The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-01-26
THE OFFICIAL FAMILY
All Are In Accord On the Subject of
BimetalliSm.
G AGE'S OWN WORD FOR IT
EXPRESSED IN A SPEECH At
PHILADELPHIA.
J AGE'S OWN WORD FOR IT
"Inuendos and Declarations From
Various Sources to the Contrary,
Notwithstanding" Said the secre-
tary-Gold Standard and Wage
Bryan Touched Up.

Philadelphia, Jan. 25.-The seventh
annual meeting of the Trades league
of Philadelphia was held last night in
the Academy of Music, at which the
principal speaker was Hon. Lyman ].
Gage, secretary of the treasury. Secre-
tary Gage said, in part:
1T is not upon wages that the inju-
dicious effect of a gold appreciation
falls. 1t is upon those who own the
land, the forests and the mines. if upon
any, that the injudicious effect is Wis
tied. This is all so plain that one can
not comprehend how the wage-earner
can be misled by that irridescent ora
tor who, by multitudes of words,
couched in ambiguous and sophistical
phrases, seeks to obscure judgment.
1t IS the complaint now of
labor that rent and interest
are able to take to themselves
disDroDOrtionate share. Do we
indeed not know that the tendency of
wages is to become conventionally
fixed, and that as a disintegral, though
it follows the law of supply and de-
mand, it is not so quickly responsive to
that law as are wares and merchan-
disc, the product of labor.
1t would to us appear that an effort
to reduce the power of official salaries
and fixed incomes by paying them IN
cheaper money would have an effect in
the same direction upon wages. Besides
this, ii must be remembered that fixed
incomes is the relative term; it in
cludeS the few upon whose large in
come the decreased power would not be
noticed as an inconvenience even, but it
includes also the humble investments
of the multiplied thousands and would
blight the savings of toll and economy
representing the savings of more than
100000 of people now held in the saw
ings banks Of our land
CUTS TOO DEEP.
NO. it will not do-this silver scythe
cuts too deep; it reaches the widows
and wage-earner's pay. The revival of
industry now witnessed, and the easy
condition as to interest which now
transfers capital, are the best witnesses
to the dangers from which we have
been delivered. Nevertheless, that fer
vid orator who is recognized as the
leading exponent of free silver doc
trines, is not satisfied. In a recent
speech he said: Read the daily papers,
and you will find the items of news ar
ranged under two heads-the formation
OF trusts and the reduction OF wages
As to the trusts, he cites no examples.
but hastens to emphasize one industry
in New England in which, by reason
of special circumstances well known To
him. a reduction in the wage scale was
under debate. Let him point, if he can,
to one single instance of an advance
in wages between the date of the Chi
eago convention of 1856 and the No
vember election of that year, when that
ruinous platform was condemned by
the verdict of the people. He knows
that within a few weeks after the No
vember election. 1896 1900 men. idle
for a long time, were put to work in
the window glass industry.
"Since then, as the revival has pro-
gressed, instances of ad yances in wages
and of increases in numbers employed,
have multiplied. In the iron and steel
industry, directly dependent upon the
consumption of iron as material, l have
it upon authority that there is an in
crease of at least 276,00O men employed
over the preceding year. In addition to
this large increase in the working
forces employed in iron and steel and
dependent branches, advances in wages
ranging from 10 to 20 per cent have
been made, in some cases much greater.
as result CT wages paid on a tonnage
basis.
Notwithstanding all this, Mr.. Bryan
says: If our enemies boast that they
have buried bimetallism, we point TO
these wage reductions as the weeping
willows which have sprung UP about