The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-09-24
A GRAVE FINANCIAL PERIL.
Dangers that Threaten the Country Be-
cause of Continued Silver Coinage.
fore the American Bankers Association,
Now in Annual Session at Chicago.

after 10 o'clock, by Lyman J. Gage, of this city.
president of the association who delivered an
address, touching upon the silver issue and other
matters likely to engage the attention of the
delegates
Immediately after the reading Of the presi-
dents address, an invitation from the st. Paul s.
Duluth the Northern Pacific & st. Paul, the
Minneapolis & Manitoba roads, to pass over
those lines, free of charge, to visit st. Paul,
Duluth, Fargo and Minneapolis, was extended
and accepted
The executive council offered the following
Resolved, That it is the sense Of this convention
that the coinage of silver dollars, under the compul
sorry law of 1878 is detrimental to the best interests
of the people and dangerous the welfare of the gov
eminent, and that the law should be Immediately sus
pended and remain imperative until an international
agreement of the leading commercial nations shal
give substantial assurance to the future relation OF
gold and silver money.
Col W. L. Trenholm, of Charleston, S. c.,
opened the discussion, favoring the resolution.
In the course of his remarks Colonel Trenholm
said:
"Omitting now the effects of contraction. let
us see how deprecated currency will affect
different classes beginning with that large class
who live on wages and salaries. This class COM
prises the men, women and children who are de-
this class the day-laborer is the type. Every
ay-laborer handles more currency, in proportion
to his total dealings, than any trader, banker or
capitalist. These latter utilize credit in their
business; the day -laborer deals wholly for cash.
Other men turn over their capital or their stock
In trade during periods of time more or less pro-
longed; the day-laborer turns his over every day
that he is fully employed; and when he fails to
do so. what is not sold runs to waste.
The capital of the day-laborer consists of his
health, strength, experience, intelligence and
honesty; his stock in trade is so much of these
be worked out Of him in ten hours; his
business consists in selling every day one days
worth of himself, and in replenishing by food,
shelter and warmth so much of his vital forces
as have been either worked off or wasted. If
they have been worked off for wages, these sup
ply the means of replenishment; If they have
run to waste, from want of profitable employ
ment, they must be replenished at the expense
of his savings, remain either partially or
wholly impaired. The laborer and all other
wage earners are to be regarded, therefore. as
sellers of labor, and they WILL therefore, all fall
under whatever disability defective currency
imposes upon sellers generally.
What is this disability, and how does it arise9
The common law, by virtue OF the maxim that a
fair price implies sound article protects buyers
as to the quality, weight and dimensions of
whatever they buy, and. reciprocally. sellers are
supposed to be protected by the laws made in
pursuance of the power vested in Congress to
regulate the coinage and the currency. This
intention was no doubt in the minds of the
trainers of the Constitution, because they placed
side by side in the same organic law the power
to regulate the value Of coins and the power to
regulate weights and issasures The grant of
these powers laid upon Congress the duty of
exercising them. The public misery caused by
the fiat money Of the colonies and of the States
during the confederation period, the incon-
venience attending the circulation of foreign
coins. were matters of personal knowledge and
experience with every member of the convention
which devised the Constitution, and they un-
dOubtedly intended to secure their posterity for
ever from those evils when they provided in the
Constitution that no State shall coin money,
issue bills of credit, make am thing legal
tender, except gold and silver coins. This is the
Magma Charta o. sellers anu ali producers and
wage earnerS are sellers.
Nov. when Congress- while maintaining the
weights and measures and enforcing the COM
mon law as to quality and quantity, provides
currency that deprecates on the hands of the
people, and has value in name and in law that
is VIGOROUSLY false, in fact and in trade,
1t is recreant to its duty under the Constitution,
to justice and to the principles of American lib
erty. In consequence Of this betrayal Of a sol
emn trust. all persons who live by selling their
labor or the products of their industry, whether
in field, forest. mine factory, are in danger of
becoming exposed to daily and hourly disad-
vantage, to losses and harassments. from which
neither their own efforts nor the powers of any
State can rescue them. They are helpless vic
tins of uni ust and unequal laws.
1.-THE wage Garner is worse off than other SELL
ers, because he deals in perishable article. I'm
less he sells enough daily TO replenish his phys
ica strength the rest of his stock deteriorates in
quality if he fails to sell at all for many days
he dies. He cannot give up his business with
out giving up life with it. Hence the wage
Garner cannot refuse to work because he dislikes
the currency. He may know its defects; he may
utmost distrust in the situation but to his daily
work he must 60 on peril of his life. and when
his labor has gone out of him he must take in
payment whatever Congress has denominared
lawful money. Is this not tyrannyl But per-
haps the wage-earner does not understand that
the currency is degraded In value; perhaps he
does not foresee its depreciation; in that case
when the depreciation arrives he will feel it's
effect in the increased cost Of living. He will
find that the food, shelter and warmth, which
are necessary for his family and himself. cost
him dearer and dearer; that clothing tea coffee,
sugar and tobacco, the comforts of his simple
life. must be used more sparingly, because they
are advancing in prizes; that his little savings
grow less and less, until they vanish, and after
a while it becomes a question how the house
hold is to live at all Now, if man so circum-
stanced. not knowing what is the matter goes
to his employer for higher wages, he will proba-
bly, be told how many men as good as he are
standing ready to do his work at the wages he
receives, and further, that wages cannot be
raised. when the employer himself has to spend
so much more i'll order to maintain his own fam
lily.
Nov, what is the wage-earner to do in such
a case} He knows that many other men are un-
employed and their families suffering: he under
stands. therefore, that he cannot compel his en-
ployer to raise his wages; the fact is, he can do
nothing. Congress has reduced him to an utter
ly helpless and defenseless condition by pro-
cess that he does not suspect, and that perhaps
he would find it hard to fully understand. For
instance, he would not be able to comprehend
why the things he had to buy should be advanc-
ing in price, while the products of the factory in
which he is employed were hard to work off at
old prices, and yet the reason is obvious enough.
What the wage has to buy must also
be bought by everybody else they are the neces-
saries or the primary comforts of lfe if they
cannot be had at one price they must be taken
at another; no one can dispense with a regular
supply of them. When the currency begins to
depreciate, therefore, these articles. maintaining
their real value by reason of the range of their
consumption, the first to advance in price,