of July, and on the 29th Senator John G. Carlisle, who,
as a member of the committee, had taken much interest in the inquiry,
and had participated in the conversational debate during the
preceding month, made an elaborate speech upon the resolution and
mainly upon the proposition advanced by him, that the result of
the McKinley law was to increase the prices of commodities, while
it did not increase wages. His speech was certainly a good specimen
of logic by a well trained mind. His first proposition was that
it was the unanimous opinion of scientists and statisticians, in
all the great industrial and commercial countries of the world,
that the prices of commodities had been decreasing, and the rates
of wages, especially in those occupations requiring skill and
intelligence, had been increasing; that capital had been receiving,
year after year, a smaller percentage of the total proceeds of the
product, and labor a larger percentage. He insisted that the
tendency toward a decline in prices of commodities and an increase
in the rates of wages is the necessary result of our improved
methods of production, transportation and exchange. He said that
anyone who contends in this day that high prices of commodities
are beneficial to the community at large, is at war with the spirit
of the age in which he lives, and with the genius of discovery and
invention, which, during the last half century, has ameliorated
the condition of mankind by bringing all the necessaries of life,
and many of its luxuries, within the reach of every man who is
willing to work. He then entered into an elaborate argument to
show that the McKinley act interfered with this natural tendency
towards a decline in the prices of commodities and a rise in the
rates of wages, and made it harder and more expensive for the masses
of the people of the United States to live.

I do not follow his argument, as, to treat him fairly, it would be
necessary to state it in full. It was illustrated by carefully
prepared tables.

On the same day, without preparation, I said I would not undertake
to reply to the precise and fair argument made by the Senator from
Kentucky, but took exception to the basis of his argument, that
the cheapness of things is the great object of desire. I did not
think so, though the report of the committee did not bear out his
argument as to the effect of the McKinley law, but, on the contrary,
showed that prices had declined and wages inc