On the whole there has been an equalizing tendency at work in India. The decline in silver has caused a rise in prices, and also in most provinces a rise in wages. But the later is so much slower than the former in its readjustment that it will be a long time before the people will get on as comfortable basis as before. The Herschell report estimates that the wages of agricultural laborers since 1873 have risen 6 per cent., grooms 8 per cent. and ordinary mechanics 16 per cent. But it is doubtful if any such general percentage can be given. India may have increased her exports, and thus have secured sufficient additional demand for labor to compensate for the injury done to her working population by the decline in her money standard; but this increase is mainly in her exports to silver-using countries, and plainly the result of industrial development, not of money depreciation.

MEXICO.

It is undoubtedly true that manufacturing in Mexico has increased since the fall in the price in silver. Mexico has been forced, by the high rate of foreign exchange and the fact that what she buys must be paid for in gold, or by exports, to develop a new side of her industries. It is not that she is doing more, but rather that the principal product of her soil will not buy one-third as much as it did before the fall in its price. In other words, her other resources are being drained to make up for the fall in price of silver. Formerly Mexico paid her obligations in silver; she now pays them largely in agricultural products and gold. Mexico's trade is really no more extended than it was before; but instead of her exports consisting of silver dollars they now consist of products either raised or made in the country. The last six months of the calendar year 1894 shows a diminution of only $31,091 expressed in gold over the imports of the corresponding six months in 1893. The fact is that, as a consequence of the fall of silver, it requires more Mexico's agricultural products and more of the products of her mines to pay her debts.

At the present time the low price of silver makes it unprofitable to export it. Naturally depreciation of a currency will react upon prices and wages in the order named. Prices move first and wages fo.low; such is Mexico's experience as well, as all the evidence shows. This quotation appeared in the publications in the Bureau of American Republics, No. 9, 1891: “One of the greatest evils (referring to Mexico) "at te present time is the existence of a scale of wages which defies all power of "reduction; which robs the laborer of all sense of dignity or feeling of association with "the rest of their fellow-citizens, and having reduced them to a condition of abject "abasement, deteriorates to a like extent their productive power and the measure of "their ability. They are content to regard themselves as a plant or machinery which moves by extraneous aids only, and has no power of volition, and no desire to "exercise it if it had."

Senor Romero, in a recent article in the North American Review, says: "The silver "standard is a great stimulus in developing home manufactures, because foreign com"modities have to be paid in gold, and, owing to the high rate of exchange, their price "becomes so high that it pays well to manufacture some of them at home; our low wages also help to bring about these results."

66

Wages in Mexico have risen somewhat in the last few years. Blacksmiths receive, in depreciated silver, $1 to $2.50 per day; carpenters, $1 to $1 50; factory hands, 50 cents to 75 cents; printers, $1 to $2; conductors, $1; tailors, $1 to $1.50. In the United States, however, wages are two or three times those in Mexico. The prices paid are in Mexican money, so that the real wages are one half less than the amounts stated. There is the same difference in prices. Flour in Mexico was quoted at 5 cents per pound; sugar, 19 cents; coffee, 24 cents; beans, per pcck, 50 cents; rice, 8 cents. In the United States the prices of these commodities are much less. Prices have risen in Mexico as well as wages, and, as usual, prices have advanced much faster than wages.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION.

In all the his ory of depreciation in coin money wage-earners have suffered the most. The statement that wages will rise under a silver standard is true But when and how fast will they rise? After prices and more slowly. In the intro

duction of a new quality of money there is always a period of distress; and in such times the weak are pushed to the wall. Secretary Windom put it well when he said: "The quality of a circulation is even more important than the quantity. "Numerous devices for enlarging credit may, and often do, avert the evils of a"deficient circulation and a redundancy may sometimes modify its own evils before "their results become universal, but for the baleful effects of a debased and fluctuating currency there is no remedy, except by the costly and difficult return to Sound Money. As poison in the blood permeates arteries, veins, nerves, brain and heart, so does a debased and fluctuating currency permeate all the arteries of trade, “paralyze all kinds of business and bring disaster to all kinds of people."

The Government of India, in a recent declaration, announced their opinion as being (1) "That a country as a whole makes no gain in its international trade by a depreciation of its standard, since the extra price received for its exports is balanced by the extra price paid for its imports.

(2) That the producer of an article of export may make a temporary and unfair gain from depreciation of the standard, at the expense of his employees and of other persons to whom he makes fixed payments.

(3) But that this gain, while not permanent, is counterbalanced by a tendency to over-production and consequent reaction and depression, by a liability to sudden falls. in price as well as to rises, and by the check to the general increase of international trade necessarily results from the want of a common standard of value between countries which have intimate commercial and financial relations."

In addition to these interesting statements is another made by Mr. George Jamieson, British Consul at Shanghai. "Wages in gold-using countries have, through the appreciation of gold, become 100 per cent, dearer than they were relatively to silver wages" and the manufacturer in the silver standard countries can "obtain his labor at half the cost relatively to gold wages which he formerly paid.”

The above quotations are from a United States Secretary of the Treasury, the Government of India, and a Consul of England in China. They represent the opinions of men from the individual, governmental and mercantile point of view. The evidence from them goes to show that the wage earner in the silver country has not gained anything by the change in the quality of money. Any reduction in the value of a dollar by depreciation of its bullion value, or any policy by which a change in a money is. brought about is a diminution of its purchasing power in the markets. In silver countries wages have not kept up to their former purchasing power, neither are they as high as wages in gold countries. The wage earner has nothing to gain by depreciation in the quality of money.

Should the money of

The effects of a depreciated currency are well known. this country depreciate, then would be repeated the story of the Civil War, during which the wage earner was continually getting the worst of it. On the other hand it is quite possible that money may further appreciate, and in that case the wages of the laborer in the United States would be still further enhanced, and prices would go still lower.

The only fair and just currency to all parties is a stable one. Under such a currency the conditions of the future are more easily ascertainable, legitimate enterprises more confidently entered upon, and progress more sure. Wage earners have no right to agitate for an appreciation of a currency, neither have they any reason to submit to depreciation by others.

SOUND CURRENCY.

Sound Currency is a semi-monthly publication devoted to setting forth accurate and timely information upon currency questions. It is intended to cultivate sound thinking among the people upon the absorbing issue of currency reform. Vol. I., published in 1891, is now out of print. The Subscription price per year is $1; in clubs of 10 or more, 50 cents; and in clubs of 25 or more, 40 cents.

The numbers of Vol. II. so far published in 1895, are:

1. NATIONAL AND STATE BANKS, Horace White. (16 pp.)..

2. CANADIAN BANK-NOTE CURRENCY, L. Carroll Root. (16 pp.). .

3. BIMETALLISM IN HISTORY,

Henry Loomis Nelson. (16 pp.).. 4. THE WORLD'S CURRENCIES, Richard P. Rothwell (24 pp.).. 5. NEW YORK BANK CURRENCY, I.. Carroll Root. (24 pp.).

6. THE CURRENCY FAMINE OF 1893, John De Witt Warner. (20 pp.).

7. THE PEOPLE'S MONEY,

Wm. L. Trenholm. (32 pp.)..

8. SCOTCH BANK CURRENCY. (12 pp.)..

(Reprint of Adam Smith's discussion-first published in 1776.)

9. OUR PAPER CURRENCY,

AS IT IS AND AS IT SHOULD BE,

Per No. Per 100. Per 1,000.

$0.05

$2.00

$10.00

.05

2.00

10.00

.05

2.00

10.00

.05

3.00

15.00

W. Dodsworth. (16 pp.)..

10. STATES AS BANKERS,

L. Carroll Root. (32 pp.). 11. COIN'S FINANCIAL FOOL, Horace White. (20 pp.).

12. A FINANCIAL CATECHISM,

Fred Perry Powers. (16 pp.).

13. NEW ENGLÅND BANK CURRENCY, L. Carroll Root. (32 pp.).

14. THE BULLION REPORT,

....

Parliament Committee, 1810. (32 pp.).

15. A STABLE MONETARY STANDARD,

Henry Farquhar. (20 pp.)...

16. "FREE COINAGE" DISSECTED,

John De Witt Warner. (16 pp.).

17. U.S. COINAGE AND CURRENCY LAWS. (48 pp.)..

.05

10.00

You are invited to co-operate in the campaign of education upon currency reform by subscribing to SOUND CURRENCY. In order to facilitate your co-operation the Committee will, if desired, address and mail to 100 or more names which may be submitted, the above publications at the rates indicated; so that parties wishing to circulate Sound Currency literature among their friends may either receive the matter in bulk and re-distribute it or have it sent directly by the Committee to the addresses furnished. Special rates for quantities of our publications will be made to local organizations that desire to distribute them, to book dealers intending to sell them, and to educators requiring them for class-room

uses.

CALVIN TOMKINS, Secretary,

SOUND CURRENCY COMMITTEE, REFORM CLUB,

52 William Street, New York City.

SOUND CURRENCY.

PUBLISHED SEMI-MONTHLY BY THE SOUND CURRENCY COMMITTEE OF THE REFORM CLUB. ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE NEW YORK, N. Y., POST-OFFICE,

MAY 21, 1895.

Each number contains a special discussion of some Sound Currency question.

If it be said that a negative proof is valueless, and that quotations habitually given on a gold basis might not unnaturally show little variation by comparison with gold, it is clear that no such criticism will apply to changes in the direction of the gold changes but exceeding them in amount, in the appreciation of wages relatively to gold while gold is itself appreciating. Yet nothing can be clearer to the eye than that that very thing is what wages have done since the return of peace to our land. And just that have wages done in Europe at the same time—starting at a lower point, bringing up at a lower point, but following the same general rate of increase. Manifestly the just measure of wages in the period here covered has not been silver. If it be desirable on any account to preserve a constancy in the compensation of labor, to provide that the sum which shall represent so many days' work at one date shall not represent fewer days' work at a later date, on that account is silver inferior as a standard. Its claims can be upheld only by proving the total unfitness of human labor as a measure of value, and that has not been done.

A STABLE MONETARY STANDARD.

It is doubtless true that the progress of opinion, on the important practical questions which lead to political divisions, has not been greatly influenced by scientific research or the guidance of scientific men. The substantial triumphs of politics, in the carrying of national elections, or the forcing of contested measures through the many resistances offered by the legislative apparatus, are generally achieved by forces quite different from those which discover and establish scientific truth. Like the successful commander in aggressive warfare, who carries a coveted position by the impetus of an irresistible force hurled against it, the skilled political leader seeks to sway a mass of voters or of legis lators by bringing to bear upon it a mighty wave of popular feeling; and, in comparison with emotional fervor, the most effective stimulus to action, sets little store by carefully weighed judgment, the most effective restraint on hasty action, an agent far less fitted to serve his purpose. The faithful votary of science trusts all to judgment and nothing to emotion; he controls no force which can roll up majorities; he is therefore let out of account as a factor in political movements.

Yet despite these facts, or rather in large measure because of them, there are no questions more loudly crying for the brightest light which the purest science can throw upon them, than these very questions of practical politics. Not that the working of political machinery, by any such methods as now control that machinery, should be in the hands of people of scientific training, or that-in plain English-there is need of a corps of scientific bosses; for, put in a position where success is the highest acknowl edged good, the man of science will only seek the same success that others seek, and avail himself of the same tactics. Indeed, it must be confessed that scientific training and an extended knowledge of scientific truth may fail miserably in leading to a truly scientific method of treating questions in which the interest is emotional. Men of science are tempted in all points as other men, and sometimes yield. Rhetorically, a sweeping generality or dogmatic assertion is usually more effective than the best guarded conclusion from carefully sifted data, and even a scientific man may sometimes condescend to the use of it. The contribution which science can make, and ought to make, to politics is by a contrast of objects, not by a rival pursuit of the same objects; by a loyal adherence to methods which lead to the establishment of truth, in opposition to all methods of merely acquiring control of affairs through victories at the polls; by being unfalteringly faithful to itself. While, therefore, it is highly desirable that science shoul I fearlessly meet and (where possible) resolve political questions, it is essential that this be not done as politicians do it; that arguments addressed to prejudices and private or party interests be banished; that justice be done to every morsel of truth, from whatever school or faction it is brought forth; that no conclusion be taught as orthodox doctrine till it has been stoutly buttressed by impregnable premises.

LEGAL TENDER THE INTERFERING FACTOR.

If any political question has an especial claim upon the attention of a scientific association, or especially needs the application to it of scientific principles, it is that of the monetary standard, one of those inevitably arising from the possession by the national Government of the power of legalizing a tender for debts. It hardly needs to be pointed out that if this power, as to which the Federal Constitution is silent except in the clause where its exercise by individual States is restricted, and whose use by the general Government is justified only as an indirect inference from the powers granted, to regulate the value of coins and to raise money on the credit of the United States-if this power of legal tender did not exist, the question of the monetary standard would settle itself. No legal standard governs the dealings of independent countries with one another; and if the Government assumed no right of declaring a legal tender in private commercial transactions, such transactions would rest upon the same basis. The standard of payment for any contract involving money would be found expressed or implied in the contract itself, and legislation would have nothing to do with the matter, except so far as it is within recognized legislative power to enforce or to impair the obligation of contracts. Legal control over the standard of values or payments must be based on the assumption that private contracts may raise a question which they may not satisfac torily settle-or, to state it more exactly, that what was recognized as money when a contract was made is not necessarily suitable to be recognized as money when the con tract comes to be fulfilled, so that the suitable something must be declared by the law making power. This assumption, whatever may be thought of its merits, has come to be accepted as a part of our inherited scheme of government, and the practical question is, how best to proceed under it.