The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1875-06-19
ROrkinsmrn's Sarutxtt.


NNtftfftNtd rom HfN fUgt-l
convertible bond system, while enabling
rs To do this, would increase the capital
Of the people by permitting them to de-
post their balances with the government,
and receive a. interest the money they
wolld pay rs taxes, As the French people
do. (tpplause.)
This would revive our industries, and
make a market, home and foreign, for our
productions. (Applause) How make a
ioreisu market Why, it would enable
us 10 demonstrate beyond question our
international prcdumInance. We will be
recognized rs the commercial masters OF
the world # We will but guide our own At
tairs wisely. (Applause) When our cur
rcncy expanded and our people we're EN-
plOyed, mills and factories went up as II
by magic railroads were constructed, new
towns created, and prosperity prevailed
from one end of the Northern states TO
the other Have the buildings and fur
naces erected in Philadelphia during those
years Of expansion vanished Do they
not stand as firmly and as powerful for
good as they did when first put into mo
uon! SO ali over the country
Look at the progress We made in the
creation Of productive capital in those days.
Wages advanced there Was a quick and
ready demand for labor employers con
coded increased prices for labor labor RS
lived better than hey had ever done ; our
public schools were full pauperism and
crime abated when a suicide occurred 1t
was the sure evidence of lunacy, and not
of despair as most Of such cases nov are.
So, too, wages went up abroad as the
story Of our tempting prosperity went from
town 20 town IN Europe.
/ have shown you how immigrants came
TO US in steadily increasing numbers-3OO,
OO0, 40O, 900, 4JO, 600 year. They came
the best farmers, most skllltul wOrkmen
and most ingenious artisans. They came
70 bring as their trades. their arts, their
mysteries, to enrich our country and by
their coming those who remained behind
had a field for labor ami the power to
successfully demand higher wages. (Ap-
plause.)
II was the fashion e England, France
ana Germany to mplain because the
United States was raising wages all the
world over. Ii is true We did, but are we
not reducing them now ? We have deter
mined to reduce the wages vi our country
hACAs buA lids NOlh bttu COuuutt 70 ouI
own country No. They have toppled
down IN England, in France, in Belgium,
IN Germany, IN Austria. There Is no
longer an inducement for skilled men to
come 70 this country. They must stay at
home at whatever wages they can earn.
We have put them under the heels Of their
old masters, and It has recoiled upon u.
For the first four months II this year, as
have shown by the New York Tribune,
the foreign imports Of merchandise into
New York fell on forty per cent.
We are the great customers Of the woi ILL.,
ours IS the leading market for the fabrics
and wares Of each If the countries have
named Neconsune more British, French.
Belgian, German and Austrian goods than
any one NJ those countries does If the pro
ductluns Of the others. England may im-
port more from any OF them than We do,
but they are largely for r. export, while
ours are imported Tor consumption. And
by throwing cut Of employment the work
men who fabricated that forty per cent.
Of the goods We formerly imported We have
reduced them to a condition ia which they
cannot consume our wheat, pork, beef or
cotton
We have reduced them to ldleness as
We have our own army ~ generous con
sumers (applansel; and IN doing 50 We
have reduced the cOnsumptlye power Of
AL thr rest for the workman who gets
only eighty cents a day cannot spend as
much a. he did when he got dollar OF a
dollar ana a, hall day, 80 that w have
cut on our own market would re-es
tabilsh n | would e-hlndle the rre Of
the forge and the furnace; | would buy
up the bonds to the amount ! have midi
Gated with greenbacks, aud prevent the
possibility OF imitation by letting whoever
had greenbacks IN excess Of current wants,
deposit them with the government IT 3 60.
tAPplause)
Your enemies talk to you about assignats
and continental money. Could the hold
-rs Of the assignats deposit them with the
French government and get interest on
them What was the guarantee Of as.
signats II vas the conhscated property
IF the church and the bauished nobility,
and when things turned over, and the no
bilty came back and the church was re-es-
tablshed, there was nothing with which
To redeem them. That case is not parallel
to the bonds Of the United States, with
the resources Of the people and the faith
Of the government to sustain them. Con
tiDental money Benjamin Frankln's
advice would have averted the calamities
which followed the collapse Of continental
money, for h. urged Congress not to issue
any more currency, but % borrow on in
terest bearing bonds what had then been
issued, and pay them out again 50 as to
avoid the imitation Of the currency by Gre
ating funded debt.
That is precisely what propose. Issue
enough greebacks to answer the purposes
Of the people. If too many get out retire
them III exchange for bonds with currency
interest. Thus we may quicken not only
our own industries, but the industries Of
the world and re- establish the tide Of I'M
migration. Thus, too, we can emancipate
the labor and enterprise Of the country
from their subjectioI 10 the hondholder
and bullion broker, whether native or for
eion born (Applause