WAGES-Increase in-Continued, In 1892 a day's work of skilled labor would buy more of any staple commodity of human desire, more and better food, more and better clothing, more and better transportation, more and better tools and machinery, more and better heat and light, more comforts and luxuries of every kind, more silver and more gold than at any time before 1873 in the history of the world. WAGES-In Silver Countries, compared with those of Gold Countries. No. 386. The five countries selected are the most prosperous of the silverusing nations, and represent North America, South America, Asia, and Europe. Average weekly wages paid in countries with currencies on a silver basis, compared with rates paid in the U. S. Out of our 70,000,000 of population, 20,000,000 are wage-earners. If they should receive the compensation of $1 per day, the money thus earned would add to the daily circulation of our country $20,000,000. If, by reason of protective legislation, they should receive $2 per day, then we have $40,000,000 in circulation instead of $20,000,000, and a like ratio of increase in wages will increase the amount of money placed daily in circulation, for money is the basis upon which all wealth is accumulated. The margin of each day's business is the possibility of gain. The greater the volume the greater the possibility of a margin. Truly, Wendell Phillips uttered something worthy of more than passing notice when he said: WAGES-Continued. "It is the dollar left on Saturday evening, after all the bills are paid, that means education, independence, self-respect, manhood. It increases the value of every acre near by, fills the town with dwellings, opens public libraries and crowds them, dots the continent with cities and cobwebs it with railways. The one remaining dollar insures progress and guarantees millions to its owner." No. 388. WAGES—Their Purchasing Power, In a speech on the silver question, Senator Mills (Democratic freetrader), of Texas, gave these facts: "Mr. President, the wages of labor in this country and all over the world for a hundred years have been tending upward. They are higher to-day than they have been at any time in the past, and the wage-earner, in whatever occupation employed, is deeply interested in the preservation of the standard of values as fixed and immovable as it is possible to make it. A few years ago our friends on the other side of the chamber directed the Committee on Finance to make an investigation and report to this body the movement of wages and prices for a number of years. They took the year 1860 as a basis and compared it and other years with 1890. "Taking 1860 as the basis and calling it 100, the rate of wages increased to 1864 to 125.6 or 25.6 per cent., and to 1890 to 160.7 or 60.7 per cent. In 1860 and 1890 there was a gold standard, and in 1864 a depreciated paper standard. Wages went up in four years 25.6 per cent., but the money the laborer earned was only the instrument which enabled him to procure the necessaries of life, and while it went up the ladder a few rounds, the necessaries of life, that his wages had to buy to sustain himself, his wife, and children, had ascended the rounds of the ladder till they were lost in the clouds. "The annual average wages of laborers in manufactories in 1860 was $288.95. The average monthly wages was $24.08, in gold. In 1864 it was 26.6 higher, or $30.24 in paper, and in 1890 it was 60.7 per cent. higher than in 1860, and was $38.69, in gold. Now, taking the official prices given by the Bureau of Statistics and the Finance Committee, the result is shown by the following table: WAGES-Purchasing Power-Continued. Purchasing power of wages of labor. Notice that the annual average of wages for 1890 is $464.28, as against $288.95 in 1860, and $362.88 in 1864. WEALTH FROM WASTE. No. 389. One aspect of the value of protection in ouilding up home manufactures, rather than buying them in foreign countries at a cheaper rate, is seldom sufficiently considered. A removal of the duties on coal, iron ore, and wool is advocated in order to supply manufac. turers with cheaper "raw material." But is it considered what enters into the production of this raw material? The consumption of air, water, grass, and herbage, which enters into the production of a sheep and its wool, could not be exported or otherwise utilized, and converting this otherwise waste in wealth is no small con· sideration. And so, a country which packs its meat before shipment abroad not only saves the loss of life, which would take place on the way, and the cost of transportation to the bulky and more perishable material, but converts into use salt, sawdust, wood, ice, etc., which would otherwise not be utilized; and also the hair, bones, blood, etc., which are converted into other forms of wealth. Paper making gives value to rags, straw, wood, cornstalks, water, etc. And so WEALTH FROM WASTE-Continued. different manufactures employ bark, sumack berries, clay, sand, and scores of other things which were otherwise waste. So, also, barren land, rocky hills, and other waste spaces are utilized. Be. sides the consumption of fuel, ores, and forests, which might be exported at a loss, the use of what is otherwise incapable of removal and utility is the point here kept in view. It is safe to say that more waste is thus converted into wealth in the United States than the value of all our imported goods. Shall we utilize this waste or not is the serious question for the free-trader. No. 390. WEALTH-New England no Longer Leads. The increase of wealth from 1880 to 1890 in the States has caused much comment. Free traders and calamity howlers have held up the eastern manufacturing States as awful examples of greed and robbery, while the poverty of the West has been cited in such piteous and heartrending stories of wrong and oppression that common justice demands that the people shall be informed at once of the fraud these deceivers of the people are trying to have them believe. The following table from the Census Bulletin on Wealth, No. 379. issued March 19, 1894, is made the basis of calculation. The increased wealth of the nation is $21,395,091,197, or $1,039 per capita. Twenty-eight out of the fifty States and Territories exceed the average increase per capita. Of these only five are Eastern States, namely, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island; these five having only an average gain of $1,287 per capita, while the five Western States of California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and Nevada have an average of $3,542 per capita. The only States which have lost in the past ten years are Eastern States-Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Kansas, which the Populists have pauperized on every possible occasion, saved and accumulated more wealth in the ten years preceding 1890 than did Massachusetts. Nebraska exceeded Pennsylvania in her accumulations, while Minnesota, Michigan, and Wis consin, all and each passed New Jersey in the race for wealth. Where do you find the "robber baron," the "giant robber," the "fortress of greed and gain"? No longer in manufacturing New England. Pennsylvania gives place to Texas in the total sum of her |