Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-05-01
CARLISLEATCHICAGO
TELLS WORKlNGMEN PLAINLY HOW FREE COINAGE WOULD iNJuRE THEM.

Prices Rise Quickly but Wages Slowly
 When Money Is DeprecIating-Ex
 ence of United States Chile md Mexico
 With Cheap Money = Wage Farmers
 Would Also Lose One-half of All Past
 Savings Deposited In Banks. Building
 and Loan Associations, Etc., a Total oi
 Billions.
 Secretary of the Treasury John O. Carlisle made another of his masterly speeches on the currency question, in Chicago, on April 15. It was to an im- mense audience composed largely of workingmen, many of whom, especially in the beginning, were skeptical as tG the blessings of 100 cent dollars. The seeretary's argument as to the effects of cheap money on wages was most con vincing and effected notable change in the attitude of his auditors We quote part of his speech on this point:
 Labor cannot be hoarded The idle day is gone forever. Lost wages are nev- CT reimbursed, and therefore steady em- ployment and good pay i'll good money are essential to the comfort and happi- ness of the American laborer and hia wife and children, and he will be un- faithful to himself and to them if he does not insist upon the adoption and maintenance of such policy as will most certainly preserve the value and stability of all our currency and promote the regular and profitable conduct of all our industrial enterprises He cannot prosper when the country is in distress, when it's industries are prostrated, it's commerce paralyzed it's credit broken down, or it's social order disturbed. Nor can he prosper when the fluctuations of the currency are such that he cannot certainly know the value of the dollar In which his wages are paid.
 Money received for wages, like money received on every other account, is val uable only to the extent that it can be exchanged for other commodities, and it is scarcely necessary to suggest that 8 dollar worth 50 cents will not purchase as much i'll the markets US q dollar worth 100 cents. To call dime dol lar would add nothing whatever to it's intrinsic value or to it's purchasing pow CT. If these propositions are correct, it is clear that when wages are paid in a depreciated currency the rates of wages must be increased ill proportion to tho depreciation of the money and in pro- portion to the increase i'll the prices of other things or the laborer will suffer loss.
 But affirm that it is the universal rule that the rates of wages do not in- crease in proportion to the depreciation i'll the value of the money i'll which they are paid, and that when the cur rency is depreciated the rates of wages do not increase i'll proportion to the in crease in the prices of the commodities She laborer is compelled to purchase.
 Our Experience With Cheap Money.
 Congress, carly 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 appreciate, and before the close of the year the paper dollar was worth less than 76 cents ill gold.
 In 1862 the wages of labor, paid in depreciated 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 1868 the wages of labor paid in depreciated paper worth about 69 cents on the dol lar were 101s per cent higher than when paid in gold. but the prices of the articles the laborer had to buy with his wages were nearly 49 per cent higher. In 1864 the wages of labor paid ill de- preciated paper dollars worth 49 cents each had advanced 2516 per cent. but the prices of the necessaries of life had advanced 901s per cent. In 1865 wages paid in paper currency worth 63 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 IF per cent-that is to say, had more than dou- bled, and in 1866 wages paid in cur- rency worth Fl cents on the dollar had advanced fraction more than 53 pey cent from the previous rates in gold, or it's equivalent, but the prices of com modities had advanced 90 per cent. The rise in the rates of wages never corre- sponded with the rise in the prices of oth- CT things until the year 1869. four years after the close of the war, when the value of our currency was Fl cents on the dollar, and it was quite certain that no further depreciation would occur.
 The wages of labor, measured by gold as they were in 1860, when we had sound currency, had fallen about 24 per cent in 1863, more than 19 per cent in. 1864, and nearly A per cent in 1865. when we had depreciated 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 several hundred thonsa0d 1aharnra hod hneu