People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 May 1894 — APPRECIATION OF GOLD. [ARTICLE]

APPRECIATION OF GOLD.

It Is Mot BeneGelal to the Earner of Dally Waives—Monometallism and Its Effects •n Labor—The Farm Laborers Most Quickly Affected. The Boston Globe lately published an exhanstive article on the relation of monometallism to wages, written by Brooks Adams, of Boston, a son of Charley Francis Adams and secretary of the International Bimetallic league recently organized in Boston. In reproducing the article the Indianapolis Sentinel says: “It has been very commonly argued by gold monometallists that the demonetization of silver has been advantageous to workingrrien because prices have fallen while wages have not By pointing out the plain distinction between the rate of wages and the total wages earned, Mr. Adams furnishes a complete disproof of this theory and follows it by showing that in this country wages not protected by labor organization have in fact fallen, and that agricultural laborers have thereby been driven to the cities to enter into ruinous competition with labor there.” Mr. Adams commences by saying: “Among the many perversions of fact caused by the exigencies of the defense of monometallism, none have been more flagrant than those relating to its effect on labor. The gold interest has resolutely maintained that the workingman thrives when values fall, because, since statistics show that the daily wage has not been materially reduced, they argue that he should do better as the cost of living lessens. Not only is this argument fallacious, but it is actually dangerous, because it disguises the truth. In point of fact, while the appreciation of gold affects every class of the community, except, perhaps, the money-lenders, it pinches none more sharply than the earner of daily wages, and this for obvious reasons A man’s income does not depend on what he earns in one day, supposing him to be employed, but on what he gets in a year. Therefore, loss of time is equivalent to reduction of wages, and periods of contraction are always eras of scanty employment. Like every other force of nature the pressure of a depreciating currency'acts along the line of least resistance, the weakest suffers first. Now the weakest is always the agriculturist, and he is the weakest because he is the poorest of capitalists, and cannot stop his production to steady the market as the manufacturer can. Agricultural labor is also weaker than industrinl labor since it cannot combine to resist reductions of pay. So farm products fall first, then farm wages, and then a migration begins. These phenomena are best studied in England, where the situation is further advance than here, and some very interesting evidence was given on these points before the gold and silver commission in 1887.” The article gives the testimony of % Mr. Fielding, a l;irge manufacturer of Lancashire, England, going to show that agricultural employment is constantly diminishing and that the loss in real wages in the cotton trade amounts to 12 per cent. Employment has not grown in proportion to the natural increase of population and, therefore, there has been an increased pressure' among the working classes. Mr. Fielding’s testimony was that it is an entire delusion to suppose that the working classes have been gainers by the fall in prices since 1874, but have been losers. He also submitted reports for ten unions and societies showing their condition before and after the demonetization of silver by Germany, when gold began to rise. The reports showed that the demonetization of silver had resulted in trebling the number of unemployed, the larger proportion being in the agricultural districts. The phenomenon of the depletion of the rural districts is exceedingly striking, Mr. Adams asserts. It is very marked in England. The census shows that while between 1881 and 1891 of those who lived by agriculture decreased 48,<000, those engaged in industries increased nearly 1,000,000. It is also computed that the agricultural income last year had shrunk from £40,000,000 to £80,000.000 when measured by the scale of prices of 1574. This is a clear loss of purchasing power, and, therefore, while the demand for manufactures has relatively decreased the supply of labor has relatively increased, with the effect "of causing the population of the manufacturing districts to multiply very much faster than the means of enjoyment. After giving a further array of statistics to show the blight upon the wage-earners of England caused by the appreciation of gold Mr. Adams continues:

“Turning’ now to America we find exactly the same series of phenomena appearing, only because of our partial isolation through the tariff, they have been more spasmodic. They have also been less developed because here the struggle of life is less severe; they exist however just the same. It is always alleged that all wages have risen in the last twenty-five years, and Senator Aldrich’s report is cited as authority. But Mr. Aldrich deals only with industrial wages; agricultural wages are the basis. The triennial reports of the bureau of agriculture show that since 1880 farm labor has fallen, and since 1880 it has been practically steatHr, while industrial labor rose 14 per eei?fc. Farm labor could not rise because farm profits were falling. An acre of wheat was worth, in round numbers, sl2 in 1880 and $9 in 1889. In other words here, as in England, land was beginning to fail to support the population and a migration toward the towns began.” Mr. Adams then quotes from the September publications of the American Statistical association the following: “No more significant fact has been disclosed by the last census than the great increase which has taken place in the urban population of the country during the last decade. “The increase has been quite regular from 1790 to 1880, in which time the city denizens increased from 3.25 per cent, of the total population to 22.57 per