11 



money in use during that time was a lie. It purported to be a dollar, 

 but was nothing but a deferred and depreciated promise of a dollar ; 

 and any comparison of wages, prices, or conditions of a paper-money 

 period with a period in which true money is in use, will cheat and 

 mislead the man who makes it, just as such money cheats the man or 

 nation that uses it. You cannot even get at true data by converting 

 the currency into gold for the purpose of comparison, because the use 

 of a vicious currency perverts all transactions, steals from the laborer 

 a part of the fruits of his labor, and conveys it to one who has done 

 nothing to earn it. 



In the words of one of the great patriots of the Revolution, in- 

 convertible paper money worked then as it has worked with us, 

 * * it perverted the morals of the people ; it destro}*ed respect for the 

 courts ; it ruined the fortunes of those who trusted most in it ; it 

 enervated the manufactures, mechanic arts, and agriculture of the 

 county." And of all the mighty monsters born of war it has been 

 the most difficult to overcome. 



Let us then compare the periods of 1840, 1860, and 1880 in re- 

 spect to the conditions of spinning and weaving the coarse and 

 medium cotton fabrics that constitute by far the largest consumption 

 of cotton, that are the most useful, and that are the easiest to make. 

 In each of these 3*ears true money in gold coin has been our only 

 standard of value. 



Since 1860 the following progress has been made in one branch of 

 cotton manufacture, from which a rule ina} r be deduced, although the 

 changes would vary in respect to different classes of fabrics, as they 

 may be coarse, medium, or fine. 



From 1860 to 1878, at which latter date we were nearly on a specie 

 basis, the following changes occurred in a large mill : 



The number of operatives per thousand spindles decreased from. 

 twent3*-six and one-half to fifteen, or fort}*- three per cent. 



The cost of manufacturing i.e., preparing, carding, spinning, 

 and weaving decreased twent3*-one per cent. 



The wages of women increased twenty-five per cent. 



Since 1878 the specie standard has been restored, and there has 

 been a large advance in wages, owing to the restored confidence and 

 prosperitj* ; and in another large establishment on another class of 

 goods the following changes have taken place between 1860 and 

 1880: 



Decrease in the proportion of operatives to each one thousand 

 spindles, twenty-five per cent. 



Decrease in the cost of preparing, carding, spinning, and weaving, 

 fourteen per cent. 



Increase in women's earning, fifty per cent. 



Women and girls constitute a trifle under three-fourths of the 

 whole number of persons employed. 



Men's wages in these departments that require special skill have 

 advanced in the same or greater proportion. 



Common labor has not greatly changed since 1860. 



