The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1896-08-20

rebellion on similar basis. From 1862
till 1879 there was in this country no pri-
mary money; that is, no gold or silver in
circulation. The entire business of the
country was conducted on a paper basis,
and prices were maintained at much
higher level than when we had free coin
age. From 1873 to 1878 we not only had no
silver in circulation, but silver was
Actually Demonetized,
and yet during that period prices were. on
the whole, on a higher level than during
the five years succeeding the enactment Of
the Sherman law in $780, during which pc
riod silver was not only remonetized, but
was more extensively in circulation than
ever before. The extraordinary and forced
silver imitation of our currency under that
law produced no substantial rise in prices,
or increase in the wages of labor, nor,
except for very brief period did it even
Increase the price of silver. We never had
a greater per capita circulation than In
1894, when it amounted to $24.33. and Of
this more than one-thrd was silver, and
more than one-third gold, and yet wheat
had never been so low since 1870 as it was
In that year, and the same was true Of
cotton. l cannot now go into further de-
tails, but an examination of our statistical
abstracts will show that the volume of
primary money, SO-called has cut no prac-
teal figure in regard to prices or wages.
But 1t is said that there has. been great
fall in prices and that this is caused
wholly by the appreciation rise in gold
as gold is the worlds ultimate measure Of
value 1t Is very strange that neither the
great increase in the production of silver
nor the fact that the free coinage of it
has been suspended in all Caucasian states,
has had, as the advocates of free silver
maintain, no effect upon the price Of silver.
One, whose mind is in a normal state. I'M
biased by sophstry or oratory, would natur
ally suppose that when the supply became
so much more plentiful, and could no longer
be disposed of at a fixed and arbitrary
prlce-the coin ratiO-aS before, but would
have to be sold at it's bullion value, like
other products, that it might, to some
extent, depreciate the price. Such facts
would, undoubtedly, largely depreciate the
price of other products. The law of supply
and demand would, undoubtedly, apply in
such cases, and it is difficult to see why
or how silver is exempt from the same
law. To my mind, these facts have, in the
main, caused the depreciation of silver.
That they may have affected the price of
gold to some extent, | am willing to con-
cede, but such effect has been neutraliZed,
and overcome by the great increase in the
production of gold. / have already pointed
out to you how the average annual pro-
duction of gold, within the last twenty-five
years, has exceeded by $24,52O, SIG yearly
the average annual production of both
gold and silver in the fifty years preceding.
This increased supply has fully met the
increased coinage demand. Had our supply
of silver, within the last twenty-five years,
been at no greater rate than in the fifty
years preceding, and had this supply not
been used for money at all, the increased
supply Of gold would have more than filed
the vacuum. And when we take into ac-
count, i'll this connection the fact, which l
have already pointed out, that since 1872
nearly all the worlds product of silver
has been coined into money, it becomes
all the more apparent that the appreciation
has not been wholly, nor even to a consider
able extent, on the part of gold. but that
silver must Of necessity have deprecated
to very large extent, and, that such de-
probation must have been in far greater
proportion than any possible appreciation of
gold.
But how can we account for the fall of
prices? In the first place the fall has not
been general nor equal. The wages of
labor-the greatest of all commodities-far
exceeding in value the product of our gold
and silver mines, have not fallen in value
but, on the contrary, have greatly increased
since the general suspension of free coinage
In the well known Aldrich senate report
upon prices and wages is table giving
the
Relative Average Wages
IN gold Of labor in all oeeupsSGpfe 1sT taken
as basis. at 100. From this table it ap-
pears that the lowest level was in 1868
when we were on Il paper basis being only
49,, while the highest level was in October
1892, when it was 161.239, and in the mean
time the average hours of labor had been
reduced from eleven in 1860 to ten in 1871
The committee adds this statement at the
foot of the table:
From consideration Of the foregoing
table it becomes evident that there was a
gradual advance in wages from 1910 to 1860
Since that time the advance has been less
regular but more rapid. The period from
1875 to 1880 was marked by standstiu
but since that time the advance has been
continuous. These conclusions are confirmed
by the supplementary Investigations en-
bodied In the report"
To this will add that wages continued to
rise till the panic and crisis of 1893 since
which period, though there may have been
at times less demand for labor, there has,
nevertheless, on the whole been no great or
permanent reduction in wages. Whatever
gold may have done since 1873, it certainly
has not diminished or deprecated the price
of labor. And silver where it has been re-
leased from the tolls of god and has had
the whole field to itself, as in China Mexico
and Japan, has fallen far short of giving the
recompenSe to human labor that it has re-
ceived in gold standard or bimetallic coun-
tries. James F. Connolly, United States
consul in Japan, in his report of last Feb
ruary states:
'"rhe daily wages paid for mining and I'M
skilled labor necessary for the production
Of what may be termed raw materials will
average about 10 cents Omitted States cur
rency), and that paid for skilled labor at
present will average about IS cents''
This would be about % and 40 cents
day, respectively, in the currency of Japan
From Of
eral Jernigan, of last October, it appears
that the wages In Shanghai China, last
September were as follows, per day with
board, in our currency: Blacksmith -
cents, bricklayer 10 cents, carpenter II
cents, and cotton factory hand, without
board, IS cents.
In Mexico the wages appear to be as fol-