Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1896-09-17
FREE SILVER IN INDIA
1T HAS REDUCED LABOR TO THE
VERGE OF STARVATION.
Wages Have Remained Stationary While
the Price of Necessaries Have Gone Up
Out of the Reach of Toilers.

Gates is that in India silver furnishes
stable currency. That the people of that
country are happy with it; that they are
prosperous and getting an increasing
share of the worlds trade; that while
silver has fallen when measured by gold,
it has not fallen when measured by other
products. The claims cover a wide
range and are intended to prove that
silver on a strictly silver basis makes
an ideal currency for happy and pros
porous people.
The silver men have been unfortunate
in citing Mexico as an example for this
country. Mexico lies too near our doors
and knowledge of the desperate condition
backward land is too easily accessible.
India as a guide for America is an
equally unfortunate selection. Like ey-
cry other free silver country it is a land
of ignorance, with the great mass of it's
population in wretched depths of poverty
beyond the conception of Americans.
For all but the privileged few life is
one of endless struggle for mere exist
ence, and the gaunt specter of famine
is ever ready to stalk through this sore
stricken land.
I. l.. Hauser, a tea merchant of Chi
cago, who has spent the greater part of
the last thirty-fve years in India, where
he has a branch house and is interested
in tea and in several agricultural ma
chimes of his own invention adapted to
India, being a close student has made
careful study of conditions in that land
and this. Long residence has given him
opportunity to carefully watch the vari-
GUS changes which the past quarter CEN
fury has brought about. Seated in his
library. surrounded by curios gathered
in a life spent in the Orient and with
official and private publications concern
ing the country at hand for ready ref
erence, Mr.. Hauser talks most enter
tainingly.
''There is no gold coinage in India. The
unit of circulation is the silver rupee,
which has no fixed value. Its worth va
price of bullion or bar silver in the Eu-
ropean market. To appreciate the
changes in the value of the rupee, it's
equivalent in American money in 1851
was 55 cents; SO cents in 1861; AZ cents
in 1871; Al cents in 1881 and 81 cents
in 1891. The depreciation in recent years
has been rapid: in 1898 worth 81 cents
and in 1894 only 25 cents.
1.-The subsidiary coins are anas, 16 be-
ing equal to rupee; pice "copper" 4
equaling an ana; pies, also copper, -
equaling one ana. The lowest form of
currency are cowries, kind Of shell,
3S4O being counted as equivalent to
cowries are used by the poorest people to
purchase salt. irewood and the barest
necessities of life. 1t is a fixed law in
finance that the poorer the people the
cheaper the money and the smaller the
denominations into which that money is
divided.
1T is stock argument among
silver men that the value of silver
when measured by all other prod
ucts has not fallen. This is an as
sumption that is directly contrary to the
facts. In India, strictly silver using
chasing power of silver when measured
by other products has declined at such
a rate as to keep pace with the decline in
the value of silver when measured by
gold. In other words the purchasing
power of the money of India has f1uctu-
ated and deprecated according to the
changes in the price of silver in London.
This fact entirely upsets the claim of the
white metal men that silver is stable
money metal and that it is gold that has
appreciated instead of silver that has de,
preciated."
Taking down large blue bound book
entitled prices and Wages" compiled by
the Assistant Secretary of State for In
dia and issued by ''the Finance and Com
merce Department" Mr.. Hauser turned
to series of tables showing the pur-
chasing power of the rupee over certain
staple products for long series of years.
These tables cover every market CEN
ter in India and show the average pur-
chasing power of the rupee in each for
many years. Selecting Cawnpore as
typical market it is shown that in 1871
one rupee would purchase 4S pounds of
wheat; in 1881, 40 pounds; in 1892, %
pounds. Of rice it would buy 81 pounds
in 1871; 81 pounds in 1881; % pounds
in 1892. Of barley it bought 62 pounds
1891. Ut grain equivalent to oats) it
bought 4S pounds in 1871; 40 pounds in
1881; 81 pounds in 1891.
'"Ihese tables show. and my own per-
sonal experience corrobOrates them, that
as the price Of silver went down lesser
amounts of goods could be purchased for
rupee. The same result would follow
the silver standard. The great hard
ship Of such a decline in the value of
money, or what is another way of put
ting it. such an imitation of prices when
measured by a debased standard of
money, is that all prices do not f1uctuate
in the same proportion, and the wages
of labor change but slowly. This makes
such fluctuations bear most heavily upon
those who are least able to bear such
burden, the people whose daily bread
depends upon their daily labor. Their
wages go UP slowly if at all, while their
necessities of life advance rapidly, max
ing it impossible for them to purchase
as much. This has taken place in India
until large part of the population of
that unfortunate country are perpetually
on the verge of starvation.
ITO appreciate the desperate situation
of the natives of India and to see how
the decline in silver has reduced them
/ to extremties. let us consult this official
report and see what it says about wages
1T gives the wages per month of able
bodied agricultural laborers' in Unit
ed States money at Lucknow as $1.64 in
1871, $1.23 in 1881. $1.4S in 1891. At
Bombay $40 in 1871. $500 in 1881,
$4.39 in 1891. At Calcutta S1SS in
1871, 50 cents in 1881, S1.3S in 1891
With the single exception of Bombay,
where the European population is large,
farm laborers now get less than they
received in 1871. With cost of living
higher and wages lower farm laborers
are certainly not enjoying many blessings
from a deprecated currency. Let's see
how other laborers are doing. Take the
following monthly wages, again from
this official report, and see how three
classes of skilled abor have Jared I'M
der a deprecated currency similar to
that which Mr.. Bryan asks this coun-
try to accept. Wages of masons, car
penters and bricklayers: