wages, cannot regard it with favor un-
less he Is DESTROYS of getting less pay fol
| his work. Tie working man ought tt
stick to the protective tariff and oppose