The Saint Paul globe., 1899-03-28
THE RISE IN WAGES.


Much space has been given In the pa
pers of late to announcements of the
increases in wages paid to worlkingmen
in many of the lines of industry. This
fact has been duly exploited by the more
intensely partisan papers of the Repub-
lican party, with their usual complacent
insistence upon the relation of cause and
effect to what is coincidence. The Re
publican party was returned to power
and restored the protective tariff; wages
have risen; therefore wages have risen
because that party and its policy were
reinstated. The editors of course. do
not believe it; they know that 1t Is a
coincidence; but it will be believed by
numbers of shallowpates who think
they think, and that is all the editors
care for.
and the economic law works by the DID,
familiar processes. Speculation inflated
credits, eXtravagant living, bred of
fictitious prosperity, bring their inevita-
Die result, lne reaction winch we lei III
a panic. a financial depression; hard
times. All business. alarmed. scurries
back to a cash basis. Credit practically
disappears. Manufacturing, always de-
pending more or less on credit, restricts
operations Men are discharged: wages
reduced all along the line. In the house
holds saving is studied, outgo adjusted 10
income The process of fecuperation i'm
mediately sets In. The operations OF
making and selling go on. out on safer
i lines with lower prices Gradually, so
4 slowly as to be hardly perceptible, I'M
provement goes on. The purchasing ca
pacity of the mass, through their enforc-
1 ed economies increases. Prices advance
by easy steps After a time there comes
general recognition that times are bet
ter. Business revives. Money, that tim
! idly refused all investment, comes out to
/ go into enterprises. Then, the first to
fall and the last to rise, now as always,
wages are advanced 1t is the same old
/ story, the same old routine, and as ever,
| the political party that chances to be
in power claims all the credit, and there
are. as ever, folk simple enough to ad-
nit the claim.
The history of these reactions from
eras of speculation and extravaganza,
the world over, establishes the period of
their duration, the length of their run, y
! at very nearly six years. That Is, II
takes six years for the financially sick
nation to convalesce after the crisis is
passed; for confidence TO be restored; for
| credit to regain its footing, and for that
! accumulation of money brought about
| by the economies practiced after the
| crash, which, when confidence comes
again, seeks investment in business ven
| lures The panic of 1887, that threw the
Democrats out of national control, ex1
hausted itself by 1914, and only the rise
of the Liberty party deprived the Wings
of the benefit of their claim that they
brought good times. The panic of 81
was intercepted by the Civil war, the
resulting extravaganza of which caused
| the panic of 1873, from which full re-
covery came in 1879 The crash of 1893,
the result of preceding business and
legislative follies caught the Democrats
! again, and the Needless, thoughtless,
crazed mob threw them out. The six
year period of recuperation has run, and,
the tail end of the advance now as they
were the head of the retreat six years
ago, wages are advancing, and I'VE did
it, shout the Republicans. 1t is said
that the croaking of frogs in spring is
merely their assertion that they caused
! the release of winters grip.