The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1896-08-13

her greqt wars with Napoleon on a paper
basis. We carried on our war of the great
rebellion on a similar basis. Frm 1902
TIL 1879 there was in this country no prl-
mary money; that is. no gold or silver In
circulation The entire business of the
country was conducted on 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 Demonetixed,
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 1890, during which Pc
Rod 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 1t even
Increase the price Of silver. We never had
greater per capita circulation than In
1894, when 1t amounted to $24.33. and Of
this more than one-third was silver, and
more than one-third gold, and yet wheat
had never been so low since 1870 as 1t was
In that year, and the same was true Of
cotton i cannot now go into further de-
tails, but an examination of our statistical
abstracts will show that the volume of
piihi0iy mOuey, SO-Cdlleu, mas cut no prac-
tical figure In regard to prices or wages.
But 1t is said that there has been a great
fall In prices and that this Is caused
wholly by the appreciation or 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 1t
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 sophistry 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
price-the coin ratio-as before, but would
have to be sold at It's bullion value, like
other products, that 1t 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
out to you how the average annual pro-
duction OF gold, within the last twenty five
years, has exceeded by $24,52O,S76 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, in this connection the fact, which I
have already pointed out, that since 1872
nearly all the worlds product of silver
has been coined into money, 1t 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 a 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 we'll known Aldrich senate report
upon prices and wages Is q table giving
the
Relative Average Wages
in gold Of labor in all occupations, from 1910
till October, 1892 the year 1860 being taken
as basis. at 100. From this table 1t ap-
pears that the lowest level was in 1858,
when we were on paper basis, being only
1872, 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 1891.
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 a standsti,l,
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, 1t certainly
has not diminished or deprecated the-price
of labor. And silver, where 1t 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 ooun-
tries. James f. Connolly, United States
consul in Japan, In his report of last Feb
ruary states:
'sThe 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 UNITED States cur
rency) and that paid for skilled labor at
present will average about 1S cents"
This would be about % and 40 cents
day, respectively, In the currency of Japan.
eral Jernigan, of last October, 1t appears
that the wages In Shanghai, China, last
September were as follows, per day with
board, In our currency: Blacksmith ID
cents. bricklayer 10 cents, carpenter IL
cents, and cotton factory hand, without
board, IS cents.
In Mexico the wages appear to be as fol-
lows, In their currency: Blacksmiths from
81 to $3.50 per day, carpenters from 81 to
$f50, tailors from 81 to 1.5O and factory
hands and common laborers from so to Is
cents per day. If 1t be here noted that
Mexican money Is only worth about 81 cents
"son the dollar Of our currency, 1t will be
seen that the wages in Mexico are
very low, and yet, as you know, Mexico Is
the very best Of the silver standard coun-
tries as to wages.
It Is said that silver has given great
impetus to manufacturing In the far East.
1t has no doubt given a great hep to the
manufacturers, for they can pay for their
raw materials and for their cheap labor In
cheap silver at old gold rates. 1t would no