The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1895-07-02

Tnr-Gold Premium.
AS 1 have stated, the great impedi-
ment to the progress of tho working
classes is the idle man. While large num-
bers are hungry and unemployed, it is
impossible for organization to accom-
plish the objects it has in view Hence
the task which naturally precedes all at
tempts of workingnen to obtain an id
vance that shall be real, rather than ap-
parent, in wages is the adoption of such
national policies as may result in put
ting and keeping every man ut work.
Computations as to rates of wages are
and will continue to be wholly incom-
plete and misleading until side by side
with them are placed the figures which
show the number of men who arc living
i'll enforced idleness Our statisticians
take note of wages as they are for those
who are at work. They make not the
slightest attempt to ascertain the number
of the unemployed. Until this is done
all calculations of wages are vain
Enormous numbers of men are at all
times TO be found ready to take the places
OF those who go out on strike, and this,
too, in country whose Development, in
stead of being complete, has only Just
begun.
When compelled to admit that large
numbers are chemically idle, the advo-
Gates of the gold standard take refuge
i'll the cynical assertion that in all com
munities Il number of men will be found
who do not wish to work, and that their
ldlcness is the result of their own folly
or lmprovldence. The statement that
men prefer idleness to honest labor I
consider SANDER on the working
classes These arc the statements of the
political philosophers of gold standard
countries, resorted to in order to account
tor the enormous proportion of men
whom tho gold standard relegates to
idleness and keeps there-a standard
which is the symbol for the conccntra-
ton of wealth and the distribution of
poverty. By its diversion of money from
the paths of industry into the great cen
tcrs of speculation it takes from the la
Dor market and uses in the bond and
stock market the material which is the
likelihood of industry
The idea that men prefer to beg rath-
er than to work is altogether M idea of
European origin and is contradicted by
all the experiences of this new country.
The very classes that in Europe have
been charged with incorrigible laziness
prove on coming to this country that in
their European homes they were merely
the slaves of conditions, and that they
can bo as industrious rs any other class
OF the community.
Whatever amelioration occurs i'm the
condition of the workingman occurs be-
cause he Is year by year increasing his
demands He will continue to increase
those demands until it becomes clear to
him that he receives his fair share OF
the product of his labor. SO long as the
employers profits will warrant the in
crease the workman will exact it until
the equilibrium between profits and
wages is reached. This is inevitable.
But where. with falling prices, the en-
ployer is already on the verge of loss,
(and as money shrinks in volume his
profits tend to disappear). no effort on
the part of the workers, whether by
strikes or otherwise, can permanently
secure to them higher scale Of wages.
Where the strikes are warranted by con.
dltlons of business they will be success
ful. Where not so warranted they must
inevitably fail
The Failncy That Prices Can Rise without
Resulting Increase OF Wages.
When it is said that the prices of the
products of labor could increase all along
the line without the laborer exactina his
share of tho employers increased profits,
1 should like to inquire where the labor
er is supposed to be while all this is 90
ing on? Is it assumed that he is asleep?
Tho history of labor within recent years
does not warrant this assumption
Is 1T for moment to BIO supposed that
American worlimen stand in such awe
OF their employer that they cannot con-
trlve TO obtain from him any fair pro-
portion of this increase in the price of
the commodities which arc tho products
of their own hands?
In other words, are we to understand
that the prices of inanimate things
things that cannot think-are to rise,
while tho price of flesh and blood-the
compensation of living, thinking, hu-
man beings, who make those inanimate
thlnSS-cannOt rise?
The great object Of nation should be
to have such national policies rs may
lead to the uninterrupted employment
of all its people. A country cannot come
to harm when its people are all at work
when every forge, anvil and loom is per
forming its function; when every hand
and every brain is busy.
Whenever there is enough money in q
country TO keen nriceS ~ co,n,,o,,;t;o,
firm, the productive energies of the peo-
pie are fully occupied, and business
profits are reasonable, so that employ