advanced.
East Lake Woolen Mills, Bridgeton, N. J., resume work.
Work resumed in thirty-four furnaces of Porkhouse Iron Mills, Alle-
gheny, Pa.
Naumkeag Mills, Salem, Mass., increase time from four days per week
to full time.
11
IRON MILLS RESUME.
Several Iron mills at Sharon, Pa., announce resumption after long idle-
ness.
New York beet-sugar factory, Rome, N. Y., announces its first production
of beet sugar.
Pennsylvania Railroad Company places orders for 40,000 tons of steel
rails to be delivered before January 1, 1898.
Postal authorities at Washington announce increase of 7 per cent, in busi-
ness of post offices in thirty largest cities, comparing September, 1897, with
same month of 1836.
Olneyville, R. I., woolen mills restore 1892 wages, an average of over 20
per cent, increase.
Wages advanced In the Riverside, Weybosset, Manton and Lymansville,
R. I., mills.
Lawrence Carpet Mills, Philadelphia, Pa., resume operations on full time,
with increased machinery.
Thomas Iron Company, Allentown, Pa., resumes operations.
Frankstown Rolling Mill, PIttsburg, resumes work, employing 1,000 men.
New steel manufacturing plant announced by Standard Steel Company
at. Pittsburg, to employ 1,000 men.
Columbia Steel Mill, Uniontown, Pa., announces resumption after a long
period of idleness.
NOVEMBER.
Basic steel plant In operation at Middlesboro, Ky., for first time in several
years.
Vale Mills, Nashua, N. H., resumed work after long idleness.
Tremont Worsted Mills, Metbuen, Mass., increased wages from 10 to 20
per cent.
Carpenter Steel Works, Reading, Pa., increased schedule to double time.
Andrew Bros., blast furnace, Youngstown, Ohio, advances wages 10 per
cent.
Bachman & Co., Philadelphia, advance weavers' wages 5 per cent , affect-
Ing earnings of 1,000 persons.
Maboning, Pa., blast furnaces advance wages 10 per cent., affecting 3,000
employees.
12
Allegheny county, Pa., reports every blast furnace within its borders in
operation.
Berkshire, Mass., glass works resume operation.
Bethlehem, Pa., steel mills resume work, employing 1,000 men.
Lehigh Zinc Company, Bethlehem, Pa., announces large additions in its
manufacturing establishment and increase of employees.
Wages increased from 10 to 20 per cent, at Alice Furnace, Sharon, Pa.
Laconia, N. H., car works resume operations, employing several hun-
dred men.
Wages of 2,000 employees of Wheeling, W. Va., Iron and Steel Company
advanced 10 per cent.
East Liverpool, Ohio, potteries announce that their pay rolls have doubled
over those of August, most of the establishments running double time.
WAGES ADVANCE TEN PEB CENT.
Wages advanced 10 per cent, in Eddy Woolen Mills, Fall River, Mass.,
affecting several hundred hands.
Moore & Sinnott Distillery, Gibsontown, Pa., resumes after two years'
idleness.
Shamokin, Pa., coal mine operators announce their pay roll the largest in
several years.
Twenty per cent, advance in wages announced by Bessemer, Carbon, and
other limestone companies of Mahoning Valley.
Ten per cent, increase in wages announced by Chapin Mining Company,
Pewable Mining Company, the Antoine Ore Company, Aragon Ore Company,
and Pennsylvania Iron Mining Company, of Iron Mountain, Mich., affecting
over 2,000 men.
British silk manufacturers, A. W. Pierson & Co., of Southfort, Eng-
land, establish silk works at Passaic, N. J., to employ large number of hands.
Wages of 15,000 employees of Missouri Pacific Railway advanced 10 per
cent.
Ten per cent, advance in wages of employees of New York Knife Com-
pany, Walden. N. Y.
DECEMBER.
Fifteen per cent, advance in wages at Wyoming Lace Mills, Wilkea-
barre, Pa.
13
Ten per cent, advance in wages in Jones & Laughlin's iron mills, Pitts-
burg.
President Garland, of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel
Workers, reports tin-plate mills generally filled with orders and steady work
in prospect.
Work resumed at puddle and nail-plate mills of Chesapeake Worlds, Har-
risburg, Pa.
Work resumed in McKee Bros.' chimney shops, Jeannette, Pa.
Myers Company works, Beaver Falls, Pa., increase schedule to full run-
ning time.
Miners wages advanced 20 per cent, at Creede, Colo.
Lackawanna Company resumes work in Avondale colliery, producing 700
tons of coal per day, after a long shut-down.
Northern Illinois coal miners resume work.
Glass factories controlled by the American Glass Company, resume work
with an advance of 12 per cent, in wages.
Ten per cent, increase in wages given employees in wire nail works at
Newcastle, Ind.
Wages advanced 15 per cent, in mines of Coronna Coal Company and
Virginia and Alabama Coal Company, Alabama.
Resumption of work in window-glass factories, giving employment to
15,000 men, with advanced wages in most cases.
JANUARY, 1898.
Advance of 12% per cent, in wages of pottery establishments in New
Jersey and other Eastern States.
Paxton furnaces, Harrisburg, Pa., resume work.
Flint-glass factories in Ohio Valley and elsewhere resume work on full
time.
Saxony Knitting Mill, Little Falls, N. Y., increases schedule to full time.
Five per cent, increase given employees of Humaston & Beckley Cutlery
Manufacturing Company, New Britain, Conn.
St. Paul railway shops at Milwaukee announce large increase in em-
ployees and work, with greater demand than at any time since 1S92.
Pennsylvania Railroad Company ordered 100,000 tons of new steel rails.
Illinois Steel Company, South Chicago, announces increase in running
hours.
14
Increase of wages by Metropolitan Iron and Land Germany, Iron-wood,
Mich., affecting 1,000 employees.
Illinois Steel Company announces extension of its works, which v, 111 add
1,000 men to its pay roll.
Pennsylvania coke manufacturers report the 1897 output of coke at
6,915,054 tons, valued at 111,409,835.
Mr. BACOX. Does the table which the Senator froir. Illinois has pre-
sented take into account the New England cotton factories?
Mr. CULLOM. I do not know whether it does or not. I think it does, and
that some of the Southern factories are mentioned in it as well. There are a
great number of the factories named where work has begun in which, under
the former Administration, nothing was being done whatever, or very little.
Mr. BACON. The former Administration maintained the same financial
policy as the present one.
Mr. GALLJNGER. If the Senator from Illinois will permit me. in answer
to the observation of the Senator from Georgia, I will say that the great
Amoskeag corporation in Manchester, N. H., employing 10,000 people, was idle
a considerable part of last summer, and is now running at a less rate of
wages than was paid two or three years ago, but the operatives are better off,
they think, to get reasonably good wages rather than to be entirely idle, as
they were for a considerable time under the Wilson Act.
HTTNDBEDS OF ESTABLISHMENTS KESTTMING WORK.
Mr. CULLOM. One would suppose from listening to the debate of the
last, two or three days that there had been no Improvement In the condition
of affairs within the last year, while the list I hare submitted mentions hun-
dreds of establishments which have resumed work and are now doirij business
and have been doing business since the Republican party came into power.
I desire to insert a brief paragraph from the speech of the honorable
Secretary of the Treasury at Philadelphia a few nights ago in relation to
wages:
"This brings the question to the test of fact. It has been asserted upon
authority, and I believe it to be approximately true, that within the period
1872-1891 prices have fallen an average of 27% per cent. I am at liberty,
therefore, to adopt the same authority as to the course of wages. It appears
from the exhaustive figures of the Commissioner of Labor, the authority
cited, that within the period 1872-1891 wages have increased an average of
10 per cent. Taking the greater power of wages to command things by reason
of their lower price, the economic advantage gained by labor it still further
emphasized.
"In 1872 $100 in gold would buy a certain amount of living; in 1891, prices
having fallen, $100 would buy 27% per cent more than it did in 1872, and
wages having increased 10 per cent, in the meantime, the same work which
was paid $100 in 1872 received $110 in 1891. From the double advantage of
decreased prices and increased wages it follows that in 1391 the same labor
would purchase 51.7 per cent, more of living than it did in 1872. Let us
apply these advantages by example.
"In 1891 the labor that supported fifteen people supported only ten in
1872. In 1891, from the same labor as in 1872, a man living upon the same
scale would have over one-third of his wages to put in bank or better provide
for his family.
"I am further borne out in this demonstration by the statistics of savings
banks covering the period under consideration. Since 1871 the number of
depositors in such institutions has increased from less than 2,000,000 to more
than 5,000,000, and the average per capita saving in the United States has
increased 86 per cent."
I also submit a statement in relation to exports in 1897:
HEAVY EXPORTS DURING 1897.
"A comparison of the exports of domestic articles during the year 1S97
and the preceding year of 1896 shows that notwithstanding the enactment of
a protective tariff law our productions have gone abroad in even greater
quantities tha.n under a low tariff measure. In the first eleven months of
1897 the value of the exports of agricultural implements was $5,149,00'0 against
$4,527,000 for the first eleven months of 1896. The value of cattle exported in
the first eleven months of 1897 was $35,498,000 against $33,621,000 in 1896.
The value of the horses exported in these eleven months of 1897 was $5,170,000
against $3,282,000 in 1896.
"The value of sheep exported in the first eleven months of 1897 was
$1.259,000 against $1,891,000 in 1896, showing a falling off in the exportation
of these animals. This, however, is more than satisfactorily accounted for
by the fact that the sheep raisers of the country are building up their flocks,
and many farmers are branching out into sheep raising and wool growing.
Of barley, the exports increased from $5,555,000 in 1896 to $6,535,000 in the
16
eleven, months mentioned in 1897. Some very gratifying figures are found in
the exportation of corn, which in 1897 amounted to $53,441,000 against $39.-
382,000 in 1S96, and corn meal $1,209,000 in 1897 against $551,000 in 189G.
"The exportation of oats has increased from $6,796,000 in 1896 to $11,852,-
000 in 1897; oatmeal, from $789,000 to $1,025,000; rye, from $2,038,000 to
$4,362,000. Of course in wheat the contrast is marked, the value of the exports
of the first eleven months of 1896 being $51,356,000, against $87,412,000 in 1897.
The value of the total exportations of breadstuffs was $160,000,000 the first
eleven months of 1898, against $222,000,000 in the corresponding period of 1897.
"The exports of carriages, cars, etc., have risen from $5,924,000 in the
first eleven months of 1896 to $9,393,000 in the corresponding period of 1897.
Of hog products the exports in 1896 were $27,927,000 against $35,566,000 in
1897; of butter, the exports of 1896 were $3,578,000, against $4,412,000 in 1897;
of cheese, $3,512,000, against $5,212,000 in 1897; of vegetables, $1,678,000,
against $2,231,000 in 1897; of wood manufactures, $7,413,000, against $3,017,000,
and of lumber, $10,548,000, against $12,537,000."
"MAINTAIN THE NATIONAL HONOR"
TELLER RESOLUTION
PROM THE REMARKS OP
Hon. NELSON DINGLEY, of Maine
Hon. ALBERT J. HOPKINS, of Illinois
Hon. THOS. H. TONGUE, of Oregon
Hon. D. B. HENDERSON, of Iowa
Hon. CHAS. H. GROSVENOR, of Ohio
Hon. J. P. DOLLIVER, of Iowa
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
i
January 31, 1898
THE TELLER RESOLUTION
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
January 31, 1898
MB. DINGLEY ON THE TELLER RESOLUTION.
The House having under consideration Senate concurrent (Teller) resolu-
tion No. 22, relating to the payment of the bonded obligations of the Gov-
ernment
Mr. DINGLEY said:
Mr. Speaker: The pending Senate resolution is not a joint resolution
which, when duly enacted and approved, would I.ave the force of law. It is
simply a concurrent resolution which does not require the approval of the
Executive, and which, even if adopted also by the House, would be only the
expression of the opinion of the two Houses of Congress.
Its importance, therefore, lies in the fact that, if concurred in by the
House, it would legitimately and inevitably be regarded, not only here but
by the world, as the expression of the deliberate judgment of a majority of
the American people as to their standard of honor and good faith in the dis-
charge not only of national but also of private obligations.
At the outset it is important to strip from the issue presented by the
pending resolution all the subterfuges which have been resorted to to conceal
or cloud its real character under the conditions which exist to-day and to
obtain a clear understanding of its meaning and significance.
THROWING DUST IN THE EYES OF OUR PEOPLE.
Let it be borne in mind, then, that this resolution is not presented for
the purpose of securing an expression by Congress as to the power or legal
rights of the Government either as to the payment of its obligations or as
to what may be declared legal tender. It is throwing dust in tiie eyes of our
own people and of the world to assume that we are determining a question
of power or even of technical legal right. No one denies that this or any
other nation has the power to pay in full or in part or none of its obligations,
in gold, or silver, or paper, or copper, according to its pleasure. Payment
can not be enforced against a sovereign nation. Its obligations are measured
by its own sense of honor and good faith.
But even if this sense of honor is at any time blunted, as was Shyloc^'s,
by dwelling on a narrow view of the letter rather than the spirit of the obli-
gallon, the intelligent selfishness of a nation, which IB to live not simply for
a generation but for centuries, ought to lead it and wherever a nation is
wisely governed, does lead it to so scrupulously maintain its pledges in
both letter and spirit as to preserve its credit untarnished, and thereby not
only make it possible to borrow at the lowest rate of interest, but also to
make it easy to obtain loans in exigencies, which are sure, sooner or later,
to come to every nation. A nation's honor and credit, I may say to gentle-
men on the other side who applauded so jubilantly when the pending resolu-
tion was brought into this Hall, are among its most priceless possessions
aye, its title deed to permanence and prosperity.
Gentlemen on the other side, who so exultantly applauded under the im-
pression that they were hitting the hated holder of bonds issued by the Gov-
ernment to fund the debt incurred in defending and saving the Union in its
years of adversity and peril, were, in fact, hitting and discrediting the credit
of the nation, which stands for every citizen, high or low, rich or poor, and
whose flag is the emblem of freedom and civilization.
Mr. Speaker, the sting and dishonor of the pending resolution is in its
tail, and that sting, well-nigh harmless twenty years ago under conditions
then existing, is made deadly by the changed conditions of to-day.
DEADLY TAIL OF THE RESOLUTION.
All that precedes this deadly tail, declaring what the Government has
the power to do, if it regards it just and wise, is denied by no one; and hence
this attempt to secure its labored assertion, or rather reassertion, is an ab-
surdity which obtains importance only because those who are pressing this
assertion of the existence of the power intend that its reassertion shall be
construed to mean that the two Houses of Congress believe it just and wise,
under existing conditions, to exercise that power, to wit, to authorize the
free and unlimited coinage, by this country alone, of silver at the ratio of
16 to 1, and to pay the outstanding bonds of the Government in the dollars
so coined.
The deadly tail of this resolution reads as follows:
That to restore to its coinage such silver coins as a iegal tender in the payment of said bonds
Meaning practically all the bonds of the United States now outstanding
It not in violation of the public faith nor in derogation of the rights of the public creditor.
This, it will be observed, is not an assertion of the power, or even the
technical legal right, of the Government, but a proposed declaration by the
two Houses of Congress of the standard of honor and good faith which the
American people are prepared under existing conditions to proclaim to the
rorld.
4
OBJECT OF ITS MOVERS.
The declarations of the movers and supporters of this resolution in the
Senate during its recent consideration in that body as to its purpose and
intent will throw a flood of light on this point, if, indeed, anything more is
needed than a reference to existing conditions to understand exactly what is
meant now by the phrase "to restore to its coinage such silver coins" a
phrase which In 1878 was with good reason interpreted by rcnny who sup-
ported a similar resolution to mean something vitally different from what
it must mean now.
, The Senator who introduced the resolution into the Senate at this ses-
sion furnished the country with an authoritative interpretation of its moan-
ing. I read from the Record the following colloquy:
FREE COINAGE PURPOSE ADMITTED.
MR. SPOOKER. I ast the Senater -whether he means to be understood by the resolution as
that it will be in consonance with public faith for the Government to open the mints for the free and
unlimited coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1 and pay in those dollars as a legal tender the principal
of the bonds?
MB. TELLER. The Government absolutely has a right under the !aw, and a moral right that can
not be queitioned, in my judgment.
MR. SPOONEK. Is not that -what this resolution is intended to mean?
MR. TELLER. That is what I intended it to mean.
This frank statement makes so clear the meaning and intent of this
resolution at the present time that I need not cite similar statements by
other supporters of the resolution.
It is well known, as I have already intimated, that In 1878, v,-h:>n the
original Matthews resolution was adopted by both Houses of Conyrc , the
phrase "to restore to its coinage such silver coins," etc., was understood
by many who then supported the resolution (but now oppose it) to refer
to the standard silver dollars which were proposed by the Allison-Bland
bill, that became a law within two weeks thereafter, that the Government
should coin on its own account in limited volume and maintain at a parity
with gold. Such full legal-tender silver dollars, kept by the Government as
good as gold by limitation of the coinage and by indirect redemption in
payment for duties and taxes, have since been coined to the extent of
four hundred and fifty-six millions, up to January 1, all but seventeen mil-
lions of which are in circulation either in the form of coins or certificates
of deposit.
Even the seventeen millions owned by the Government and this small
amount is all that the Treasury could use in redemption of bonds are doing
the same service in the Treasury as other forms of money, including gold,
and thus practically aiding even in the payment of bonds; and all because
6
the policy of the Government, since formulated into law, has been for
twenty years to keep all its currency, whether silver or paper, as good as
gold.
$30,000,000 OF BONDS PAID IN GREENBACKS OB, CURRENCY
CHECKS.
Let me repeat. This resolution cannot have any practical reference to
the standard silver dollars coined on account of the Government since 1878,
because the small number of these coins which are owned by the Govern-
ment, as well as the large number in circulation either as coins or in the
form of certificates of deposit, are kspt as good as gold by the Govern-
ment, and are practically used for all purposes in such a way as will best
secure this parity.
So long as silver dollars and greenbacks are kept as good as gold and
confidence is maintained that such parity will not be disturbed, it is
found by experience that even bondholders accept both without objection.
Indeed, within the past six weeks the Government has paid nearly thirty
millions of matured bonds either in greenbacks or currency checks. It is
only when confidence is weakened by such propositions as that covered
by the pending resolution that public creditors demand gold. In other
words, such schemes as this defeat the very end which the proposers profess
to be seeking.
When gentlemen on the other side point to the standard silver dollars
coined in limited volume on account of the Government as "honest dollars,"
as they certainly are, so long as the Government maintains the value which
they have possessed for twenty years, and then ask the country to infer that
standard silver dollars minted under free and unlimited coinage by this
country alone at the ratio of 16 to 1 of gold, at a time when the commercial
ratio is 33 to 1, will be equally good, they must expect that candid investi-
gators of monetary facts will listen with astonishment, however sincere they
may regard those who entertain such a belief.
THE 200 CENT DOLLAR THEORY.
Indeed, Mr. Speaker, the frequent declarations of many of the advocates
of 16 to I unlimited silver that we have had since 1879, and now have a 200-
cents dollar, and that an "honest dollar" is one which has only half the
purchasing power, are a practical admission on their part that what they
expect to obtain by their policy, if they can secure its adoption, is the de-
preciation of the dollar a depreciation of one-half on the basis of their own
assertions and then the use of such a depreciated dollar to pay not only
Government but also private obligations.
6
It IB sonaetlmes loosely asserted that a depreciation of our dollar one-half
is .Justified by an alleged appreciation of gold since we got back to a specie
basis in 1879. As a matter of fact, this assertion is not supported by any
fact. The only evidence that has ever been offered for such an assumption
is the decline of prices. Even if it be conceded that a fall of prices neces-
sarily shows a rise in the value of the dollar measure a concession inad-
missible in view of the well-recognized fact that as to most articles there
is and has been for a long time a continuous reduction in cost of production
by the increased use of labor-saving devices and economies let it be borne
in mind that according to the tables of Commissioner Wright, as presented
in the report of the Senate Committee on Finance, the decline of average
gold prices in the United States from 1879 to 1891 was only 5 per cent., and
even from 1870 to 1879 only 5 per cent., while from 1870 to 1891 wages rose
20 per cent. Since 1891 the unexampled increase of gold production makes it
improbable that gold can have increased in value. The great fall of prices
between 1893 and 1897 has been brought about in large part by precisely
the same causes that produced a fall of prices to the extent of 12 per cent.
in 1857-58.
THE MORAL VIEW OF IT.
This brings me, Mr. Speaker to the consideration of the vital question as
to whether "the Government has the moral right" in other words, whether
it would be an act which the moral sense of the world would regard as in
accordance with honor and good faith for the United States to pay its out-
standing bonded indebtedness in dollars of so materially less value than the
dollar which has been the practical standard of value since 1834, barring
the war and reconstruction period, and which has been the legal and practical
standard of value since 1879, and the dollar in which our bonded indebtedness
has been paid thus far paid by every Administration from Lincoln to Mc-
Kinley to wit, the dollar equal in value to 25.8 grains of standard gold.
It is urged that the original act authorizing the issue of all existing
bonds for the purpose of refunding the debt, which was passed in 1870, pro-
vided for the payment of coin of the then existing standard, and that as the
law then stood a coin dollar might be a gold dollar of 25.8 grains of standard
gold or 412% grains of standard silver, coined without limit, and therefore
that we may now honorably and with good faith establish unlimited coinage
of silver at the same ratio of 16 to 1, when silver has fallen more than one-