The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1870-12-31

ly brand such Congress as pack Of
fools. Yet this legislation applied to
gold and silver, backed by supersti-
tious and barbarian customs,is the per-
lection of human wisdom-the stand
ard measure Of value the world over.
But it means one thing in America and
Europe, another, and different in
Asia-and may vary in value from one
up TO two hundred per cent. Thus
this cmningly devised uniform stand
ard OF alue, under cover Of legal
tender, hides from common observa-
ton the fact that gold and silver, like
every commodity, constantly Huctu-
ates in value by the law Of supply and
demand-but this huctuation through
the interest, discounts, and by change
Of values thereby produced, as we
shall presently how, brings unnumber-
ed millions to the financial class, and
entails upon the labor class poverty,
wretchedness and woe. Let it be borne
in mind, too, that the secret of this rob-
berry lies in this ''gold base" and in
giving the coin a fixed value-and
holding that value thus fixed by legal
tender at that point, while every other
article fiuctuates in the market by the
law Of supply and demand
a bushel of wheat to-day is one dol
lsr-next week-next month or next
year, it rises to two dollars, and the
people understand this bushel of wheat
by demand doubled in value. Gold
and silver had nothing to do with II.
Human want lies at the bottom of it.
But gold and si!ver-the Almighty
DolLn-a Dagon Of congressional en-
actment, may rise to The value of two
dollars in the same manner-or it may
be the demand to fill this congressional
enactment Of legal tender "gold base"
or to pay interest on bonds far -yond
the supply Of gold. Financial wisdom
however, teaches that this coin dollar
whatever the want Of it, can never be
,N dollars, but always remains one
Gollar-the other dollar which it brings
in the market is a premium, it is said,
on the gold--an initiation of the cur
rency-their wildcat gold base"
What produced il? Enormous and
bankrupting rates Of interest and dis
counts. Just now, it il said, the infia,
ton is in an irrcdeemable government
rag-money. There is none we suppose
in tile double interest National Bank
irredeemable currency. Oh, no there
cannot be-this currency is secured by
/ National Bonds. 1t is, hap How are
these bonds to Re paid? BY taxation
OF the people Convert the bonds into
legal tenders and stop the bankers
double interest. What then ? Why az
soon as tue double interest and taxa
ton stops, here comes in the imitation.
What is the bankers cure for all this
imitation? Convert these greenbacks
into Understanding bonds, as a
base of the bankers interest bearing
currency, reduce the circulation one
hundred per cent, and the peoples
property in like manner, pay the bond
and interest 10 the bankers in gold, and
the imitation ceases. But who are the
owners Of these bonds? Principally,
fnanciers and money sharks of this
and other labor robbing "specie basis"
or specie paying countries. How came
these men the owners? They did not
fight our battles. They did not icr-
nish the bread and butter, nor make
the cannon and other implements and
munitions of war? How came they,
then, we repeat the owners Of all these
securities by which they are taxing the
life blood energies out of the people :?
We answer again, by large interest on
money and discounts on paper. From
whence are 10 come their enormous
future gains2 BY government action,
in the conversion Of nOninterest.b
ing paper, and by reducing and holding
the circulation of the currency aud
the value Of properly over one hun
bred per cent. below the point they
were at the time the debt was con-
tracted, and promising the whole in
gOld-the lower the circulation Of mo-
ney and the higher the rate Of interest
the less will be the peoples com
forts. But this small loss Of billion
or two IF dollars a year by the people
is compensated, we suppose, in the
| splendor and magni6cence Of the cap
lists nobility, who bytheir foul arts,
incorporated into the coinage legal
tender and "specie basis" laws, are
enabled to own the government and
through its complicated machinery the
country and its labor population. The
remedy is pointed out in the Nat onal
Labor Platform. Read it.
THE SONG OF THE SHIRT.
We herewith reprint an article
the pen Of Gail Hamilton, under
the above caption, which we commend
to the careful attention Of our rea lers.