Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1891-01-31


the expansion predicted or desired by
the advocates Of the bill.
At any rate, with gold at premium
all the industries Of the country would
be on "A speculative basis, Not only real
estate, but all kinds of merchandise,
from the raw material Of the farm and
the mine to the finished product of the
factory, would follow in price the course
Of gold, which would be watched in
tentIy, yet to little purpose, by the ma
nufacturer and the merchant for it
might at any time, by some sudden
variation set at naught their most care
ful calculations and even greatly enrich
or absolutely ruin them contrary to all
expectations. OF course, through all
its apparent fluctuations, the value Of
gold would remain substantially the
same. 1t is the value of silver alone
which would actually nuCtuate. But AS
all payments within the boundaries Of
the country would be made in silver
money, an article manufactured to-day
with 81 worth Of materials and 80 cents
worth of labor, and therefore costing
81. 50 in silver money, might sell few
days later for 81 or for 81, according as
the premium on gold should have in the
meantime decreased or increased. In
the first case the ordinary profits Tor
ileecings) of legitimate commerce might
not only be wiped away but converted
into ruinous loss; whereas in the
second case they might be increased I'M
mensely by the effects Of monetary
speculation in which the merchant him
self had no part. Likewise, the price
which the farmer could obtain for his
products would be subject to the same
outside influence, and he would surely
lose far more in this way than he had
gained by the reduction of his indebted
ness.
Here, then, we begin to see the
important part that the mere Spectator
in money-whose very shadow drives
the farmer into hysterIcS-would act in
the economic affairs Of the country.
With a comparatively small amount Of
gold in their pos ,ession, it would be in
| the power of men of the Jay Gould
stripe, at certain times and under certain
| circumstances, to disturb not only the
monetary market of Wall Street but all
| the commercial markets Of the United
| States. And who doubts that they
would avail themselves of it, not merely
to realize profits on their gold opera
tons, but to corner, syndicate, trustify,
and generally advance the lines of in,
| dustrlal concentration The very end
which the farmers and debtor class
generally dread SO much would be pre-
cipitated by the very measure which
they had devised to avert it.
Need We ask now what would become
of the wage workers? OF course, we
trust that they would, as a class, realize
at last the necessity of putting an end
to the class system; but it is quite plain
| to us that they would until then suffer
| intensely For obvious reasons, fluCtua-
tons Of prices hurt them first and last.
Their labor power. which under TIE
wage system is commodity, is always
the first to fall and the last to rise in
price.
We cannot in these short columns ex-
pose all the fallacies of this money issue,
more obscure to the average mind and
even more deceptive than the tariff
question But if we have succeeded in
showing that its chief features are
emlnentIy capitalistic and therefore
fraudulent we may rest satisfied. We
shall, however, from time to time and
as occasion may require, elucidate the