The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1879-12-19
FINANCE FOR THE PEOPLE.
XII.
DULL TOOLS FoR BUYING.


used When wa can just as well have on
dollars sharp, what is the use IN baying then
dull? Clearly mono, for those who want 4
buy. For them the dollars that viii buy mos
are the best. But for tho men who havs thingI
to sell, are nc. dull and cheap dollars very fine
Cheap money makes hign prices, so-called
lie who has land, or crope, or goods TO sell
can get for them more poor dollars than good
dollars, and he is very apt to think only OF the
number aud to shut his eyes to the kind OF
1 dollars. Things sell better be says, forget
ting that they would sell still more quickly
and for more pieces of paper called dollars, II
the notes in use were those Of the late Confed-
eracy. He is pleased to think himself richer
because he has 100 halves called dollars instead
in Richmond who sold one par OF boots for
$500 in Confederate notes had the worst OF 1t,
for the leather was worth more than the paper,
and lasted longer.
High prices in bad money are never so good
as low prices in good money. The farmer who
could sell his busnel Of wheat for SO during
the war, thinks he is doing very badly if he gets
only 81 now. But the dollar which he gets
will buy fully as much as three dollars would
have bought IN 1864 Bad money wdens the
gap between producer and consumer, al has
been shown; at every step the cost Is enhanced
by the higher charges OF dealers, middle men
and transoorsers, to cover their risk in using
money of changing value. 1t is as If every
man who sells should put more sand in the
sugar, more chaf IN the wheat and more
water III the whiskey, to make sure of profits.
Tho farmer would SET an extra price for once
mixing chaff with his gram. But he would pay
four extra charges in buying his wbisksy. For
the distllier, the rectifer, and the Wholesale
and retail dealers would each pour his pail OF
water into the barrel. The distiller. too, would
get only one extra profit by Watering tho vhs-
farmer and al the dealers who had handled
the wheat, each mixing more chaff with 1t. II
the farmer gets chetp-aollar prices for his
cattle or wool, lie has to pay cheapdollar
prices FOR clothing, implements, sugar, tea,
coffee, aud everything else that he buys, and
all these Thugs pass through many hands be-
fore they reach hun. Thus il was that farms
came to be thichly covered and houses thickly
thatched With mortgages years ago; all pro-
dueers we're paying the cost of using bad
money. We have tired al this does any
farmer want to go back to war prices? II he
could tax others when 10 soils, and pay no tax
himself when he buy g, II would be very differ
ent affair. But cheap money taxes everybody,
and the producer most OF all.
Men who have things to sell are apt TO for
get all this. Cheap money. 20 them. means
more dollars for their wheat and cotton. their
wool, hog1 aul cattle. But how is it with the
working man. Does it pay him to have dull
tools TO buy with ? Plainly not, If 1t helps the
seller. Two boys, locked up together, cannot
both make themselves rich by swapping jack
knives with each other, and the use OF bad
dollars cannot help both the buyer aud seller. /
II cheip money helps the Seller at all, 1t hurts
Inc buyer just as much. The country can gain
nothing it is only " robbing Peter to pay Paul"
But tine working people 1.-Two on wages, which
'hange very slowly. If the dollars paid to
hem grow dull so that prices rise, the cost OF
living gets higher. All the unions over formed,
III the strikes ever planned, never yet have
gwen the workers power TO push their wages |
Upward as fast or as far as prices IN dull dol |
ars have risen. The seller gets more money
or bis pork or beef, but the working man buys
md pays more money The world over he
uners whenever cheap money makes food,
lothing and rent cost more.
Then the committee OF workmen waits on
he employer: " IL costs US too much to live
ngher wages, or we strike" The employer
effects " IL pay more wages, my goods will
ost more, and fewer people will buy them.
The markets OF Canada, the West Indies, and
europe will be closed against me. Already the
Material costs more in dull dollars, and inter
q, IL higher, and the dealer and transporter
barge more, for men will have pay for risk
Then no man can tell what his dollars may be
'orth tomorrow. Higher wages mean ruin;
Is better to close the mill Or il he Yields,
no higher prices bring fewer buyers, and the
all can run only half time. What shall the
oor WORKMAN do Strike, and waste his saw
1873 in q barren struggls? Or yield, pinch
imself, let the wife wear old clothes and the
bildren 80 without shoes, and try to bear it
I'LL longer? Cheap money has no pity Prices
ill go still higher, and the sellers will want
till more money. Higher wages the workman
light to have, if food, clothing and rent cost
lore. But higher wages mean fewer buyers,
ever hours work in month, or the closing
tho mill. For the seller, as hc counts his
andsome gains before he begins to spend
hem, cheap dollars seem very nice. But for
,e buyer it il anything but nice, when higher
rices bring pnching or starvation, unless he
IN get higher wages. And higher wages means
ss work. ,
The workngmsn have savings for time OF