The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1897-03-04
roce,yed q oep,s .pd mills ip.te.d q

NO toooi!o~ w 0en'' e''N ''iia'' AA'seee ~
gold dollar. s,-'- s45 = s7set
In other words. the wages Of labor. meas
ured by gold as they We're In 1900 when wshad'
q sound currency, had fallen about "A per cent
in 1853, more than 10 per cent Iii lou4. jund-
nearly "A per cont In 1855, when We had .
deprecated currency, and, gentlemen. the
force Of this illustration Is greatly auge nted
by the facts that these reductions In ates
Of wages occurred at o time when several hun
dred thousand laborers had been withdrawn
from tho field. Of competition, when the gov
eminent was engaged in the prosecution Of a
great war and was expanding money lavishly
for all kinds Of supplies for the army and
navy, and when the prices Of oil the products
Of labor had largely increased.
Surely IL there ever can be time when an
abundance Of cheap money will increase the
wages and improve the condition Of laboring
mon these results ought to have been accom-
plished under the combination Of favorable
circumstances existing, especially in the great
centers of industry, from 1861 to 1855, and yet
there has been no other period in our history
when the rates Of wages fell so rapidly or 80
low.
Chile's Sad Experience.
The recent experience OF the republic oe
Chile furnishes another impressive warning to
the wage Garner against the evils OF de.~r.-
ciated currency That country had for long
time the so called double standard of value,
with coinage Of legal tender gold and silver at
the rate of $50 to !, but as this was a consid-
cradle INTERPRETATION Of silver the coins OF
that metal went out Of circulation and gold
constituted the medium of exchange and actu-
al standard Of value until about the beginning
of the year 1875, but as soon as the commercial
value Of silver fell below the ratio Of 1888 to
as compared with gold all the gold went out
of circulation and the country had silver mon
ometallism. In 1875. before this change took
place. the peso or dollar Of Chile, was worth
about 8S1a cents in our money, but in 1885, ten
years after, gold went out and silver came in,
the peso was worth less than IS cents in our
money. Silver continued to depreciate and,
besides large amounts Of paper currency were
issued by the government and the banks and
in 1896, 20 years after the change from the gold
basis to the silver basis, the peso was worth
only about 341a cents in our money.
Let US see now what effect this cheap money,
Or in other words, this system Of silver mono
metallism which you are asked to adopt here,
had upon the wages Of labor in that country.
Our minister at Santiago has very recently
made an official investigation and report upon
this subject, which has not yet been published,
from which 1t appears that in the northern
part of Chile, whore labor has always been in
greater demand than elsewhere on account OF
the great nitrate fields located In that section
Of the country, very little change took place
even in the nominal rates Of wages notwith'
standing the great fall In the value Of the cur
rency-that U.s. laborers continued to receive
in deprecated money about the same amount
they received before in good money. In 1873,
when the peso was worth 8875 cents, me-
chanic o boiler maker, a blacksmith, car
penter, fireman and an ordinary laborer re-
ceved together for days work ISL pesos, or
s1685 in our money; In 1885 the same persons
received for the same work 2OA pesos, but ow-
ing to tho depreciation Of the currency this
was equal to only sl0.o3 in our money. and in
1895, 70 years after the country had descended
to q silver basis, the same laborers RECEIVED for
the same work 25.6b pesos, but the valne of the
peso was less than IS cents, and consequently
their wages amounted to only $S.3i in our mon
ey, or just about onehalf of what they had re-
ceived 20 years before. In the central part of
the country the result was substantially the
same, though not quito so injurious to the la
borer. In 1875 days wages for five men-a
mason, q carpenter, o gasftter, a painter and
an ordinary laborer-amounted altogether to
$645 in our money, but in 1885 tho wages OF
the same men were $3.50, and in 1895 $780, In
the southern part Of the republic there was
some increase in the nominal amount of wages
paid between 1876 and 1889 on account of the
fact that a line of railway was then being con.
structed through that region by foreign cap1-
tai, but since the latter date the general aver
age rate of wages has remained substantially
the same, although paid in u constantly depre-
ciating currency.
Our minister to Chile, after very careful
examination of the entire situation in that
country, says:
at may be taken for granted that in Chile,
as in all other countries which have had like
financial experience, tho consequences Of cheap
money have weighed most heavily upon the
classes that are least able to support the bur-
den."
The evils Of silver monometallism and de-
preciated currency finally became intolerable
in that country, and, although it produces
considerable silver and very little gold, it has
recently adopted the gold standard of value.
Japan's Experience.
In nearly every country in the world having
the gold standard Of value the wages of labor
have increased materially during the last 20
years, and at the same time the purchasing
power Of the money in which wages are paid
has increased also, while in the countries hay
ing the silver standard Of value wages have
been actually reduced by the depreciation Of
the currency to such an extent that the labor
err is in q much worse condition than he was
at the beginning of that period Japan, by
far the most progressive and prosperous coun-
try in the cast, coins both gold and silver at
the ratio of 10, llS to !, n ratio which greatly
overvalues silver and, es the government does
not maintain the parity of the two metals, the
currency is on Il deprecated silver basis
Wages are paid in silver, of course, because
the laboring men and women always get the
cheapest money in circulation, and they gen
orally pay the highest prices for the articles
they buy for the reason that their purchases
are usually made in small quantities at time.
The Japanese silver yen is worth little less
than 80 cents in our money, and when the
wages of labor, paid in this deprecated coin,
are reduced to our standard of value, they APP
pear SO insignificant that it is difficult to UNI
dnrstand how the people who receive tho mis-
cradle pittance can live and maintain their
families. The average daily earnings of u
brickayer amount to SO cents; blacksmiths,
carpenters and cabinet makers receive 80
cents; compositors in printing offices, 20 cents;
pressmen, 20 cents; roofers, 20 cents; stoneeut-
tiers, 50 cents; ordinary tailors, 2S cents; weav-
ers, 10 cents. And in all the long list Of occu-
pations and wages no laborer, however skill
ed can DO found who receives more than 10
cents per day, except porcelain artists in the
great city of Yokohama, who get " cents Fac
tory laborers even in that city, where most of
tho great industries are carried on by Ameri-
can or European capitalists, receive q cents
per day, and in other parts Of che country
they receive less.
Mexico's Experience.
Our neighboring republic OF Mexico, with
constitutional government very similar to our
own with an area of 767 GOO square miles and
population Of only about II, 600 900, with al.
most marvellous natural resources awaiting
development and offering most inviting field
for tho investment Of capital and the employ
ment of labor, has the silver standard of
value, gold not being in use And if cheap
money is blessing to the laboring man, he
ought to be prosperous and happy in that
mi in.
grains Of pure silver, or nearly grains more
than is contained in our dollar, and yet, not
being sustained by u 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 arc very low in comparison with
the wages paid in this country for the same
services, in many instances not being half as
much while the prices of commodities gem
orally are much higher than they are here.
The prices of imported articles especially are
exorbitantly high in Mexico, because they
have to be paid for abroad in gold, and the de-
probation of their money is SO great that it
requires nearly 81 in silver to pay 81 in gold.
Although our own silver dollar contains less
fine silver than the Mexican dollar, one Of
ours is nearly equal in exchangeable value to
two of theirs, because here the coinage is linn
tied and the government issues tho coins on
its own account and has pledged its faith and
credit to keep them as good as gold, pledge
that has been faithfully kept up to this time
notwithstanding the complaints and denuncia'
tons of our free coinage opponents. Under
our policy the dollar paid to the laboring man