The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1896-06-26
CHILE,S EXPERIENCE.
Her Wage Farmers Paid the Cost OF
Cheap Money.

Cheap Money.
As an illustration of how cheap
money robs labor, Secretary Carlisle
said in his Chicago speech:
The recent experience of therepub-
lie of Chile furnishes another impress
sive warning to the wage Garner
against the evils of deprecated cur
rency. That country had for a long
time the so-cailed double standard of
value, with coinage of legal tender
gold and silver at the rate of 1859 to
1. but as this was a considerable I'M
LIBERALIZATION of silver the coins OF that
metal went out of circulation and gold
constituted the meaium of exchange
and actual standard of value until
about the beginning of the year 1876,
but as soon as the commercial value
of silver fell below the radio Of 1889
to l, as compared with gold, all the
gold went out of circulation and the
country had silver monometalism.
n,,1S75, before this change took place,
the peso, or dollar of Chile, was worth
about 8Sa cents in our money, but IN
1885, ten years after, gold went out
and silver came in, the peso was worth
less than SO cents in our money. Sill
yer continued to depreciate, and, be-
sides, large amounts of paper cur.
rency were issued by the government
and the banks, and in 1895, 20 years
after the change from the gold basis
to the silver basis, the peso was worth
only about 81 cents in our money.
Let us see now what effect this cheap
money, or, in other words. this system
of silver monometalism which you are
asked to adopt here, had upon the
wages of labor in that country Our
minister at Santiago has very recently
made an official investigation and re-
pert upon this subject, which has not
yet been published, from which it ap-
pears that in the northern part of Chile,
where labor has always been in greater
demand than elsewhere on account of
the great nitrate fields located IN that
section of the country, very little
change took place even in the nominal
rates of wages Notwithstanding the
great fall in the value of the currency
that is, laborers continued to re-
ceive in deprecated money about the
same amount they received before in
good money.
In 1875, when the peso was worth
49, cents, mechanic, boiler maker,
a blacksmith, carpenter, fireman
and an ordinary laborer received to.
gether for days work 49, pesos, or
$16.35 in our money; in 1885 the same
persons received for the same work
2Os pesos, but ewing to the deprecia-
ton of the currency this was equal to
only $10.93 in our money, and in
1895, 20 years after the country had
descended to silver basis, the same
Iaborers received for the same work
25 IS pesos, but the value of the peso
was less than 35 cents, and conse-
quently their wages amounted to only
So. "a in our money, or just about one
half of what they had received 20 years
before.
In the central part of the country
the result was substantially the same,
though not quite so injurious to the
laborer. In 1875 days wages for
five men-a mason, carpenter, gas
filter, painter and an ordinary Ia
borer-amounted altogether to Sc. As
in our money, but in 1885 the wages
of the same men were S.. So, and in
1895 $4.99. In the southern part of
the republic there was some increase
in the nominal amount of wages paid |
between 1876 and 1889 ON account of
the fact that line of railway was then
being constructed through that region
by foreign capital, but since the latter
date the general average rate of wages
has remained substantially the same,
paid in constantly depre-
ciating currency.
Our minister to Chile, after very
careful examination of the entire stu
alton in that country, says:
SIT may be taken for granted that
in Chile, as in all other countries
which have had like financial expe-
rience, the consequences of cheap
have weighed most heavily
upon the classes that are least able to
support the burden"
The evils of silver monometalism
and deprecated currency finally be-
came intolerable in that country, and,
it produces considerable sill.
yer and very little gold, it has recently