Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1872-06-18
Spirit Of geffersoll::
0harlestoWn, Jefferson County, West Va.
TUESDAY MORNING. JUNK is. 1s7a.
LABOR REFORM.
SUMMIT Po1Nr, JEFF. Cow, Va

Ddoid Long, Esq Neto WortinSoille WetzeZ
County, West Va
DEAR SIR.-Upon my return home from
visit to West Va, l found your letter of
the 30th ultimo, and take great pleasure in
responding to it in the causesof labor reform
as understand it, and as Il was set forth in
our platform in the nomination of Davis and
Parker. The chief resolutions in that plat
form are those regarding the public lands
and the public and sovereign nature of the
money po.oer! They belong, both of them,
as property, to all the people in common, and
the people have the perfect right to control
them and manage them as they please. and
should reclaim them out of the hands of rob.
bers and monopolists into which they have
fallen, and to the great injury and imrover.
ishment of the people at large This Is man
ifest from the RESULT mean the wrong and
injury done the people while all will ads
NIT that labor produces all wealth, and that
the Joint labor of our forty millions of people
! mas produced all the wealth of this country,
this wealth, so produced by all, is in the
hands of about too millions OF the people, or
FIVE per cent. of them, aud Mirty>eiyht mt
hons are destitute of all property. To drop
the public land question, which is too plain
to be argued as the public lunds 'manifestly
belong all the people, and should be di-
away; it is manifest that the Mirty-eight mil,
lions. who own nothing, have been reduced
to that condifion by some cause not hereto>
fore fully explained aud understood hy them.
That cause, 10. the creed of the labor'reform
party, Is the utter perverson of money! or
the exchanging medium, from its original
purpose and proper office, to lever of up-
holy speculation and robbery in the hands of
few, of all the producing classes. To see
how this is done we have only to look to the
origin of money and the necessity or conre-
nience that brought it into existence. Labor
has created all the material substances or
1ee0iLh among us; aud if there was not dol.
lar of money in existence, of gold and silver
or any other material, there would be as much
'1eahh 1ctfhout it ,rih it. The wealth
would be bartered or exchanged, which is
cumbrous and inconvenent To get clear of
this, the whole people, as sovereign act,
agreed to take, for anything they had, a par
ticular substauce-spec,e, or paper, or ANY,
thing else-and this agreement to fake II,
aud to make it legal tender TOR debts and
toreS. is, the act on the part of the people,
which makes this thing money. or simply an
exchanging medium. Money, then, is a con-
oen'ence, and nothing more, and created by
all the people it is the result of their SOW
ereign act and power; and could not exist
without 1t. The people, then, " ho create
the convenience. have right to prescribe how
it shall be used aud they should so far fr
and prescribe the use, as to confine it to the
purpose Of exchange solciy. and prevent it's
being used for what 1t was never intended.
the purpose of speculation and robheryA The
people can effect this object completely and
conhne money to exchanges as was intended.
by taking care that the interest on money
oh Il L.. Al
increase of labor. Commissioner Wells
shows. in his report to Congress, that the an
nual net increase of labor. to wit, the labor
of the day laborer, of the mechanic. of the
farmer, OF the manufacturer, (unless YOU RIB
all by tariffs and Jounties for the n,anufac.
turer's beneft,) and of the merchant. does
not exceed an average over 81 per cent !
Then, it is4plain that the interest on money
should not exceed that amount: Indeed. it
should be less! IF it exceeds that. then Won
tempt men to tnrn all they have of propetty
into the convenience, because it, then gets
more than labor; to stop work and proiuc-
tion, and TO live, in ideness, upon the work
and production of the whole society who cre-
ated the conrcnienre for aco,kers, and ,rOrh
ers only! What the result has been, in this
abuse and perversion of the conrrnirnce. is
manifest to the world 7sCo millions ofour
people o,on all the property farty millions
have created /; and thirty eiyht millions are
paurcrs!
Now. please consider of it, and tell me
what harm could happen to any one if socie-
ty. who created this convenience, for workers
and producers, should say, (aDd not onIy-sa
but enforce what it said. by the penalties of
the ealIows and the peni.entiary,) that no
man should ever take more than three per
cent. for the use of mnnev-a conUcnience
that society created and instituted. and there,
fore, has the perfect right tn control and reg
ulate L say, tell me 1chnt inconneni ience
could happen to any one, that he could have
a right to complain of. except The inconre>
mience (if be ,onnte5 more than society ner
n.ifs to be realized upon its instrument of er-
change of going to work, as others do. and
making more by adding to the wealth of the
country. instead of adding nothing to that
wealth, but taking out from it what others
make! 1t he is not content, in idleness and
nom production. with the three per cent that
the whole people allow on their otcn oncenii-
e"ce-all they make themselves by hard and
honest labor--why, then, let the idler cease
to be idle and unproductive: Let him buy
farm and work and make more ; let him
build factory and work and make more
and without bounty thrift or let him
be merchant and sell goods at fair profit
aud make more but don't suffer him, with.
out adding silver to the common wealth of
society, to t'interfere" with, and live on,
'the industry of others;" and. through their
common convenience money and as they new
er intended or designed! This is to cheat
his.pnrtners, who made money for no such
purpose! And here, let me quote again
. Whipple's definition of money 1t cannot be
quoted too often, or kept before the people
too constantly:
'.Money is labor saving invention. au-
thorized and regulated by government for
the convenience of the people and he who
thrives by buying and selling it adds nothing