The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1852-01-22

must all know instances of individuals obliged
to labor for their daily bread, whose grand
fathers were men of fortune. The regular pro-
cess OF society would almost seem to consist of
the efforts of one class dissIpate the fortunes
which they have inherited, whilst another class.
by their industry and economy, are regularly
rising to wealth. We have all. therefore.
common interest, as it is our common duty. to
protect the rights of the laboring man: and if
L believed for moment that this bill would
prove injurious TO him, it should meet nv un-
qualified opposition.
Although this bill will not have as great an
influence, as l could desire, yet, as far as it
goes, it will benefit the laboring man as much,
and probably more, than any other class of
society. What is it he ought most to desire =
Constant employment, regular wages, and uni
form reasonable prices for the necessaries and
comforts Of life which he requires. Now, sir
what has been his condition under our system
Of expansions and contraction? He has suffered
more by them than any other class of society
The rate CT his wages is fixed and known; and
they are the last to rise with the increasing
expansion, and the first to ian when the cores
bonding rcvuls!on occurs. He still continues
to receive his dollar per day, whilst the price
OF every article which he consumes is rapidly
rising. He is ct length made to feel that, al
though he nominally earns as much, or even
more than he did formerly, yet from tie in
creased prices Of all lie uecessaries Of life, he
cannot support his family. Hence the strikes
for higher wages and the uneasy and exciting
feelings which have at different periods, existed
among the l4boriug classes. But the expansion
at length reaches the exploding point, and what
does the labofing man now suffer? He is for
a season thrown out OF employment altogether
Our manufactures are suspended; our public
works are stopped our private enterprises of
different kinds Abandoned; aud, whilst
i-OthcTs are able to weuther the storm, he can
scarcely oJtail the means Of bare subsistence
Again, sir, who, 90 you suppose, held the
greater part Of tie worthless paper of the one
hundred and sixty-five broken banks to which |
have referred? Certainly it was not the keen
and wary speculator, who snuffs danger from
afar II you were to make the search, you
would find more broken bank notes in the cot
tages of the laboring poor than any where else.
And these miserable shin-plastcrs, whore are
they? After the revulson of 1887, Iaborers
4
and they received it upon the express condition
that they should accept this worthless trash in
payment. Sir an entire suppression of all
bank notes of lower denomination than the
value of one weeks wages Of the laboring man
is absolutely necessary for his protection He
ought always to receive his wages in gold and
silver. OF all men the EARTH the laborer is
most interested in having sound and stable
currency.
All other circumstances being equal, | agree
with the Senator from Kentucky that that eoun-
try Is most prosperous where labor commands
the highest wages do not, however, mean bv
the terms highest wages" the greatest nomi-
nal amount During the Revolutionary war,
one days work commanded hundred dollars
of continental paper; but this would scarcely
/ have purchased a breakfast. The more proper
( expression would be, to say that, that country
( is most prosperous where labor commands the
greatest reward, where one days labor will pro-
! cure not the greatest nominal amount of depre-
ciated currency, but most of the necessaries and
comforts of life. If, therefore, you should, in
some degree, reduce the nominal price paid for
labor, by reducing the amount of your bank is
sues within reasonable and safe limits, and es-
tablishing metallic basis for your paper circu-
lation, would this injure the loborer? Certainly
not; because the prices of all the necessaries
and comforts of life are reduced in the same
proportion, and he will be able to purchase
more of them for one dollar in a sound state of
the currency, than he could have done, in the
days of extravagant expansion, for dollar and
a quarter. So far from injuring, it Will greatly
benefit the laboring man. 1t will insure to him
constant employment and regular prices, paid
in sound currency, which, of all things, he
ought most to desire; and it will save him from
being involved in ruin by recurrence of those
periodical expansions and eontractions Of the
currency, which have hitherto conyulsed the
country. 7 sfs T.
Tho sound state of the currency viii have
another most happy effect upon the laboring
man. He will receive his wages in gold and
silver; and this will induce him to lay up, for
future use, such portion of them as he can
spare, after satisfying his immediate wants.
Tins he will not do at present, because he
knows not whether the trash which he is now
compelled to receive as money, will continue to
De OF any value week or month hereafter.
A knowledge of this fact tends to Danish econ
omy from his dwelling and indnces him to
expend all his wages rapidly as possible, lest
they may become worthless on his hands ("