The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1895-05-30
Where the Farmer Comes In-Gem'
From CarlisIe's Great Speech.

| We continue the extracts from Mr..
Carislo's great speech on the currency,
taking up the subject of the farmer and
laboring man. Says Mr.. Carlisle;
The great majority of our people rem
der services for wages in one form or
another and they are compelled to pur-
chase everything they eat, drink or wear,
and in most cases they are compelled to
pay rent for the use Of home for them
selves and their families. Like the
farmers they have no silver bullion to
carry to the mints to be coined at the
public EXPENSE they have nothing to dis
pose of but their labor and their skill and
as general rule, all, or substantially all
the wages they receive must be used in
procuring commodities for the personal
use of themselves and those dependent
upon them. They cannot eat, drink, or
wear the money paid to them for their
labor, and it is valuable to them only be-
cause they can exchange it for the neces-
saries and comforts of life; and there
never was time in the history Of the
world when the working mans dollar
would buy as much Of the necessaries and
comforts of life as it will buy now, and
there never was time in the history Of
the world when the workingman received
more gold dollars for the same amount
Of labor than he receives now in this coun-
try. Any policy which reduces the value
of this dollar on the day it is earned or
on the day 1t is expended, by diminishing
its purchasing powers in the markets. has
precisely the same effect upon the holder
as If the amount paid for his labor were
reduced.
But gentlemen, the free and unlimited
coinage of silver would not secure for the
use of the people at any time any addition
to their stock of actual money but would
simply give them less valuable money
than they have now. To call ten-cent
piece dollar and declare it to be the
standard of value, would add nothing
whatever to its purchasing power; it would
still require ten of them to purchase what
q real dollar will purchase now, and the
prices of commodities expressed in dollars
would appear to have been increased ten
fold, when, in fact nothing would have
happened except the debasement of the
dollar.
The laboring man who supports the
free coinage of deprecated silver dollars
must be content to live and support his
family upon what deprecated silver dol
lars will buy.
Ali the Inints of the United States, If
devoted entirely to the coinage of silver
dollars, could produce only about s4O,-
600, 900 per annum, and, therefore with
free coinage it would require more than
fifteen years to put silver dollars in the
place of the gold we now have and give
back to the country the same amount Of
money now existing But, in
the meantime, we would have depreci-
ated standard of value with nominally
higher prices--after the first collapse was
over-on account of the reduced purchas-
ing power of the dollar, and at the same
time we would have for long time fewer
dollars to pay with. Common prudence
would dictate that, when any considerable
change is to be made in our monetary
system, some provision should be made in
advance of the actual change for grad
ual transition from the old to the new
order of things; transition period should
be provided for so as to avoid, as far as
possible a sudden disturbance of business
and contraction of the currency but the |
advocates of free coinage have no such |
purpose They propose to make a sudden |
and revolutionary change in the standard |
cpon which all existing contracts of the |
people are based and by which all values |
ire measured, and let the consequences |
AXE care of themselves.
But, suppose the change is made, and |
hat the business affairs of the country
nave been finally adjusted to the new
standard, what will be the effect on our
domestic trader The prices of all things
will be nominally increased-that is to
ay, it will require a greater number of