The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-31

If President Gompers could put prejudice
aside and be as intelligent on the money
question as he is in regard to immigration
and Debsism he could not be guilty of the
Ignorance displayed in the reply which he
has made to Secretary Gage. It would take
several columns of space to point out any
considerable number of his assertions which
are not sustained by facts and history One
of these glaring exhibitions of ignorance
will serve as sample of others. He gives
as the reason for opposition to the retire
ment of the greenbacks that it will bring
the country nearer to a gold basis than it
ever has been. The United States has been
on gold basis since 1884, when the weight
of gold coins was reduced. At the present
time every greenback presented to the treas
ury is redeemed in gold. which of itself
places the country on gold basis, so that
their retirement can mean nothing else than
the putting of gold in circulation in the
place of greenbacks.
The argument which Mr.. Gompers makes
in regard to the fall of prices and the gold
standard will not hold. The price of labor,
under a gold standard. steadily advanced in
this country from 100 in 1860 to 157 in 1892.
If the prices of all the necessaries of life
have fallen during that period, is it not so
much the better for men who work for
wages? The chief cause of the fall of prices
is the cheapened production by reason of
iabor-savng machinery and the factory sys-
tenn. Shoes. for instance, have not fallen 40
per cent since 1860 because of any change in
the currency, but because in a factory with
labor-saving machines five men can make
more shoes than could one hundred when
all the work was done by hand. The hun
dred men are not thrown out of employment
because shoes have been so cheapened and
the means of purchasing so increased that
thousands of persons can have two pairs a
year now when they could scarcely get one
pair in two years previously. AS for the
shoemaker, he gets double the wages he
could earn when he made all of his shoes
by hand. The improved methods of produc.
ton, the factory system and cheaper capt.
tai and excessive production combined have
caused the fall of prices. If these influences
were not responsible for it wheat would be
worth only so cents bushel, as was the
case three years ago, instead of 50 cents
Or ST.
Mr.. Gompers speaks of the output of gold
during the California period of 1854 as be-
ing SO great that it inflated prices Where
can he any other man have been the
past three years and not have learned that
the worlds output of gold at the present
time is much greater than it was in the
Californian and Australian period? The
highest output in any one year of that
period was in 1s53-$155, 49, OO This year it
will be $23O,0OO,OOO. The output of gold passed
the high tide of California in 1893 with its
$155,5220OO; now it is over As per cent. greater
than the highest year of the period to which
Mr. Gompers refers. Why do not Mr..
Gompers and others like him get at some of
the facts OF to-day? Thousands of those
who belong to trades unions acquired facts
in 1896, but he seems to insist that silver
standard like that of Mexico and China is
best for those who sell labor where the
wages are much less in silver than they are
in this country in gold. 1t is not possible
that Mr. Gompers wishes to have wage
earners in the United States exchange places
with those of Mexico and China.