San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-05-28
CARLISLE AT CHICAGO.
rells workmen Plainly How Free Coin.
age Would InJure Them.

Secretary of tho Treasury John G.
Carlisle made another of his mastery
speeches on the currency question, in
Chicago, on April Is. 1t was to an inn.
mense audience composed largely OF
worbingmen, many of whom, especially
in the beginning, were skeptical as to
the blessings of 100 cent dollars. The
secretary's argument as to the effect of
cheap money on wages was most con-
vincing and effected a notable change
in the attitude of his auditors. We
quote part of his speech on this point:
Money received for wages, like money
received on every other account, is val
liable only to the extent that it can be
exchanged for other commodities, and
it is scarcely necessary to suggest that
a dollar worth so cents will not pur-
chase as much in the markets as dol
lar worth 100 cents. To call dime a
dollar would add nothing whatever to
its intrinsic value or to its purchasing
power. If these propositions are cor
rect, it Isl clear that when wages are
paid in deprecated currency the rates
VI NC lhSlCesoSu III PiOboi-
ton to the depreciation of the money
and in proportion to the increase in the
prices of other things or the laborer
will suffer loss. But 1 affirm that it
is the universal rule that the rates of
wages do not increase in proportion to
the depreciation in the value. of the
money in which they are paid, and that
when the currency is deprecated the
rates of wages do not increase in pro-
portion to the increase in the prices of
the commodities the laborer is COM
PEELED TO purchase. If there has been
single exception to this rule in this or
in any other country, my investigations
have not enabled me to find it, and do
not believe one can be found.
Congress, early in the year 1862, in
augurated the policy of issuing legal
tender paper, gold was driven out of
circulation, specie payments were sus-
pended, the currency began at once to
depreciate, and before the close of the
year the paper dollar was worth less
than &c cents in gold.
''In 1862 the wages of labor, paid in
deprecated paper, were less than per
cent. higher in paper than when paid in
gold, but the prices OF the 223 articles
used by the laborers and other people
in the maintenance of their families
were nearly IS per cent. higher than
they were when paid in gold. In 1863
the wages of labor paid in deprecated
paper worth about 60 cents on the dol
lar were 10k per cent. higher than
when paid in gold, but the prices of the
articles the laborer had to buy with his
wages were nearly 40 per cent. higher.
In 1864 the wages of labor paid in de-
preciated paper dollars worth 40 cents
each had advanced 25h per cent, but
the prices of the necessaries of life had
advanced 90R per cent. In 1865 wages
paid in paper currency worth 60 cents
on the dollar had advanced 43 per cent.
above the rates previously paid in gold,
or its equivalent, but the prices of COM
modities had advanced nearly 1T per
cent.-that is to say, had more than
doubled, and in 1866 wages paid in a
currency worth II cents on the dollar
had advanced fraction more than SO
per cent. from the previous rates in
gold, or its equivalent, but the prices of
commodities had advanced 90 per cent.
The rise in rates of wages never cor
responded with the rise in the prices of
other things until the year 1869, four
years after the close of the war, when
the value of our currency was II cents
on the dollar, and it was quite certain
that no further depreciation would oc-
cur.
The wages of labor, measured by
gold as they were in 1860, when we had
a sound currency, had fallen about "A
per cent. in 1863, more than 20 per cent.
in 1864, and nearly A per cent. in 1865,
when we had a deprecated currency,
and, gentlemen, the force of this illus
tration is greatly augmented by the
facts that these reductions in the rates
of wages occurred at time when sew
eral hundred THOUSAND laborers had
been withdrawn from the field of COM
petition, when the government was en-
gagged in the prosecution of great war
and was expanding money lavishly for
all kinds of supplies for the army and
navy, and when the prices of all the
products of labor had largely increased.
The recent experience of the repub-
lie of Chill furnishes another impress
sive warning to the wage-earner
against the evils of deprecated cur
rency. In 1878 the peso, or dollar of
Chilli, was worth about ss1s cents in
our money, but in 1885, ten years after
gold went out and silver came in, the
peso was worth less than Sc cents in our
money. Silver continued to depreciate,
and, besides, large amounts of paper
currency were issued by the govern
ment and the banks, and in 1895, 20
years after the change from the gold
basis 10 the silver basis, the peso was