The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1875-10-09

/ reasonable to suppose that these trade
organizations and bankers are such con
/ founded fools that they do not know what
is to their own self-interest Not at all
these men are sharpe, shrewd, scheming,
selfish to the farthest possible degree,
and they know perfectly well that return
to specie payments will give them far
greater chances to take advantage ~ the
workingmen and farmers than they now
enjoy. This is the only reason why they
demand specie payments, and this fact
alone settles the matter that gold, or a
gold basis currency IS emphatlcally the
Spectators money, the boodsucker's
money, the devils money
But this only shows one side of the pic
ture. The men who trade upon the wealth
already created want specie payments ;
but the farmers, the workingmen, the
manufacturers, the producers Of wealth in
every department IF productive industry,
all demand more money. Demand that
John Sherman coutcatIon act, fixing
day for resumption, shall hc repealed,
and the money power humbled This
slight ~ hand performer, Schurz, has put
the spocuator and gambler under The
grecnback hat, and the wurkuauen and
producers under the golden hat sI adroitly
that no one but careful observer would
notice the trick nevertheless the trick
has been played, and now this fanatic
Pagan insists that it vas no trick at all,
but the sober truth. Mr. Schurz lies.
and hc knows very well that he lies when
he says thar greenbacks are the ''specu-
lator's money, and that 4 gold basis
currency Is honest money
GOLD NOT 4 STANDARD Or VALUE
Nearly every argument that the bullion
lists have ever produced. depend directly
OF indirectly for their power upon the as
sumption that gold has fixed, or nearly
fixed value. which measures An other
values This assumption may properly b.
designated the measure of value argument.
Everything which Mr.. Schurz says depends
upon this assumption being correct, aud if
this assumption is proven 10 be- wrong,
then everything which Nj. Schurz says,
instead of being unau,werahl, becomes
a mass Of OaltOrCal ru.ls, without form Or
vitality, and his whole speech ls answered
1t is of the ut most Import
ance at this first step of onr investigation
to find out what the value of gold is
Bonany Price tells Us .''t Is what We pay
the miner" The Chlragp Tribune asserts
that gold always costs about the same
amount Of labor and every author who
has ever touched upon the subject las
treated it with equal hrevitv and uncer-
fanny. 1t j. further fundamental max
nm III political economy that the value If
an article is the " cost of Us production.
Or the cost of its Reproduction, as some
writers prefer 20 express it. But what is
the cost of producing gold That is the
first question which every hulhonlst
it is the one question which an builionists
never answer. Let Us aHalysc the facts,
and see if We can a. any thing towards
throwing light upon this dark corner of
the currency discussion. lf"the value of
gold is the cost Of its production, it Is
PLAIN that we must ascertain what that
cost is, or We ca1 never know anything
definitely about the effect Of the value Of
gold upon anything. In order to tnd ont
what it costs to produce gold We must ap-
peal to the history Of gold production.
A short time ago an uld California miner
told his experience IN the columns Of
local Illinois paper He stated that for
several weeks, he took out, on an average,
two hundred dollars a day from the crevice
of the rocks, with an old carving knife
blade. Certainly this was not hard work
Now, if We apply bullion logic tu this
act, We infer that two hundred dollars 4
day was the value of days work produc-
ing gold, for this was what We paid that
particular miner but every man Of com
mon or uncommon sense knows that two
hundred dollars a day is an eStravagant
and absurd price to pay for labor, whether
that labor is engaged in producing gold, or
engaged in any other occupation.
But, says some bullionist eve don't
mean what We pay W some particular
miuer but the average price which We pay
u all gold miners Very good. This
particular miner had several chums. Some
Of them made two dollars day, some
five, some ten, some twenty, some fifty,
some one hundred, and So on up to his
figures of two hundred dollars day.
Now if an exact account is kept, under
these circumstances, it would be possible
to ascertain an exact average cost Of pro-
ducing gold in a given locality, but unfor
tunately for the bullion theorists. there
has never been any such exact account
kept. Nay, more, there have been thous-
ands of miners scattered all over our
Pacific slope, Prospecting in every gulch
for gold. These men have spent months
and years in hunting for the precious
metal, and have found none at all. These
men are entitled to wages for their labor,
but no account has ever been kept. and
therefore, no possible means of ascertainng
the cost Of gold now exists, and it is
beyond the Power Of any man or any com
binatiOn of men to ascertain the average
cost of producing he gold now IN eXis-
tence. much less to undertake TO guess at
the cost of reproducing the same amount
at some future time 1t is. therefore. per
fectly plain that the value Of gold, meas
ured by the cost Of production, always has
been, and from the nature of the case,
always will be an unknown quantity
THE EXCHANGABLE VALUE Or GOLD.