The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-05-20
LABOR TROUBLES.
THE PRESENT STRAINED RE
LATION CAUSED BY THE
GOLD BUGS BOY COTT-
ING SILVER.
A REVIEW OF THE WHOLE AFFAIR
AND THE ATTITUDE OF THE
KNIGHTS OF LABOR.
From the lnter-Ocean.

from the lntef-OCean.
CHICAGO, ILL.,, April 30.-The fact that
royal commission of the British govern
ment is at this time investigating the sill
yer problem in connection with depres-
sion in trade, and that it is confidently
expected that England will ask at an early
day for an international monetary COM
mission, with view to the establishment
of a legal ratio at which silver and gold
shall be legal tenders to-day the most
significant fact in commercial history.
Decentralization of silver began in Eng
land. She owes it to the world to initiate
measures to reinstate it in the marts of
trade as a monetary factor.
Interest at % per cent for commercial
bills, and money hard to loan at that. in
her metropolis, speaks volumes. The
rapid extension of her selfish policy in
the last ten years has so paralyzed inter-
national trade that capital is timid to the
extent of boycotting nearly all new enter
prises, and also curtailing most of the old
ones, until labor has become FESTIVE for
the want of constant employment for all,
and most unjustly charges capital with all
the blame of the present situation.
HOW CAN EMPLOYEES EXPECT EMPLOYERS
to increase their business for the benefit
of labor when labor demands higher wa
ges, and at the same time the products OF
that labor are constantly declining in the
markets they are supplying, and the de-
mand is decreasing by the operation of a
monetary law as fixed as the laws of the
Modes and Persians, viz, the lessening
of the metal money of the world by
the principal trading nations must neces
sarily decrease the prices of cOmmodi
ties!
To demand increased wages of manu-
facturers in the face of such undeniable
facts is to put the last straw on the camef'
back which produces a paralysis thai
must react with tremendous force on the
wage classes the moment it becomes gene
raj or anywhere approaching 1t.
Capital can not be compelled to built
factories and railroads, or to run thos'
that are built, without fair profit, an.
more than labo- can be compelled to worl
without fair pay, and the antagonism tina
is being engendered between labor ant
capital by the use of the press of tn
country with some notable exceptions
on the part unprincipled agitators, will
expectation that coming events will iusti
|
by organized, as against unorganized la
Dor, in filling the places that are open t.
such restricted trade, is as wicked as 1t
futile to remedy the evil. The idea tina
the families of unorganized labor mus
starve in order that Knights of Labo
may grow fat on enforced larger pay thar
the state of trade will warrant, is as
HORRIBLE TO THE SENSE OF JUSTICE,
as numbering the innocent to protect tn
guilty. The organized gold standard littl
banking fraternity have boycotted silve
and made it merchandise instead of none
with view to benefit themselves, Will
the big millions of mankind, who own a
other kinds of property, must charge t
profit and loss untold millions that tn
Rothschilds may credit the same on tn
right side of profit and loss, Knights o
Labor who represent fraction of the Ia
boring classes have taken this untowar
time to boycott, the millions of the sam
class. 1t will not wash. That flag is no
fast colors.
The first fight should be this: TIL
world against the banks, until the govern
ment shall restore silver to its RIG htfu
place as money, and make money chea
because of its sufficiency to meet tn
growing demands of this intense age, an
not because paralysis has seized tn
brains of trade, and made money drug
will not risk its all in any business for tn
benefit of gold and labor combined, in
senseless crusade against the yer