Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-02-12
GAGE ON PRICES AND WAGES,

GAGE On PRICES AND WAGES.
In discussing certain points in Seq
rotary Cages recent Philadelphia
speech, the Chicago Chronicle, which
supported the gold standard in the last
campaign, but which has since seen
the light, and is coming back into the
true Democratic fold, criticizes Gage
sharply for trying to prove that peo-
pie who work for wages in this coun-
Try are better off now than they were
before 1873, when god-then the
cheaper money metal-was recognized
by law as the standard Of value.
Gage gave Commissioner Wright as
authority for the statement that from
1872 to 1891 prices fell 271a per cent
on the average, and that during the
same time wages rose on the average
10 per cent. From these data it APP
pears that Sin 1891 the same labor
would purchase SIT per cent more of
living than it did in 1872 And the
inference, not expressed but implied,
is that workingmen have been espec-
tally benefited by the rise in the value
of gold as indicated by the fall in
prices. And our Chicago contempor-
airy rightly thinks there are reasons
for questioning the correctness of the
inference
In the first place, our statistics of
wages are far from trustworthy, as H.
L. Bliss has clearly shown in the Jour
nal of Sociology. The census statis-
tics on the subject are worthless for
purposes of comparison Tor reasons
which need not be stated here. Work
ingmen who are old enough to speak
from experience claim that they were
getting higher wages in 1872 than IN
1891, making the comparison in terms
Of gold as in the case of prices of COM
modities.
In the second place because the av-
erage price of commodities has fallen,
it does not follow that it costs the
workingman that much less to live.
Wages have fallen, too, and, also, the
average Of prices is calculated from a
great many things, many Of which the
workingman does not use to any great
extent, if at all What we must ascer-
tain if we want to know about the
comparative condition of workingmen
! is the change in average prices of such
things as make up the chief cost Of
living to workingmen, and this the
statistics Gage quoted do not pretend
to show.
Therefore, Mr.. Cages conclusion
that s'in 1891 the labor that supported
fifteen people supported only ten IN
1872" is not warranted. The data are
not sufficient to support the conclu-
sion.
The statement that the present az
erage wages of people when they are
employed enable them to buy more OF
the necessaries of life, on the average,
than they could buy with the average
wages they received in 1872, which is
open to dispute, is far from conclusive
AZ to comparative condition. 1t does
not cover tie matter of constancy OF
emplovment at all. 1t may be that the
average worzingman is idle ten days
now where he was idle only one day IN
1872. We must know about that be
fore we can form trustworthy con-
clusion in regard to comparative con-
dition. The Chicago Chronicle truth
fully says:
The question is not so much, whetheer.
fhe workir gnlan is some Whate better OH
on the whole than he was IN lSf1 put
wht.her he is better off in the same de
gree that other people are better off
It is undertake. that the production OF
wealth is far greater now than IL was IN
1873 There can be no mistake about that.
me means Of production have been vast
IL improved BY means Of labor-saVlng
}e,,iceS tie work Of q man in almost every
6eld rf labor Win produce far more than
II ala in 1872. The nottingham IS entitled
70 share with al the oJher producers in
he benefits of industrial progress II he
ala not. the fact would be proof positive
that others We're getting more than falr
iThe question. then is not whether work
;nor7n,r are getting somewhat more than
hey did In 1872. but whether they are
getting their distrib.g1tive share !, e The
a,,ntion n NAV be that they are. but
f fhe statsfic: Offered 81 Mr. Gage do rot
prove il. Even if the lgures , given +; are
perfectly correct Lhey GO MT ct p d that
True. it Is a hard matter TO prove by
statistics and one which cannot by airy
process he settled to the entire satisfac-
tion Of everybody. But while that is true
# is equally true that it is very unsatis-
factory to offer statistics Of questionable
accuracy and proving very little. if any
q 1G Gi nr ~