The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1896-09-05
SILVER AND WAGES.

"The free coinage advocates not only
admit, but claim that the benefits de.
rived from the free coinage Of silver
would be to increase the prices of
property and commodities" So says
Mr.. Bland, and he declares that, under
free coinage, there would be an imme-
diate revival of business, that the mon
ey now boarded would be invested,
and that the debtor would find it easier
to pay his debts. Mr.. Bland is an excel
lent-perhaps the best-authoIity on
the silver side of the currency question.
None of his opponents doubts his sin
cerity. He has been a close student of
finance, and he is adroit and resource
full in argument. But if Mr.. Bland
were ten times ADLER than he is he
would have hard task to convince the
peOple-the farmers, miners, mechan-
les, railroad men, and the millions of
others who depend on wages or salaries
that they can be made prosperous
and happy by increasing the cost of all
the things they haYe to buy.
Mr.. Bland does not prove, and known
facts furnish no warrant for the belief,
that revival of business would result
from free coinage Surprising the
adoption of Mr.. BANDS panacea should
at once contract the currency about 80
per cent. by RELOCATING the $6OO,OOO,OOO
of gold in the country to the list Of
commodities, how would business be
helped by such change?
Suppose the cost of living to be in.
creased about so per cent. by the
change from gold to silver basis, how
will that help the Door mani If there
is any one fact fully established it is
that wages are the last things to rise,
and that they never do rise in proper
ton to the necessaries of life when
cheap currency drives gold out. When
specie payments were suspended dur
ing the war the prices Of merchandise
went up rapidly, but wages followed at
a slow pace, and for years did not equal
the rise in cost of the necessaries of
life. The report of the senate commit
tee in 1893 on the subjects of price and
wages in the United States during a
period of fifty.two years is very in
structive document, and it does not en-
courage the theory that Mr.. Bland con.
tends for. 1t shows that in 1862 the |
wages of labor paid in the then mOder-
ately deprecated currency were not |
quite 3 per cent higher than the gold |
rates previously paid, but that the
prices of 223 articles Of daily consump-
ton were nearly Ia per cent higher; in
1853, when paper money was worth 90 |
cents as compared with gold, wages of |
labor were 101E per cent higher than
when paid in gold, but the prices of
food, clothing, &c, were nearly 40 per
cent higher; in 1854, with the paper
dollar worth 40 cents, wages had risen
25K per cent, but the prices of the nee
essaries of life had advanced 901$ per
cent; in 1865, with the paper dollar
worth So cents, wages showed gain of
43 per cent, but the prices of merchan.
disc an advance of III per cent, having
thus more than doubled; in 1866, with
the greenbacks worth Il cents on the
dollar, wages recorded an advance of
fraction more than SO per cent. and
an advance of so per
cent.
That was the showing made when a
million men were in the army, leaving
heir places in the industries to be ,
lied by others, and when a great war
increased the demand for
he products of labor. Mr.. Bland can I
lot not give any assurance-and he I
AN have no reason to expeet-that a !
Use in the price Of commodities. a rise I
n rents, food, and clothing, will bring !
N corresponding or even a material {
idvance in wages. Does he expect to ]
vim the votes of workingmen for a pol I
cy that win make the cost Of living in l
'roportion to wages greater than it q
low is2-Washington Post. I
Small in size, but great in results. DeWiu's Il
little Early RiSeTs act gently but thoroughly. l
aung indigestion, dyspepsia and eonstipa. y
on. Small pill, safe pill, best pill H. d. =
'latchleY, druggist. =