The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-10-27
MONEY IN ARGENTINE.
The Fluctuating Currency There is
Bad for All Glasses.

Washington. Oct. 27-Mr. Buchanan,
United states. minister to the Argen-
tine Republic in a report to the de-
partment Of state on money and prices
in foreign countries, says;
"A majority Of those who have writ
ten to me from the United States in
regard to the wages and prices have in
variably asked me to give them the re-
suit of my observations with regard to
the practical workings Of cheap money
system of this country as it has affect
ed and affects the farmer and wage
Garner.
ON this point let me say that from
an extended and careful personal OBJ
servatIon am convinced that with pos
sibly a few exceptions all classes OF
workmen here are today receiving less
wages the purchasing power Of their
money being considered than they
were ten years ago. 1t is true and cas-
lily 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 high gold 1t is
equally true that he has been the gain
more rent, for his land, than he PAID
five years ago. Strange as it may
seem, he has paid and is today paying
but a trife more. to his laborers than
when gold was at par ten years ago,
and as he produces on his farm the
meat, vegetables, etc, necessary for
his family, he had the lions share OF
the rise in gold.
on the other hand the workman
found it very difhculc to get an in
crease in his wages as gold advanced.
It required four years for him to get
an average increase of 20 per cent in
his earning, while the farmer had been
receiving the benefits of an increase in
the gold premium averaging more than
so per cent for the same period.
In the meantime the merchant found
it easy and profitable to increase the
price of his goods, in keeping with the
price of gold. Rents likewise increas-
ed, although more slowly and as the
prices of all commodities rose, the la
borer found himself daily being made
poorer. Agitate as he would he could
not get his salary increased in any rea-
sonable proportion to the increase in
premium on gold.
Strikes were resorted to. All sorts
of efforts were made to increase his
wages, until he finally last year reach
ed what we may call wage high water
mark
Since then gold has steadily fallen.
The farmer has felt the decline and
complains bitterly of the relatively
low prices he receives for his products
while he finds himself obliged to pay
the same prices for what he buys that
he did when he received $2.5O more for
every 100 kilos of wheat than he now
receives. Low gold does not induce the
merchant to mark down his goods
with the same good will he manifested
when he advanced their prices. Not
withstanding the decline in the en-
ployer-s income as gold falls, the work
men will not, in all probability, con-
sent to a decrease in his present wages
without a bitter fight; nor can he do
so unless there is a sharp decline in
rents and in the cost of living AS
gold declines, the wage Garner who re
ceives a gold salary finds his income
disappearing while his expenses re-
main as before. The period of read
1ustment in that the value of money Of
the country has brought about a COM
plete stagnation in business.
with the advent Of low gold, the
farmer who made money on its raise
turned Spectator and holds his grain
or cattle for a higher rate. The mer-
chant cannot make collections because
of this condition of things and as he
has to pay abroad he also becomes
Spectator and waits for lower gold.
Thus every one to some extent becomes
a Spectator, at least to the extent Of
trying to profit in some manner by
the daily rise and fall in gold. The fact
that the unsettled and shifting value
thus given to the currency of this Re
public injuries trade here, there can be
~ ~,.asffon and If cau he equally stat
ed as a fact that the wide fluctuations
that have taken place in the value OF
the currency have brought on a com
mercial situation far from satisfactory
to the merchants. farmers and work.
ingmen."