The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1896-08-01
FREE COINAGE CATECHISM.
A Plain Discussion of the Question of
the Hour.

clHllS cHarSe aSalnSl tne Solu Stanuuld: a.
They declare that it has helped the rich, and
has caused distress and loss to everybody
else.
Q. Is this statement true? A. 1t is not.
q, Suppose the gold standard had worked
injury to everyone except the rich; how
should we know the fact? A. People with
small incomes would have been growing
steadily poorer since the gold standard was
adopted.
Q. Have such people been growing poorer?
\. On the contrary, their prosperity, since
this country returned to the gold standard in
1879, has increased in an unprecedented de-
gree.
Il. What proof have you of this? A. The
increase in savings-bank deposits.
Q.-By whom are such deposits made? A.
They consist almost entirely of the surplus
income of tradesmen. wage-earners and small
producers.
@. What are the figures of those deposits?
A. In 1879 the total savings bank deposits in
the United States We're 1902 45029S; in 1895
they were S1,s44 1857, 79s; increase S1.041,-
S67 500. or 100 per cent.
Q. What is your authority for these fig
ures? A. The official statements of the saw
ings banks to the United States government,
published in the reports of the Comptroller
of the Currency.
@. What do the figures show? A. They
show that during the seventeen years since
this country's return to the single gold
standard the savings of its poorer people have
been thousand million dollars larger than
they were in any preceding period
O.. Are the savings-banks deposits our
only proof that the people have prospered
under the gold standard? A. The building
and loan associations are another striking
proof
@. Who are the depositors with building
and loan associations? A. Chiefly wage
earners, tradesmen. and people with small
salaries.
@. What do the reports of these associa
tons show? A. Twelve years ago the de-
posts with such associations were compare
lively insignificant. In 1892 the returns OF
the United States Department of Labor
showed the aggregate to be $500, 100000 To-
Jay the tOtHl Ol tutSt uepOSltS Ill lniS country
is estimated at !75O000.000.
Q. How 20 all these figures compare with
savings-bank deposits and with building and
loan association accounts in countries now
on Il silver standard? A. Such countries
have neither savings banks nor building and
loan associations.
Q. Why? A. Presumably because the
wage-earners in those countries have no say
ings tc deposit.
Q. How do YOU explain so enormous an
increase in the savings of our people? A.
Wages have increased since the return to the
gold standard. Great improvements and eX-
tension of production have lowered prices
and reduced the cost of living. This has
necessarily increased the peoples savings.
q. What is your authority for stating that
wages have increased since our adoption of
the gold standard? A. The highest known
authority; the United States Senate report of
1892 already referred to in this Catechism.
Q. How much does this report show aver
age wages to have increased since the resump-
ton of specie payments? A. Up the latest
| date covered by the report they had increased
20ll4 per cent. In many industries the i'll
crease had been much larger.
@. Then the average wage-earner income
has increased under the gold standard, while
living expenses have decreased for every
body? A. Such are the facts.
Q. Would this advantage continue under
free silver coinage? A. 1t could not. We
have already shown that wages would not in
crease spontaneously, if mt all while prices for
necessaries of life would rise rapidly.
@. Do the free coinage leaders admit this
certain rise in price? A They do; they de-
clare that all prices are now too low. and that
free coinage will raise them.
Q. But do not these people claim that
high prices for food, clothing and household
necessaries will cause general contentment
and prosperity? A. They do.
Q. How can we be sure that they are not
right? A. Read up the record of years when
currency imitation had caused high prices in
this country. Look into the condition of
other countries where prices now are high
under silver standard.
@. When We're prices and living expenses
highest in this country? A. In 1865 and
1866.
q. What did the American people of that
time think of the high prices? A. They COM
planned bitterly
Q. Where can we find any record of such
complaint? A. Go to public library and
read the newspapers of those years.
Q. Give some illustrations. A. In 1865
the New York papers seriously advised
people to stop eating meat, in order to check
the high prices. Letters from readers pub
lished in these papers complained that milk.
butter, coal and ice were almost leyond the
poor mans reach. One letter in the New
York Times of June 10. 1865. deserves to be
quoted: "All last winter" the writer says.
81 could hardly afford to buy any meat. The
little bits of beef and mutton that we poor
people buy cost so much that my wife says it
Is like eating money" You can readily con-
suit all these published letters.
q. Would people object to high prices
now rs much as they did then? Every
head of Il family and every bousekeeper is
competent to answer this question.
Q. If prices advanced under free coinage,
would not the employer of labor be able to
pay very much higher wages? A. His own
living expenses would increase us fast as his
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