44 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



by modern inventions, and in a country where no economic revo- 

 lution has occurred England : * 



Thus wages are seen to have advanced about twice as much in 

 the forty years, 1840 to 1880, as in the previous century. In the 

 United States Mulhall gives tables (Dictionary of Statistics, page 

 463) showing that operatives' wages have risen from two hundred 

 and fifty to three hundred dollars per annum in the thirty years 

 beginning with 1850. Even during the last few years, in spite of 

 the depression prevailing, I very much doubt if wages and sal- 

 aries have, taken as a whole, declined at all, or at any rate so 

 much as is usually supposed. Only a few days since I read in a 

 newspaper of the city in which I live a table showing that the 

 salaries of teachers in the public schools had had a steady average 

 increase during the past four years; and the increase was not 

 confined to any one year, but continued gradually through the 

 whole period. However this may be, we can not turn to any 

 reputable authority which does not show that a large increase of 

 wages has occurred during the past fifty years in every civilized 

 country. If, therefore, " gold has risen fifty per cent " in value, 

 the working classes have had a far more wonderful advance than 

 they or any one else supposed. 



Again, real estate is one of the greatest of commodities, and if 

 the dollar has increased in value it ought to be reflected in the fall 

 of real estate. No such fall has, however, taken place. Farms in 

 the United States, irrespective of cattle, implements, etc., rose 

 from two hundred and fifty dollars per inhabitant to two hundred 

 and eighty dollars per inhabitant during the thirty years ending 

 in 1880 t a fine increase, considering the accompanying increase 

 of population. 



Another consideration is of far greater weight than any de- 

 rived from a single commodity. If land rises in value, the rent 

 increases ; if money rises in value by reason of scarcity, the rate of 

 interest advances. If, then, the combined Shylocks of the world, 

 together with the banks, England, and Wall Street, have " de- 

 monetized silver " in order to " corner money " and boom the rate 

 of interest, there ought to be traces of it. Singular as it may be 

 to our silver friends, there seem to be none. In fifty years the 



* Mulhall, Dictionary of Statistics, p. 461. f Ibid., p. 9. 



