Morris tribune., 1896-08-12
her erest wars with Napoleon 81 : paper

till 1879 there was in this country no prl-
mary money; that is. no gold or silver in
circulation. The entire business of the
country was conducted on a paper basis,
ana prices were maintained at "a much
higher level than when we had free coin
age. From 1873 to 1878 we not only had no
silver In circulation, but silver was
Actually Demonetized.
and yet during that period prices WERE on
the whole on a higher level than during
the FIVE years succeeding the enactment of
the Sherman law in 1890, during which PEI
Rod silver was not only remonetized but
was more extensively in circulation than
ever before. The extraordinary and forced
silver imitation of our currency under that
law produced no substantial rise in prices,
or Increase In the wages of labor, nor,
except for very brief period, did 1t even
increase the price Of silver. We never had
greater per capita circulation than in
1894. when 1t amounted to $24.33, and of
this more than one-third was silver, and
more than one-third gold, and yet wheat
had never been so low since 1870 as 1t was
In that year, and the same was true of
cotton. cannot now go into further de-
tails, but an examination of our statistical
abstracts will show that the volume of
primary money, so-called, has cut no ,prac-
ucal figure in regard to prices or wages
But 1t is said that there has been a great
wholly by the appreciation or rise in gold
as gold is the worlds ultimate measure Of
value. 1t Is very strange that neither the
great Increase In the production of silver
nor the fact that the free coinage of it
has been suspended in all Caucasian states,
has had, as the advocates of free silver
maintain, no effect upon the price of silver.
One, whose mind is In a normal state, I'M
biased by Sophistry or oratory, would natur-
ally suppose that when the supply became
so much more plentiful, and could no longer
be disposed of at a.. fixed and arbitrary
price-the coin ratio-as before, but would
have to be sold at its bullion value, like
other products that it might, to some
extent, depreciate the price. Such facts
would, undoubtedly, largely depreciate the
price of other products. The law of supply
and demand would, undoubtedly, apply in
such cases, and 1t is difficult to see why
or how silver is exempt from the same
law. TO my mind, these facts have, in the
main, caused the depreciation of silver
That they may have. affected the price of
gold to some extent, l am willing to con-
cede but such effect has been neutralized,
and overcome by the great increase in the
production of gold. have already pointed
out to you how the average annual pro-
duction of gold, within the last twenty-five
years, has exceeded by $24, SIC, S76 yearly
the average annual production of both
gold and silver in the fifty years preceding.
This increased supply has fully met the
increased coinage demand. Had our supply
of silver, within the last twenty-five years,
been at no greater rate than in the fifty
years preceding, and had this supply not
been used for money at all, the Increased
supply of gold would have more than filed |
the vacuum. And when we take into ac-
count, in this connection the fact which / |
have already pointed out, that since 1872
nearly all the worlds product of silver i
has been coined into money, it becomes |
all the more apparent that the appreciation |
has not been wholly, nor even to consider
able extent, on the part of gold, but that4I
silver must of necessity have deprecia ted X
to very large extent, and, that such de-
probation must have been in a far greater /
proportion than any possible appreciation of |
gold.
But how can we account for the fan of |
prices? In the first place the fall has not |
been general nor equal. The wages Of
labor-the greatest Of all commodities-far
exceeding in value the product of our gold |
and silver mines, have not fallen in value,
but, on the contrary, have greatly increased
since the general suspension of free coinage
In the well known Aldrich senate report
upon prices and wages is a table giving
the
Relative Average Wages
in gold of labor in all occupations, from 1910
till October, 1892 the year 1860 being taken
as basis. at 100. From this table it ap-
pears that the lowest level was in 1862.
when we were on paper basis being only
16.2, while the highest level was in October,
1892, when 1t was 161. 239, and in the mean
time the average hours. Of labor had been /,
reduced from eleven in 1860 to- ten In 1891.
me committee adds this statement at the
foot of the table:
'From a consideration of the foregoing
table it becomes evident that there was a
gradual advance in wages from 1840 to 1860
Since that time the advance hasaheen less
regular but more rapid. The period from
1873 to%1SSO was marked by "a standsti.l
but since THAT time the advance has been
continuous. These conclusions are confirmed
by the 'supplemen tary Investigations en-
bodied In the report
To this will add that wages continued to
rise till the panic and crisis of 1893, since
which period, though there may have been
at times a less demand for labor there has,
nevertheless, on the whole been no great orit
permanent reduction in wages WhafeyerfI
gold may have dOne& since 1873, 1t cerfainlysI
has not diminished or DEPRECATED the price
of labor. And silver, where ftShas been re-
leased from the tolls of gold and has had f.
The whole field to itself, as in China Mexfeos
md Japan, has fallen far short of giving. the II
recompense to human labor that it has re- &
,elved in gold standard or bimetallic coun- 6
.ries. James F. Connolly, United States t
consul In Japan, in his report of last Feb
'uary states: t
'.The daily wages paid for mining and I'M {
skilled labor necessary for the production t
# what may be termed raw materials will
lverage about 10 cents Omitted States cur c
'ency), and that paid for skilled labor at t
present will average about IS cents" S
. This would be about % and 40 cents t
lay, respectively, in the currency Of Japan. C
From the consular report of Consul Cen t
raj Jernigan, of last October, it appears t
hat the wages in Shanghai China, last n
September were as follows, per day with Ii
loard, in our currency: Blacksmith Is o
ents, bricklayer 10 cents, carpenter, IL il
ents. and cotton factory hand, without c
,oard, IS cents 49, Ifs
In Mexico the wages appear to be as fol- i v
oWs, in their currency: Blacksmiths from g
/ to $3.50 per day, carpenters from 81 to h
tailors from 81 to 15O, and factory
ands and common 1aborers from so to Is Il
dau hn hnr