The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1878-02-09
THE BLAND INIQUITY.

THE BLAND INIQUITY.
If the friends and advocates of the
Bland silver bill are not daily growing
in grace, thev are at least developing
increased confidence in the certainty
of its final passage, and the indica-
tons Of predominant popular senti-
ment seem to warrant the belief that
the bill, without important modifica-
tons, will finally become a law. The
whole agitation of the silver project
and the specious reasoning employed
by its advocates indicate that it is
much easier to excite prejudices for
or against any public measure than
to convince the reason and SWAY the
judgments of men by substantial and
unanswerahle argument Indeed the
history of the silver craze, as form of
popular dementa, is perhaps the most
noticeable instance Of the successful
appeals of politicians and demagogues
to the blind and unreaSoning prejudce>
Of the industrial classes of the people
To some extent it is modified form of
Communism Take, for instance, the
taIlacious argument of your rabid Iu-
tlationSt and advocate of unlimited sill
YER He seeks to persuade the laborer
and the mechanic, the operative and
the farmer, that their interests require
and demand the unlimited issue of
deprecated silver dollar, which dema-
gogues style the poor mans money!"
while gold is declared to be the money
of the rich capitalist-the instrument
or means by which he EFFORTS from the
laborer and the farmer an undue share
of the products and results OF their in
duStrv In rcfutation of this popular
fallacy, we offer briefly suggestion or
TWO as to the inevitable effect upon the
unlimited issue of such a deprecated
circulating medium as the proposed sill
yer dollar of Alp ID grains, the rela-
tive value Of which to the gold dollar
is in the proportion Of ninety to one
hundred. Now it has been demon
stratcd over and over again that the
wages of the laborer rise much more
slowly than the prices of the commodi-
ties and necessities upon which he sub
sists, under either an excessive or de-
preciated currency. All the great sta
pie articles of consumption, the bread
stuffS and the fabrics that constitute the
basis Of absolute necessity of living, ap-
preciate rapidly in value under the pre-
valling uncertainty that exists from day
to day as the necessary condition of nuc-
tuating currency. No man can predict
from day to day what the next DAYS
price will be of any leading commodity.
TO protect himself against this uncer-
tainty, involving sudden appreciation
of values, the merchant and dealer adds
a percentage to the price Of his goods
depreciation in the price Of the com
modites in which he tratfcs. Every
dealer through whose hands these COM
modiles pass repeats the process, until,
by the time they reach the consumer,
an addition has been made to their price
wholly disproportionate to the premium
on gold. Such, however is not the
case with the wages of the laborer.
He cannot fix the price of his labor.
He is totally dependent upon capital
for employment He must, however,
work or starve. Stern necessity COM
pels him to sell his labor for what it
will bring What its price is, will be
determined, not by the cost of the bread
he eats, not by the price of the neces-
sary fabrics he must cover himself with,
but by the demand for labor, by the
number of laborcrs like himself seek
ing employment, and the amount of
capital ready to be employed in the
payment Of wages. This fund of in
vested capital, out Of which he is to be
paid for his labor, is then sine qua non
to his remuneratvc employment. 1t is
the source from which he draws bread
and life, as essential to him in his occu-
patton as the atmosphere he breathes is
to him physically. But what effect
upon the integrity of this necessary
source of vitality for the laborer and
the artisan has the experience of every
nation amply shown an inflated or de-
prerated currency to have had? The