Knoxville Whig and chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1875-1882, 1875-10-06
CARL SCHURZ
His Mastery speech On The ohio ",
uaneiaI Issue.

argument of Ex-senator Schui2 in IA
vor Of national honesty and hard
money at Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 9th
of September. Its reasoning and facts
are convincing, aud honest men who
want to know how to do their duty to
their country, should read every word
of it. Foreigner though he is, there
are American born statesmen who can
learn wisdom from him on the subject.
We wish to select now from the long
speech, that part Of it in which he
proves how ruinous TO the working
men initiation is Here is his picture:
But now look at the other side of the
picture. Here il labOring mau who
works for wages. He IL honestly toll
ing to support himself and his family,
and may be he has succeeded in saving
few hundred dollars, aud deposited
them in savings bank. Now Con-
gress resolves to issue more money In
abundance, aud initiation commences
in good earnest. The laboriDg man,
who has listened to Gov. Allen or Gen.
Cary, thinks the millennium is com
ing. The peoples money" will be
plenty. The gold premium rises, and
the prices of commodities also. The
worthy laborer does not, like the rich
man, read the financial articles and the
market reports in the metropolitan
journals, and ifhe did it would be of
no benefit to him. The rise of the gold
premium troubles his mind very little,
for the peoples money is to be
cheap and plenty. But some day he
goes to the store to buy things for his
household and his family. TO his sur.
prise he finds that the prices of gro-
ceries, and shoes. and clothing, and so
on, have become much higher than
before. How is this?n he asks.
" We'll" says the dealer, gold has
gone up; have to pay much more for
the goods / buy Of the wholesale mer-
chant Therefore I ann obliged to
charge more
SO the worthy labor has to pay those
higher prices for he can not wait for u
better chance, like The rich man he
must buy shoes aud clothes or he him
self and his wife and children will
have to 90 barefnOted or naked; he
must buy provisions for u'S family
must eat. He consoles himself with
the idea that "the peoples money
will make it all right. After a while
he discovers that with these high pri-
ces he has to pay for all his neceSsaries,
his wages are no longer sufficient to
support him and his. So he goes to his
employer and says: Everything has
become very dear, and | can no longer
live Oh the wages you give me. You
must give me more What is the an
swer: "Well," says the employer
things have gone up because gold has
gone up so much. Wait . little; it
will come all right again. The cur
rency will tluctuate, and, you see, in
my large business / can not change
my scale of wages every time gold goes
up or down" He omits, however, to
add that he has been very quick in
making up the prices of all he has had
to sell as soon as the upward move
ment commenced. The laborer shakes
his head, but submits for the time be-
ing, hoping for a favorable change.
But things do not come all right again.
Prices rise still higher, while his wages
remain the same. AT last he finds his
situation uncomfortable, and, combin-
ing with his fellow labOrers, he loudly
demands higher pay. The employer
yields, or rather seems to yield. Gold
and prices have gone up 80 or 40 per
cent, and he grudgingly consents to
increase wages about 10 or 90 per cent.
That is all he can DO, he SAYS, for
things are so uncertain In the
meantime, more peoples money"
more greenbacks, are issued, to mas e
and keep the volume of the currency
equal to the wants of trade, gold and
the prices of commodities rise still
higher, while wages creep slowly after
them at u respectful distance. Mean
time, the lease of the dwelling OF our
worthy laborer has expired, and he
wants to renew it. The landlord de
mands a much higher rent. Higher
remit" exclaims the laborer; lam
not tleeced enough already ~ Can
not help it, says the landlord; gold
and general prices have cue up SO
much, and oar money is worth 50 lit
tie, that l must have higher rent to
get along myself You must pay or
move The laborer has To submit
but resolves to emancipate himself
with 1.-THE peoples money from the
greedy tyranny OF the bloaled land
lord. He has something like two or
three hundred dollars of old savings in
the savings bank, and makes up his
mind to build home for himself and
his family, the simplest kind of little
wooden house, of two or three rooms
and kitchen, on n cheap little lot in
the outskirts. Formerly his reserve of
money would have gone far toward ac-
complishing that end, but, upon in
quiry as to the present prices of ground
and building material, he finds that
since "the peoples money" has been
issued in abundance, his own money
will not go half so far as formerly to-
ward giving him Il home. In other
words, about half of the purchasing
power of the real value of his savings
mas disappeared. But, determined To
escape from the tyranny of the land
lord, he resolves to try whether he
can not, in addition to his own, borrow
money enough to accomplish his pur-
pose, for, of course, "the peoples
money! must be easy to obtain at low
interest, being ''the peoples money"
He applies to "a mouey-lender for a
couple of hundred at low interest, on
two or three years time, to be secured
10y mortgage on the house and lot.
Low interest and three years timen'
exclaims the money lender My dear
man, you donOt understand the period.
Since more and more greenbacks are