The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-08-22
THE RELATION OF
PRICES TO WAGES
Convincing Reply to the Recent Speech
Of Cardidats Bryan.
FREE SILVER CRAZE CUT TO PIECES
Text of an Address Last Tuesday
Evening ut Dolgeviiie, N. ", by
Professor George Canton of New
York, Editor of Gunton's Magazine
and Recognized Master of Eco
nOmics..DOn't Fail to Read 1t.


nOmics..DOn't Fail to Read 1t.
Some of our Democratic friends have
! made themselves believe that the free
coinage of silver is the wand Of their
emancipation from the oppression Of
the rich. And the more clearly they
can make it appear that the free COIN
age of silver at 16 to ! will enable debt
ors to defraud their creditors and force
! the United States to cancel its Obligl-
! tions at fifty three cents on the dollar.
! the more successful their scheme APP
pears. TO spoil the Egyptians seems
| to them the acme Of success. They APP
pear to have worked themselves into
! the belief that every injury inflicted up
ON capital is a benefit to labor, and %
| leally defraud creditors is the cnanci-
! patton of debtors. In their shortsight-
ed eagerness for economic spoliation
| they forgot that to dcspOli creditors re-
! acts upon debtors by preventing future
| borrowing, and that the prostration of
| capital reacts most severely upon labor
by closing the avenues for employment.
| In support of this policy of helping the
poor by injuring the rich through the
| debascment of our money, they present
certain specific arguments which have
very convincing effect upon those who
! have not taken pains to inform them
| selves upon the subject, and II is no re-
| ilection upon the general Intelligence OF
the community to say that these rep
| resent very large number. In the
! first place the money question is dif-
| fcult and complex one to understand,
and second, there has been little public
| interest and discussion of the subject
except from the free silver point of
| view.
In justification Of their policy they
affirm:
First. that the act of 1873 demonetiz-
ing silver struck down half our pri-
mary money, and consequently cut
prices in two" to the great impover-
ishment of the farmers and other pro-
| ducers.
Second, that this was a departure
from the principle of bimetallism, when
| is the money of the constitution, ana
that the only remedy for these evils is
an immediate return 10 bimetaliism,
| which they insist necessitates the Tree
coinage of silver at l6 to |.
Third, that restoring the free com
of silver would re-establish the mone-
tary and Industrial conditions of 1877
Fourth, that this would double prices
and create general prosperity.
| IF these claims are true we ought all
to be in favor of the free coinage OF
silver; but are they true Let us see.
SILVER NOT DEMONETIZED.
The first proposition assumes to be
| statement of fact about which there
should be no real difference of opinion
| among honest students. To demonet-
iZc silver means to deprive it of use as
| full legal tender money, and this Is
what they mean when they say II
"struck down half our primary money
| Now, Mr.. Bryan knows, every silver
l., ND way
person in his audience knows that sill
yer was not driven out of use as money.
You all know that you can pay just as
many debts and buy just as many
goods with ten silver dollars as you
can with ten gold dollars. In fact,
more than half the money, very 1re-
uuently quarters of 1t, winch you
receive as wages and use in the ordin-
AIRY retail payments is silver or silver
| certificates. In fact, the act OF lSio
did not demonetize nor In the siightest
degree impair single dollar OF staha,
| ard money. On the contrary, nearly all
| the silver money we have has come
into existence since the so-called crime
of 1878. oo
If the twenty years from 1873 to lS93
we coined forty times as many silver
dollars as we did during the whole per-
iod of free coinage from the foundation
of the government to 1878. Nor was
this peculiar to this country. FROM
1871 to 1876 thirteen of the leading COM
mercial nations stopped the free com
age of silver, and since 1873 hity-seEen
per cent. more silver has been added
TO the worlds monetary circulation
| than was added during the whole pre-
ceding seventy-two years of the GEN.
tury. ,..,
They also tell US that the demoneti-
| zation of silver stimulated the demand
for gold in q corresponding proportion,
| which has caused the appreciation OF
gold and the corresponding decline IN
the value of silver. Here again their
facts are at fault. Since 1873 the amount
of gold added to the worlds monetary
circulation is fifty-five per cent. less
than the amount coined during the
previous seventy-two years OF the CEN
fury. In other words, as compared Witn
the seventy-two years from 1900 to 1915,
the worlds coinage of gold has dimin-
ished Cfty-five per cent, while the
coinage of silver during the same period
has increased fifty-seven per cent.
In view Of these facts what are we to
think of the statement that "haif our
primary money was struck down hy the
crime of 1892" Yet this statement was
the very foundation upon which the
Take away this and their whole fabric
falls.
DID NOT AFFECT PRICES.
Nor is it true that prices have been
reduced fifty per cent. as Coin, Bryan
and other free silverites undualiiiedly
affirm. OF course. there are some COM
modities whose price has fallen fifty
per cent. during the last twenty years.
| how rtH r.pin " gI =
not fallen at all. and a. large number
that have risen from ten To forty per
cent If the fall in prices were due en-
| tirely to the change in the value of
| money 1t would be the same with all
commodities. SunnOse some one should
| affirm that there were two flag poles
in a certain field and the shadow of
one heightened while that Of the other
shortened. Every school boy would
laugh. knowing that he shadow. being
the result of the suns rays, must both
shorten and lengthen with the rising
and setting Of the SUE. The same is
true of prices. so far as they are affected
by money. IF an Appreciation in the
| value of money caused q decline OF the
price in one thing, it must for the same
reason cause a decline in the rrice Of
| everything because it necessarily af-
fects everything alike. But if we wish
to be entirely honest in discussing the
rise and fall of prices we must not COM
pare 1873 with the present. because 1873
was in the midst of the imitation period.
The finance committee of the United
States senate has published the most
complete report on prices in this coun-
try and Europe from 1852 to 1891 that
has ever been issued. According to the
facts collected by that committee. the
general average prices in 1891 were
only eight per cent. less than in 1860
and 1861. Eighteen hundred and sixty
one was the last year before 1879 that
prices We're on q gold basis. During
the war, as you all know, gold was at
high premium. In 1854, for instance,
it took 21f dollars in greenbacks to buy