Tonopah daily bonanza. [volume] (Tonopah, Nev.) 1906-1929, 1911-05-16
PERIODS OF PROSPERITY.

In his study Of prices and labor conditions
during the middle ages J. Thorold Rogers found
that the wages of worker during that period
would buy as much perhaps more, of flour and
meat than those of the present day working
man. From this fact, which, however took no
account of the recurring famines, he hastily con-
cluded that the whole the medieval worker
was as well off his fellow of today.
SO far we know modern economist has
attempted to point out the flaw in Rogers argu-
ment, which conveys the impression that all
the vast improvements in production made since
the Renaissance have not Injured to the benefit
OF theworker. 1t may be true, the author of
Six Centuries Of Work and Wages asserts
that a worlngman's daily wages will baly--no
more meat and flour than they would in the
fourteenth century, but that statement obscures
the fact that the worker now enjoys an lninity
of comforts which his predecessor never dreamed
of attaining and which, indeed, even the we'll
TODD of the medieval period did not attain
In the Middle Ages the mechanic and day la
made by Mrs. Green and others that the energies
tested by documentary evidence that as late as
the fifteenth century in the most considerable
English towns the possessions Of the wealthest
were very meager, A few pots and pans rude
table and stools, and few pigs were re-
turned the entire belongings of "well-to-
do" tradesman. Obviously, if that summed up
the luXuries of the comparatively rich, the me-
chanic and the day laborer must have been still
more meagerly provided.
1t is apparent fro mthe result of the inquiries
made by Mrs. Green and others that theenergies
of the scanty populations of the Middle Ages
were directed into very narrow channel and
that in the main efforts at production were con-
fined to very few articles. The result of such
confinement was to cheaper the things produced.
II the bulk of our producing population today
should avoid the production of luxuries and adj
here solely to the cultivation of wheat and meat
as III the Middle Ages when vegetables were
scarcely known and to the fabrication of the
most ordinary utensils and rude furniture it
would necessarily result in the cheapening of
those articles.
The evidence on this point is so strong that
no one after studying it will venture to assert
that low prices desirable But no one need
expect, on that account, that there will be any
abatement of the absurd crusade against an r-
resstlble tendency and which can be ar
rested only by impeding the march of civil
Zaton.
Some day mathematician with the economic
demonstrate with eXactness the ratio of advance
rise as civilization advances and will perhaps
demonstrate with eXctness the rtio of advance
ment and the expanding use of things Mean
time we can rest our the testimony of
history which clearly establishes the intimate
connection between low prices, small produc-
tivity and lew civilization
And this testimony incidentally discloses
that the eras of low prices have always been
periods OF Wretchedness and misery, while con-
versely those in which the phenomena of ascend
ing prices has occurred have been eras of plenty
and prosperity