284 Gold, Silver and the Coinage of the Silver Dollar. 



silveror the prices of commodities.* By this criterion il will beshown 

 that during the past twelve or fifteen years, during which silver has 

 been receding in market-value, gold has just about held the even tenor 

 of its way, in purchasing power. 



There are difficulties in comparing prices for single years, and for 

 periods not far distant hum each other. Adventitious and accidental 

 circumstances may affect prices, though having no relation to the cur- 

 rency in which they are expressed. The only reliable test would be to 

 take the average of a considerable number of years and at periods con- 

 siderably apart. 



I propose to show, first, that notwithstanding the general decline in 

 the prices of commodities, the wages of labor have considerably ad- 

 vanced in the past thirty year-, and held their own during the past fif- 

 teen years; and second, that the decline in commodities is accounted 

 for by other causes, so as to leave no room to attribute it to the ap- 

 preciating value of the money with which their value is measured. 



First, as to the wages of labor. 



The most complete statistics of labor for our own country, available 

 to us, are those of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor. I 

 quote from the Report of Hon. Carroll D. Wright, Chief of the Bureau, 

 August, 1885: 



" Wages in Massachusetts are 28.36 per cent higher than they were 

 in 1860/' Wright's Report, 1885, p. 144. 



"Wages in Great Britain are 9.64 per cent higher than they were 

 in 1872." Ib. 



In Mr. Wright's table of comparative wages for employees in all in- 

 dustries, in Massachusetts, from 1860 to 1883, in twenty-five indus- 

 tries, comprising all for which he gives the wages for both 1860 and 

 1883, the wages paid in 1883 average 11.8 per cent over those paid 

 in 1860. In the same table the wages for the common laborer for 1860 

 are not given; nor are they given for 1873. But for 1874 they are 

 given at $8.07 as the weekly average, and for 1883 at $13.37 as the 



the meaner son \ i u I tna and Coinage, 



107. Written about 1630. 



