The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-08-30
SILVER IN 1913.
Debasement of Silver in England
by Henry the Eighth.
Not Like the Pending Proposition.
A Gross Misrepresent-
tatiOn. (

Not Like the Pending Proposition.
A Gross Misrepresent-
tation.
The Minneapolis Tribune of Sun
day, Aug. 9Th, contains a column
long article, the purport of which is
to show that the debasement of the
silver currency of England by Henry
VIII, in l543 and by the guardian of
his son Edward ", by mixing it with
lead, reduced the wages of the Eng
lish workman; and the writer argues
that this is the same thing as the
pending proposition to put silver
back where it stood in this country
for eighty-one years, and until de-
monetized in 1873 by British bribery.
Where does the resemblance come in?
In the one case base metal was mixed
with the pure silver; in the other
case the coin is all pure standard sill
yer, without debasement. In the
one case there was a vile alteration
of the ancient coinage; in the other
we propose to restore the ancient
coinage to just what it was for four
thousand years.
And would it not be we'll for the
Tribune writer to remember that the
working classes in shop, factory,
mine, and on the farm, never were so
prosperous in this country as when
specie payments were suspended and
gold was at a premium of 24O per
cent over our paper money. Does
that show that debasing the curren-
cy lessons the workman's wages?
But the writer of the Tribune ar
ticle, with all his pretence of learn
ing and fairness, misrepresents the
facts. He would have his readers
believe that the debasement of the
silver coinage of England, in 1913,
lasted down to 1901, when the Eng
lish poor law was enacted. Now the
the fact is that tina t debasement
lasted only II years, Ito-wit: from
1543 to 1860, when Elizabeth restored
the currency to it's former purity.
What was the real cause of the
falling of wages? Thorold Rogers,
in his great book, "Work and Wa
ges," preface, page g. answers the
question. He says:
II have attempted to show that
the pauperism and the degradation
of the English laborerI were the re-
suits OF series of acts Of parliament,
and acts of government, which were
designed or adopted, acih the cypress
purpose Of compelling the laborer to eoork
at the lo,cest rate Of acages possible, and
aUhich succeeded at last IN efectinq that
purpose
And this not during the seventeen
years from 1913 to 1860 alone, but
down to our times; for during all
that period, as Rogers says, "The
wages of labor have beensa a bare sub
sistence, constantly supplemented By the
poor rate" The only relief in these
latter days has been the capacity of
the workmen to organize for self de-
fence. For generations the courts of
Quarter-sessions fixed the workman's
wages for him.
But think of the demoniacal cum
ming of the enemies of mankind
when they can thus pervertI the plain
facts Of history to mislead the labor
ing people to their ruin In other
words, they seek to abuse the God
given intelligence of the toilers to
bring them and their wives and little
ones to poverty and suffering. Is it
not horrible?
A 17-years experiment of mixing lead
with silver $50 years ago, in semi bar
barous England, with {, ZOO. 900 people
used to justify the Rothschilds in re-
ducing the mighty western republic,
with seventy million people, to bank
ruptcy by striking down silver! And
this is the leading republican paper
of Minneapolis This is one of the
guides of the people, to lead them
to higher levels of knowledge and
greatness !! I'D.
A CaSSandra in RreecheS.