The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1896-10-10
THE REPUBLICANS
AT CHADWELL
Enthusiastic Meeting and an Inter-
esting Address by Hon.
T. j. CIeetOn.
GOLD MEASURED BY LABOR
The Days Labor in 1873 Which Bought
a Dollar in Gold, in 1899 Bought
n47-Gold Has not Appre-
ciated In Value.

The steamer Queen. which left the
Fisher dock at $50 last evening, with
fifty or seventy-hve members OF the
Mckinley clubs and drum corps Of the
city. was met at chadwell by a large
number Of citizens Of that precinct rho
escorted their Astoria visitors 10 the
school house where was held one Of the
most enthusiastic meetings Of the cam
paign in Clatsop county. Mr.. Cole acted
as chairman OF the meeting and about
$50 people. men, women and children,
were present. After the rendition Of
some music by the local quartet, the
chairman introduced the speaker Of the
evening. Hon. T. ]. Cleeton. At the
outset Of his speech, Mr.. Cleeton said
there were doubtless some in the room
who had different opinions, and that he
would be pleased to answer any ques-
tions which were propounded in good
faith, and was more than willing to re-
ceive instruction himself. Mr.. Cleeton's
address was one Of the best that bril-
liant speaker has yet delivered. and
contained many new and pertinent
points upon the live issues Of the pres
ent contest. He said in part:
with reference to the so-called
crime of 70, that measure was one
which. from the records Of congress.
was advocated more particularly by
the silver men in the silver mining
states than anyone else. and after
months OF careful deliberation. was
voted for by all of the silver men in
the house.
IF the commercial ratio Of silver and
gold is to be disregarded by the gov
erument. and only coinage ratio con-
sidered. why not make that ratio TO
instead Of 16 to 1? Qn reply. voice in
the house stated that the bulk Of sill
yer was sixteen times the bulk Of goId.)
1t may be true that there is sixteen
times as much silver as gold in the
country, but because the bulk of straw
is 100 times as great as the bulk of
wheat, does that have any bearing on
the price Of wheat?' No; If you can
legislate a dollar into 50 cents worth
of silver, why not legislate value into
anything else? Would it not be better
to legislate value into the farmers
wheat, which would certainly benefit a
large class of people, rather than to
legislate value mot something that only
the silver miner produces. and which
benefits only the few. Three quarters
of the silver mines of the United States
are owned by foreign syndicates. and
the remaining one quarter is owend by
men in this country whose wealth
ranges from twenty-five million dollars
to one dollar.
History shows that every country
which has had a coinage ratio different
from the commercial ratio between sill
yer and gold, is on silver basis.
Every nation without gold in circu-
lation, is on a silver monometallic basis
Every country that is on a gold
standard basis has more silver money
in circulation amongst the people than
the countries having no gold.
The laboring man in a gold standard
country, everything being equal. re-
ceives more for his money than does the
laboring man in the silver country.
The question is often asked If gold
has not materially appreciated in the
past few years. 1 would ask what is
the true standard of measure? Is It
not human labor? Voice in the house
replied that it was, together with the
value of commodities) In reply to the
gentleman who admits that labor is
partially the standard of measure, but
believes that gold has appreciated. /
will make this statement: If gold has
appreciated in value. 1t will take more
hours of labor now to get dollar in
gold than II formerly did. II it takes
fewer hours Of labor since 1873 to earn
a dollar in gold. then gold has not ap-
preciated. Since 1873 the same days la
Dor which would buy 100 cents in gold
in 1892 would buy s1.47 in gold. The
days labor which in 1860 would buy 100
cents in gold, will now buy $1.6O in gold.
What determines the value Of pro.
ducts and commodities? Human labor.
All commodities which have been
cheapened since 1878, have been cheap
ened by the fact that it now takes less
labor to produce them. The yard of
calico which in 1878 cost 12la cents, now
requires but one-third of the labor to
produce it as it did then, and the price
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