The herald., 1896-04-16
TwENTY-FIFTH YEAR. NO. 1873.

to the legal tender paper. After the
war. when it was determined to change
the character of our currency again by
the resumption of specie payments, the
law was enacted four years in advance
of the time when it was to take effect,
in order that ample opportunity might
be afforded to adjust the business of
the people to the altered conditions.
Now, however. all the conservative and
prudential conditions that have usual
ly controlled in the settlement of great
financial questions seem to be utterly
disregarded and we are confronted by
an organized and aggressive movement
to destroy by single blow the measures
of value upon which all existing con-
tracts are based and thus subvert the
very foundations of our monetary sys-
tenn. without allowing single day to
prepare for tho change. In the gen.
eral confusion and disorder resulting
be the condition of the American labor
er? Will he be benefited or injured
by reducing the value of the money
in which his wages are paid and at
the same time increasing the prices Of
the commodities for which his wages are
expended?
After struggling for over a quar-
ter of century, through labor organ
izations and otherwise, to secure rate
OF wages which would make the pro-
ceeds of days work equal to the cost
of a days subsistence for the working
man and his family, you are asked by
the advocates of free coinage to join
them in destroying one-half the pur-
chasing power of the money in which
you are paid. and impose upon your
selves the task of doubling the norni-
nal amount of your wages hereafter
that is, to struggle for another quarter
of century, or perhaps together to
in a n or py1r-
rency to a point which will enable you
to purchase with them as much of the
neceSarles of life as you can purchase
now; and if, after years of contention,
privation, and industrial disorder, you
should at last succeed in so adjusting
wages that they would procure at the
higher prices of commodities just what
they will procure now at the existing
prices, what would you have gained by
the change from the old to the new con-
ditions?"
The speaker then quoted from the re-
port of the subcommittee on finance of
the senate, submitted March 3. 1893, on
the course of prices of labor and the va
rious articles of general consumption
during period of f1fty-two years, in
cluding the time when specie payments
were abandoned, after the beginning of
the civil war. In 1862 the wages of labor,
paid in deprecated paper, were less
than three per cent higher in paper
than when paid in gold, but the prices of
the 223 articles used by the laborers and
other people in the maintenance Of their
families were nearly eighteen per cent
higher than they were when paid in
gold.
In 1868, he said, the price of labor had
increased 10la per cent, and other prices
40 per cent. In 1864 the advances were
E51a and 901s, respectively; in 1865 they
were 43 and III per cent. He further
calls attention to the fact that during
those years the government, by it's army
and navy, had withdrawn hundreds of
thousands of men from competition in
the labor of the country.
The secretary quoted from a forth
coming report of the United States
minister to Santiago on the history OF
the money of Chilli for the past twenty
years and its relation to the wages of the
laboring people. which shows that the
average received by the laborers OF
Northern Chill, where wages are high
est. will buy about half what it would
twenty years ago. Referring to the fact
that Japan Is a silver using country.
he said:
The Japanese silver yen is worth a
little less than so cents in our money,
and when the wages of labor, paid in
this deprecated coin, are reduced to
our standard of value, they appear so
insignificant that it is difficult to UNDER
stand why the people who receive the
miserable pittance can live and main
tain their families. The average daily
earnings % a bricklayer amount to 93
cents; blacksmiths. carpenters. and cab
met makers eceive 80 cents, compost
tors in printing offices 20 cents; press
men, 26 cents; roofers. 90 cents; stone-
cutters. 36 cents; ordinary tailors, 2S
cents; weavers, rs cents, and in all the
long list of occupations and wages no
laborer however skilled, can be found
who receives more than 40 cents per
day, except porcelain artists in the
great city of Yokohama, who get 72
cents. Factory laborers even in that
city, where most of the great industries
are carried on by American or Euro
pean capitalists, receive q cents per
day, and in other parts of the country
they receive less. Our neighboring re-
public of Mexico, with constitutional
government very similar to our own,
with an area of 767 900 square miles and
a population of: only about $4,000, 900,
with almost marvellous natural re-
sources awaiting development and
Offering a most inviting field for the in
vestment of capital and the employ
ment of labor, has the silver standard
of value, gold not being in use, and if
cheap money is blessing to the labor
ing man he ought to be prosperous and
happy in that country.
The Mexican dollar contains S77.17
grains of pure silver. or nearly six
grains more than is contained in our
dollar, and yet, not being sustained by
a monetary system which keeps it at a
parity with gold, it is worth only about
53 cents in our money. Wages are paid
in silver and are very low in compari-
son with the wages paid in this country
for the same services. in many instances
not being half as much. while the prices
of commodities generally are much
higher than they are here. The prices
of imported articles especially are ex-
brilliantly high in Mexico, because they
have to be paid for abroad in gold, and
the depreciation of their money is so
great that it requires nearly 81 in silver
to pay off 81 in gold.
You have doubtless observed recently
what appears to be quite formidable
demonstration in favor of the free COIN
age Of silver by certain large manufac-
turing interests in the eastern part OF
the country, on the ground that il we
continue to maintain our present stand
ard of value the silver standard coun-
tries, especially India, China and ia
pan, VIII soon be able to undersell them
in the markets of the world. Reduced
to its simplest form, the proposition of
these gentlemen Is that manufacturers
OF certain kinds of goods in this country
cannot continue to pay their laborers
high wages In gold, or its equivalent
and compete successfully in the mar
kets abroad with the manufacturers of
similar goods in silver standard coun-
tries, who pay their laborers low wages
in deprecated silver, and, therefore,
they insist that a monetary system