The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1873-12-06

In your issue ~ the LIST of November
We find a paper on the labor question, by
". n. Allen, 4. 4. D., of Girard Col
lrge, which We suppose means workinymen
and farmers Can't YES he easy nov
ana step Yer iabbering about the money
question, H. as the Hon Professor saws.
the question 81 the relations II labor and
capital is one Of the problems nf social
science. We would remind him that prob
lens IN science must be demonstrated
they cannot hr proved BY mere assertion
which comprises his whole stock in trade
on this question
saws the Hon Professor Working
men allege that while they produce all the
wealth, they a. not receive fair share "
the products Of their labor, and they are
cropping ia the dark to discover the cause
ana the remedy. This proposition is not
fairly stated Neither Is il true What
the workingmen complain Of is that ALL
I'M PROFITS Of their labor are absorbed by
capital, leaving 20 them only a miserable
and precariuas subsistence; and besides
the working and producing classes are not,
as the Hon Professor lntimates, bhndly
hagelating each other IN their vain search
fnr the remedy for they have already, as
the Hon Professor well knows, and that
is what troubles him, discovered that 1t
lies buried with land and railroad monop-
olies and some other rubbish, which We
mean to make a bonfire Of beneath our
present inquitous money system.
The first half Of the article is mainly
taken up with rehearsal Of the acts and
effects Of trades unions; but when the
Hon. Professor comes To- the G. W. A. he
shows his teeth for the first time, but IN
that mid manner So peculiar to his class.
In the first passage VI any lmpo-t the
Hon. Professor says. But the successive
advances of wages that have been made
during the past thirty years have given
only temporary relief, because the prices
at commodities have risen with the rise Of
wages. and whatever adds to the cost OF
the products uf labor dIminshes the pur-
chasing power Of the wages Of labor
The Hon. Professor appears a. study t.
be tluwery. rather more than to be concise;
bnt We take il that the passage quoted I
means that any advance IN the wages of
the laborcr reacts upon himself. Ike the /
flight Of the boomerang. The logical Sc
puence " this ingenious theory. then. Is |
that the Workngmen will be better OH /
with low wages. ana that the best thing /
they can do IS 70 keePqmet and trust entire
" t. the tender mrrCIes o. their masters. /
This position Is toe absurd to require refu-
tation. II il did, the Hon Professor has .
furnished rs with an argument a little
further on that upsets this assertion, when
he saws But the effect Of the increase
Of gold on prices has been exaggerated by
an irredeemable currency. Here he adj
mits that gold (whchis true) mas increased
the value ~ other commodities; but ii he
means 70 say that prices have been aug
mented by the national currency, he says
what he cannot prove. and the national
currency is in no sense irredeemable.
The national currency We know does n i
suit the capitalist. but we, the producers,
mean to have It, and if We can't get It any
other way we intend t. % into the temples
ourselves and overset the tables Of the
money changers. II the Hon. Professor
wishes to know how the national currency
became NtlitNldttAl- NtiAA tcANA WIN gnu Z
We refer him % the speech Of Thad
Stevens in the House upon the final
passage of the legal tender act. The Sen
ate Of the United States. at the instigation
w capitalists. refused to pass the bill with
out the gold amendments by which this
nation has already been plundered Of more
than two thousand millions Of dollars and
the game goes bravely On You ask how
this was done The gold amendments
made the duties and interest On govern
ment bonds payable in gold com. The
capitalists had only Ia control the gold and
the government aided them by boarding
one-third Of all there was in the country,
and having it cornered they we're able %
charge for it any price they pleased. Gold
rose in price until, as compared with green
backs, their relative value stood as SAP to
500 At this rate capitalists, as fast as
they got them, turned greenbacks into
bends, and thus S42 gold investment has
ever since been drawing 50 interest, paya
bic in gold, semi-annually, which is about
IA per cent. per annum, but capitalists
were not satisfied with this wholesale rob
berry Of their country; no, ] don't mean
that. for most Of these robbers were for
eign capitalists. They procured the pass
age Of an act making these bonds, as they
matured, payable in gold. This act was
what prevented, and still prevents, green
backs being equal to gold, and enables
capitalists to keep the door open still to
rob and plumber the people.
But for this act, capitalists, in self-de-
Tense, would have been compelled to make
greenbacks equivalent to gold or receive
the money for their bonds, when Inundated.
IN deprecated paper
Our government is to blame for all this.
but not the incumbent officers, for Con-
gress has tied their hands so that they can
do nothing. What is Of most Importance
lust now is, how does this effect the qnes-
ton OF labor, which we are considering.
Who pays this two Thousand millions Of
stolen money, and as much more necessa
rily expended Do the capitalists No
for they are the thieves Well, then, it is
very natural TO suppose that the producers
must pay it; and having this to pay, to
say nothing of minor robberies, the great
wonder is how they ever get living at all.
From the last quotation We made the
Hon. Professor begins to founder like
blind man in the mud. He goes from
greenbacks to gold, from money to curren-
cy, national bank notes and the old State
bank note system, and he keeps mixing
them up together and rolling them over
and over, so that it is impossible to tell
what he means, and it is very certain that
he don't know himself For instance, he
asserts that the government Of the United
States reserves to itself and its national
banks the privilege Of issuing notes paya-
BILE on demand but which cannot be paid
on demand" Money has two-fold char
acter; it is a medium of exchange and a
But bank notes and govern
ment notes are not money. Now, not one
of these assertions are strictly true, and if
they were. what do they amount to. This
is mere drivel The Hon Professor also
saws ''the national banks not only receive