The herald., 1896-09-13

/
increased production. AS great areas
of land have been opened up to the rails
ing of farm products, the quantity of
such production has increased, and the
demand not increasing in the same pro-
portion, prices have logically and in
| evitably fallen. 1t does not require a
| great effort of the mind to comprehend
that if you increase the quantity of
wheat in a single year enormously, with
about the same number of consumers
| as before, that prices will go down.
| With a given number of consumers and
| an increased production, with more
competitors and no more consumers, the
| cheaper will be the products. What in
| creases the prices of any product is that
| many people want and can only get it
| by paying better price than some one
| else is willing to pay. The more people
who want an article the better price it
| will command. The more people who
want your labor the better wages you
| will receive. (Applause,) If there is
| one days labor for sixteen working
| men, you would not get as good wages
| as though there were sixteen days for
| one workingman. daughter and ap-
| plause.) And that is the sort of 16 to 1
| we want in the United States. CAP
plause.) The changes in the prices OF
| agricultural products or of any other
| commodities which have been cheapened
| in their production by improved ma
chinery and more competitive fields
with great production, do not prove that
| gold has advanced in value, but simply
that such products have fallen in prices
Is not the labor of men rather than the
thing his labor creates the real test ?
Have the wages paid to labor since 1873,
as measured by gold, decreased? That
Is the crucial question. We resumed
specie payments on a gold basis Janu-
ary 1, 1879. Since that time wages and
salaries have not declined, but rather
risen.
The nominee then quoted official sta
tistics to prove this assertion, referring
also to the special committee of the
United States senates which in 1892 in
vestigated the subject of wages and
prices. He added:
This committee reported that in
twenty-one of the selected industries
wages were in money 40 per cent higher
higher in 1890 than in 1860, and the prices
| of staple articles had fallen between 1880
and 1890 in some instances third
In other words there never had been a
| time in our history when work was so
abundant or wages so high, whether
measured by the currency in which
they were paid or by the power to supply
the necessaries and comforts of life
(Applause.
That's what you left in 1892. Is there
| a workman in the United States who
does not want that condition back
again? (Great applause)
| Since 1860 wages have advanced 681a
per cent, according to the table of the
| senate committee. The wages paid in
1860 were in times of silver and thirteen
years before the suspension of free coin
age of silver. In 1890, according to the
| census, the occupations of persons over
II vars of age numbered 1926, $50. This
| great army of which you are a part,
constituting more than one-fifth of our
| population work for wages, and are
| paid in money measured by gold, that is
when you have work. YOU have had no
| other kind of money since 1885, and the
working people of no other country of
! the world have had any better money.
T.l.ss->-.rA fh fhA AAili-ss r-,e~-ry-, ~ 70
the most prosperous in 1892 of any work.
ing people in the world and more pros
porous than they had ever been before.
The cheapening of commodities comes
from the introduction and application of
labor-saving machinery, both on the
farm and in the factory. There Is scarce
ly any branch of production which does
not turn out more commodities per hour
| of labor than in 1878. 1t would be just
| as reasonable to say that the suspension
| of the free coinage of silver in 1873 re-
| duced the price of steel rails from $120
| per ton to $25 or $50 per ton, the price
now prevailing, as to say that that act
| reduced the price of wheat. The price
of wheat is fixed by the law of supply
and demand, which is eternal. Gold has
not made long crops or short crops,
high prices or low prices. Gold has not
opened up the wheat fields of Russia
India or the Argentine republic, nor
will free silver destroy them. Gold has
not kept up the freight rates for the
agricultural producer and the stopping
of free coinage in 1873 has not advanced
it. Our working people have bought the
necessaries and comforts of life cheaper
for themselves and families during al
these years since 1873 and down to 1892
They are getting better wages, paid ir
gold. for their labor than ever before
In the United States everything has
been cheapened but man, and as nearly
as l can ascertain, in free countries, ,sucl
| IS Mexico, Central and South America
man alone has been cheapened; every
thing he needs has been steadily in
creased, with constant fluctuations b,
steady decrease in the price of silver
With the gold basis and the protective
tariff from 1879 to 1893, the workingmei
of this country We're never before 81
steadily employed; they never before re
ceived such good W7lges; they never be
| fore We're paid in better money and thei
wages never before bought as many o
the necessaries, comforts and luxurie
of life. (Applause.)
If a gold standard deprived the Ameri
can toiler of single days work, or hi
family of a single comfort or reduce
his wages or made life harder for him,
would be against it. AS it does not an
as it promotes the general prosperit
. and upholds the national credit an
| T Pry nd cb "a CT 70