The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1896-09-29

is scarce or plentiful In the past fifty years
rates of interest have fallen from One-lOurth
to one-half, according to the locality, thus
indicating that there is less scarcity Of money
TO meet business demands than was the case
fifty years ago.
But another and very important factor
comes into the problem Just at this point.
That factor is the matter Of banking facilities
and the use of the medium Of exchange
which passes between them and their
Customers and takes the place Of the more
bulky and less convenient coin. Fifty years
ago the man who engaged in commerce
carried with him the gold with which to
make his purchases Now he deposits his
money in bank, the banker loans given pro
portion of his deposits to those who desire its
immediate use, and it is kept in active circu-
lation meantime. The owner of the gold
takes in its stead Il slip Of paper, draft or
bill Of exchange, good wherever he may pre-
sent it, and if he wants more, it is trans
ferred half way around the world on his de-
mand by telegraph, in the twinkling Of an
eye
Thus tho stock Of money, which has itself
enormously increased, is multiplied many
times by the fact that it is used over and over
again, with ten or twenty times the frequency
that it was half century ago.
But there is one more test of the actual
value Of gold, a test which does not depend
upon theories on tedious inquiry as to quan-
titles Of money or methods Of business trans
action This test is simple one, but the
most important, the most accurate and far
reaching Of all those which have been applied
The real standard of value in tho world is
labor. It is this which produces all com
modities, the necessities Us we'll as the com
| forts and luxuries of life. The food we eat,
the clothes we wear, the houses in which we
| live, the necessities which half century ago
were considered luxuries, arc oil the result
Of labor, and the money which is paid for
thom measures the hours of labor which pro
duces them. labor il, then, the real standard
by which 20 measure gold.
A committee, of the United States Senate
known az the Aldrich Committee made q
| thorough investigation few years ago into thC
question Of wages and prices, and after long
and thorough research made a report, the
accuracy Of which is everywhere accepted
That investigation showed that II days labor
in nearly all the trades would, in 1890, buy
about double the amount Of gold that it did
fifty years earlier, and do it with less hour
Of work in a day. For instance, plasterer
who, in the good old free-silver days Of 1s40
got 81 80 per day were paid $3.50 in 1890
blacksmiths who received $l6O per day il
1870 got $500 in 1880; painters whose wage
in 1910 were Sl25, in 1890 were paid $3.50
wheelwrghts who earned $l.25 in lslO go
$3.50 in 1890; engineers who received $40
per day in 1910 were paid Sl.25 in 1890 and 81
on Taking eleven representative classes o
workingmen, engaged in the particular in
dustres. as a basis, il was found that tn
average rate of wages advanced from S1.3
per day in ,1s4O to S2.37 in 1890, or that al
hour of labor would earn nearly twice a
much gold in 1890 as it did in 1910.
How then can it be assorted that gold ha
appreciated % 1t has deprecated, and tina
highest and noblest of all standards, humal
labor, will to-day buy more of it than it di
fifty years ago, while the deprecated gol
thus purchased can in turn be exchanged fo
more Of other commodities which have sti
further DEPRECATED by the improved method
of production, manufacture and transports
ton which the ingenuity of the human min
have produced in the wonderful age in whic
we are living.