The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-02-25
THE MONEY QUESTION.
Subject of a Splendid Lecture by Professor
 Irving Fisher.

large audience Prof. Irving Fisher or Yale university delivered lecture on the subject, Would more money in cir culation benefit the working man?" He spoke as follows:
 If I should ask you whether you had enough money, could easily guess the answer, and yet when we say that people want more money or that the rich man has lots of money what we really mean is that they have or want more property, that the rich man has lots of property. When we say that man has million dollars we don't mean that he has it in his house or cellar, but that he is worth good ! deal in houses, lands or railroads, and when we add together what all these | things are worth in terms of money what we get is not money, but moneys worth of property which the rich man has. To show how different more money is from moneys worth take the statistics of the last census. Then we had $1,000 worth of property per capi- ta, but the average amount of money in circulation in the United States was only $20 per capita, fifty times as much property as there was in money. One hundred years ago people thought that they could be very rich providing pa- per money was in free circulation. One old lady thought congress was cruel and stingy not to print all the money that anyone wanted and to give it away free. I think you will see that some thing is wrong with such an idea, be- cause by the simple printing of money l on the printing press we can't make
 more shoes, potatoes or more house room. The fault with the old lady's reasoning was that she n1stook money | for what money will bring. To find out what money will bring we must
 consider the prices. If more money in circulation would make your wages in-
 crease without making prices increase
 it would be a benefit. If more money
 in circulation would make prices in-
 crease without increasing your wages
 1t would be an injury. If more money in
 circulation would make wages and
 prices increase in equality it would neither benefit nor injure the working
 man. The question then is, does more
 money in circulation make prices or
 wages increase the faster? The best
 way to answer this question is, to take
 the experience of the past. In the mid- dle of the last century Rhode Island
 issued quantities of paper money,
 thinking that more money in circula-
 tion would benefit the people. Did
 wages go up? Yes, to $10 per day.
 That sounds high. You would think if
 your wages could go to $1O per day you
 would be better off. Let us see. This
 laborer who got $10 per day had to pay
 his m1lkman 50 cents per quart, corn
 $20 per bushel, cheese $3 per pound,
 sugar $3.50 per pound and shoes $40
 per pair. I think you will see that
 with your wages s10 per day you
 couldn't buy as many comforts of life
 as you can now with your small wages.
 In the time of the Revolution the conti-
 mental congress issued great quantities
 of paper money to pay the cost of the
 war The same thing happened prices
 rose and wages rose but prices went
 up great deal faster than wages. Pa- per money became so plentiful that it
 took $50 of it to buy as much as a
 metal dollar would buy.
 "The people said that they took theil
 money to market in a basket ant , brought their meat home in a pocket book. A barber in Philadelphia adver
 tised himself by papering the walls O his shop with these cheap dollars. 4 dog was covered with tar and sen
 about the streets with continental dol lars stuck all over it.
 "To take a more recent case, in ou civil war our government issued pape money to pay the soldiers. The infla ton of the currency was very great Did the workingmen get more none, for their work? Yes. Between 1S6 ! and 1865 wages rose about 49 per cent but prices went up 132 per cent. Tha was in 1865.
 : "The workingnen got more pay, bu their wages would not go so far as tn old wages of 1860. When after 1865 tn : government contracted the currenc = until paper dollars were made redeem able in gold, in 1879 prices fell an l wages fell, but from 1865 to 1879 price fell 60 per cent. and wages per cent Therefore the workman, though he wa paid less in 1879 than in 1865, could bu = ever so much more with what he wa g paid than he could in 1865. We sec 5 then, that when the currency is infiat ed the workingman always loses when the currency is contracted h . gains.
 "All experience and statistics corrob
 crate this conclusion. The most care
 ful study in the history of the working
 man in England, France and the Unit = ed States shows that he was neve q prosperous when the currency was be
 ing inflated. So well known is this fac
 that in Europe to-day one of the chic
 arguments of silver men or bimetal 1t lists is that in gold standard countrie !, prices fall faster than wages and S
 the manufacturer cannot compete wit the manufacturer in silver standar e countries, where prices are rising fast tt CT than wages; that Is, the cotton mar r. ufacturer in India gets higher prices fC :, his goods without having to pay core :, spondingly higher wages. That give n him the advantage over the Englis e manufacturer of cotton goods, becaus p in the gold standard countries th '- prices he could command were alway It sinking and the cost of labor would nc IL sink so fast.
 le 'In this country, where the working u man has votes, this argument cannC u influence the elections, so in Americ j. the silver men try to show that fire st silver would send wages up. I hay IT read a great many such arguments, bl