The Monmouth inquirer., 1896-09-03
CAN BRYAN ANSWER !?
HOW WILL WAGE FARMERS RENEFrY
BY HIS COINAGE PLAN2


II the Prices of Cotton, Wheat, Pork. Beef
Are Raised. Where Does the working
man Come In?-The Question Evadess
In His New York Speech.
Mr.. Bryan's labored speech at the
Madison Square Garden is remarkable
for its failure to answer question of
vital importance to the voters of this
section of the country. That question is,
How are the earners of wages and of
salaries to be benefited by change in
the currency which is expressly intended
to raise the prices of cotton, wheat
pork, beef and all agricultural and min.
eral products?
Mr.. Bryan declared, at the outset Of
his speech, that the farmers have lost
more than they have gained by the
gold standard, and asked significantly,
"What shall it profit us if in trying to
raise our credit by increasing the pur-
chasing power Of our dollar we destroy
our ability to pay the debts already con-
tracted by lowering the purchasing
power of the products with which those
debts must be paid?" Certainly, if the
unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio
of 16 to is going to make it easier to
pay debts with our agricultural products,
it is going TO make it harder for the
buyer Of those products to buy them.
The nearest that Mr.. Bryan came to
making the answer desired was when
he said that while the gold standard
raises the purchasing power of the dol
lar it makes it more difficult to obtain
possession of the dollar,' and salaries
in business occupations depend on bust
ness conditions, and the gold standard
both lessons the amount and threatens
the permanency Of such salaries. " On
fortunately for him. these assertions are
untrue.
The country resumed specie payments
upon gold basis on Jan. /, 1879, and
it has ever since maintained them. We
appeal to the individual experience Of
our readers to decide whether, since
1879, wages and salaries have not risen
and whether it is any harder to get
them paid now than it was then. Speak
ing for The Sun, we assert with pleas
ure that we are paying now higher
wages and higher salaries than we were
in 1879 and are employing more men.
As to other employers we will let statis-
tics tell the story.
According to the census of 1880, the
year after the gold standard had become
supreme. the number of employees in
manufacturing Establishments that year
was 2, 732, 595, and the aggregate wages
paid them was $947, 953, 795, or an av-
erage of 1924 each. In 1890 the number
of employees was A, 712, 622, their aggre-
gate earnings were So, 283, ,216, 529, and
the average earned by each was $48S.
Here was an increase of nearly one-half
under standard which Mr.. Bryan says
"both lessons the amount and threatens
the permanence" of the rewards Of
labor
Since the census of 1890 a committee
of the senate of the United States of
which Senator Aldrich was chairman
reported in 1894 upon the subject of
wages and prices, that in 81 selected
industries wages were in money 40 per
cent higher in 1880 than they were in
1860 and 60 per cent higher in 1891
than they were in 1860, while the prices
of staple articles had fallen between
1880 and 1890 in some instances one
third.
6 OF Mr.. Bryan's repeated assertions
that under free coinage the silver dollar
will be equal in purchasing power to
the gold dollar it is. after this, unneces-
sary to speak. We leave him to explain
~ h;c xuoStorr, farmer friends boxv
with the pound sterling worth in silver,
under free coinage, as it is now in gold,
only 81 SO, they are going to get any
more dollars for the wheat they export
than they are getting now, and how, if
they get no more for what they export,
they will get more for what they sell in
this country. Perhaps some of his BIZ
metallist friends can help him out of
the dilemma New York Sun.