The silver blade. (Rathdrum, Idaho) 1895-1903, 1896-04-18

ne 90 much OF the neceSSarieS of 4
as you can purchase now. and ;f
, ,1's years OF contention you should at
90. - succeed in so adjusting the wages
se'l "ouia procure at the higher prices Of
just what they will procure
y" at the existing prices, what would
sou nave gained by the change from the !
oid TO the new conditions?
me speaker then quoted from tho re- |
port OF subcommittee of the committee
on nnance Of the senate submitted March
., 1885, on the course of prices of labor and
the prices of 223 articles of general con-
sumption during period Of 50 wears IN
Guiding the time when specie payments
were abandoned after the beginning Of the
civil war
WAGE STATISTICS.
IN 1863, he said, the price of labor had
increased l01a per cent and other prices
- per cent. In 1864 the advances were
zoR and slE respectively; In 1865 they were
Is and III per cent. He further calls at
tention to the fact that during those
years the government, by it's army and
navy, had withdrawn hundreds OF thous-
ands of men from competition Of the la
Dor of the country. Our neighboring re-
government very similar to our own,
with an area Of 10000 square miles and
population of only about 100000. with
almost marvellous natural resources
awaiting development and Offering a
most inviting field for the investment Of
capital and the employment of labor.
has the silver standard Of value, gold not
being in use, and If cheap money is a
| blessing to the laboring man he ought
to be prosperous and happy in that coun-
try. The Mexican dollar contains 377.17
! grains Of pure silver, or nearly six grains
more than is collected in our dollar, and
| yet, not being sustained by monetary
system which keeps it at parity with
gold, it is worth only about So cents in our
money. Wages are paid in silver. and
are very low in comparison with the
wages paid in this country for the Same
services.
You have doubtless observed recently
what appears to be quite formidable
demonstration in favor of the free coin
age of silver by certain large manufacture
ing interests in the eastern part OF TIT
country on the ground that If we CON
tinue to maintain our present standard o
value the silver standard countries, espe
|, cially India, China and Japan, will sool
be able to undersell them in the market
of the world Reduced to it's simples
! form the proposition Of these gentlemel
t Is that the manufacturers of certain kind
J OF goods in this country can not continu
; to pay their laborers high wages i'll gol
, or it's equivalent and compete successful
t ly in the markets abroad with the manu-
l facturers of similar goods in silver stand
: ard countries who pay their laborers 10y
t wages in deprecated silver, and there
4 fore they insist that monetary systel
s shall be adopted here which will CIV
1 them the advantage Of paying for the
: labor in deprecated silver. The theor
: is that with free coinage of legal tende
silver the wages of the labor interes
n | nf This country would be paid in sllVe
4 dollars worth about as much as gold 40
: lars but products of labor, which wou
n belong to the employer, would be SO
= for gold in the markets abroad, and u
gold thus obtained could be exchange
a for silver at about the rate OF one oo
- lar in gold for two dollars In silver; ai
=, tbns the process would go on, the empio
q ar getting gold of full value ana the
- borer getting deprecated silver wnio
! IN the opinion of these gentlemen "ou
= be q most happy solution OF TINS que
= t;on # the interests OF LABOR are
ho loft entirely out of consideration 81
20 - wore not reasonably certain tna1
~ sudden revolution In our monetary ~
" .a,,, would at once arrive, the progress
- al orr interests and produce almost VI
, ,,arsal bankruptcy, this scheme 10 ma
~ 40 ann,over very rich and the lapol
:" varv moor might be worthy OF serlo
- .ans,5 alteration. but the American iapoi
= Sos = right to demand pay for ms "o
10 - as GOOD money as the employer
~ na,vas for his products in any part
m celVos na when he surrenders Il