The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-10-22
THE LATEST BYNUMISM.

In his speech Thursday night Mr.. By
mum is reported as making the follow
ing very remarkable assertion:
There are men who live on 81 day; not
very handsomely. 1t is true, but they man
age to get along somehow. If he got q dol
would simply live little better. and it
would be the same III ne got 50. He would
live little better than he does ON S1.5O.
but he would be no richer. The working
man simply lives on what he makes. be it
much or little.
The above is, indeed, very extraor-
binary statement for an intelligent man
to make in this country at this time,
whether he Is candidate or not. Years
ago Mr.. Bynum's statement was a stock
reason given by the organs OF manufact-
urers and capitalists for resisting the
demands for increased wages in Great
Britain. 1t was based upon the as
sumption that working people will
spend all they can get and save nothing,
and that it is quite as we'll for them to
have only enough to buy the cheapest
food and the scantiest shelter. 1t has
long ago been consigned to the trump
ery-shOp of Cobdenism, with the now
ridiculous theory of the wage fund.-"
which has been used as a bugbear to
brighten those who would insistupon bet
ter wages. Mr. Bynum has doubtless got
this cast-off free-traGe heresy into his
head by studying the alleged maxims of
Cobdenism, not thinking that it is a
SANDER and an insult upon the lntelli-
gence aud thrift of thousands of his
constituents. Evidently Mr.. Bynum is
preparing wage-earners for that fall in
wages which must, inevitably, take
place when his theory of tariff for
revenue only places the wage-earners
in the diversified industries which CON-
pete with those of Europe on the same
plane. To wage-earners Of the Seventh
district he says: cit is not a matter of
much consequence whether you get one
or two dollars a day. You will live
little better on two dollars, but you
will be no richer, since you cannot or
will not save"
What does Mr.. Bynum mean? Is he
so occupied in memoriZing the theories
of free trade Missionaries that he does
not know that thousands of wage
earners have homes which they have
paid for in the past twelve years out of
the savings from fair wages? Is he
ignorant of the most encouraging fact
that in this city thousands of wage
earners are investing monthly savings
in the stock of building and loan asso-
Citations, the aggregate of which reaches
hundreds of thousands each year, which
accounts for the hundreds of neat cot
tages which have extended the area of
the city and make up its suburbs7 In
1889. 4. 022. 900 depositors had 81. 419, $780,
600 in the savings banks Of the United
States. In most of the States the build
ing and loan association takes the, place
of the savings bank, with aggre-
gate deposits at least equal to those
of the banks. In New York,
where the savings bank is an estab-
lished institution, the amount invested
in building and loan associations during
1891 was $1S, 7S9, 720. and $13, 755, $50 was
deposited in savings banks-a total of
$32, 544, 900 in one year. By far the
larger pert of these deposits are made
by wage-earners. Nowhere in the
world is there anything like it.
Nowhere in the world is the
average of wages more than half
as much as in the United States.
These savings are the results of
good wages, for they have increased
with the increase in wages. If it were
necessary, facts might be given by the
page to prove that the wage-earners of
this country are thrifty and prosperous,
and do not spend all they earn. "be it
little or much" Mr.. Bynum should
take little time to learn something
about the Seventh district and Amer
lean wage-earners generally. This,
however, may be asking too much of one
of the most jealous champions of anti