New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-07-28

condition under established gold prices Of labor ana
property.
Such assertions as these may be safely
placed without comment before an intelligent
people is it true that wages do not increase
Every laborer who has intelligence enough 10
earn fair wages at any time knows that IN
upward movement in the rate of wages pald
has at last begun Is it true that laborers
still bunt for employers as anxiously or un-
successfully as they did one year agof Every
workman in this country knows that 1t is NOT
true; that the number of the unemployed has
been greatly diminished and that 1althiui anu
capable workmen are now in demand In nearly
every employment. Is it true that the con-
edition of things last year and the year pc
80 fore is to become the permanent CONDITION
On the contrary, every employer or working
man in this broad land knows that the con-
"dition of things last year and the year
before has departed, and that we have In
its stead a condition incomparably more tavor-
able both for the laborer and for the employer
Hope and enterprise have revived. More men
are at work than at any time since 1917. Inc
wages paid are actually higher, i'll their pur-
chasing power, than the wages PAID at any
previous time since the panic. III we are not
al liberty to suppose that General Ewing Is one
who deliberately tries to deceive his hearers,
we must conclude that his own ill-success, In
unlucky coal and railroad speculations, has
made him incapable of seeing or reporting
facts which are obvious to the workingmen
for whose welfare he claims to care. They
know that there has been a change In their
favor. since resumption took place. Many OF
them do not clearly see that this change is
due to resumption, and upon that point Cen
eral Ewing might have employed sophistry
with some effect. But they know by their
own daily experience that the change has
taken place, and will be apt to attribute to
the personal or political interests Of General
Ewing the false representation which he
makes.
Unfortunately for him, he cOnfesses alto
gether too frankly the spirit which moves
bim Every debt still threatens he says.
And why not Why should debt not
threaten, when the debtor refuses to Dayf Ii
General Ewing, or any other man, has bor-
rowed the hardly-earned savings of his neigh
| Dor, and sunk the money in wild speculatons
in coal lands, or railroads, or otherwise, why
should he noe be threatened continually until
he mas pdlu INC Iout1 lhhU 10 'ho ~
ginning and the end of the business, as
to General Ewing and the fnanciers
of his school. They want to get rid
of paying money borrowed and honestly
due. Their neighbors, on the contrary. want
to be paid. The money has been lost by the
misconduct or miscaculatiOn of the borrow
ers. The lenders trusted not to the success
of their plans, but to their honor And now
that honor is so thin and sicky that they
publicly grumble at resumption, because 1t
does not enable them to get rid of paying
money borrowed
The assertion that every debt still "calls
"for more labor or product than before" is not
true, as. General Ewing knows. If it were
true, 1t would be no excuse for dishonesty.
He, and those whom he represents, took all
the risks when they borrowed. The lender
has perfect right to demand payment. If
General Ewing or any of his followers were
in the position Of the creditor, he would be
swift to enforce his claims. He knows that
the attempt to escape payment in full by de-
preciating the kind of money used is only a
trifle less dishOnOrable than an attempt to es-
cape payment at all. His platform. then, is
that of the sharper-refusal to pay money that
he honestly owes.