St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-07-23
CHEAP DOLLARS.


coinage.
CHEAP DOLLARS.
MIR. Horr, in reply to the charge that
the demonetiZation of silver cut the
value of products in two, said that if
that were true, prices would have at
once dropped so per cent. The fact
was that they did not. If the destruc-
ton of half the wheat crop would raise
prices fourfold, the demonetization of
silver did not destroy it. Returning to
the attack, Mr.. Horr said that Mr..
Harvey did not care for ratio. What
he wanted was a. cheap dollar and the
cheapening of the emoluments of labor.
That was the most prosperous country
In which its WOrkmen were best paid.
Mr.. Harvey said that a dear dollar
and a cheap dollar were comparative
terms, to be measured by a mans cir
cumstances. If gold dollar were
worth more than a silver dollar, some
more costly substance might be found
out of which to make dollars. He said
he did not propose to allow Mr.. Horr
to pose as the friend of the laboring
man. The gold men had thrown some
four millions of workingmen out of
employment and had put some of them
In prison because they objected to
having their wages decreased. Mr..
Harvey promised at the proper time
to show the logical relation of the
gold basis to the worKingman.
Mr.. Horr said it was IN 1879 that we
resumed specie payment and the only
money of final redemption was gold.
He asked, was distress abroad in the
land from that on? The fact is the
years from 1879 to 1892 found our people
better employed and at better wages
than in any other same number of
years since this government was form
ed. (Applause.) Four millions of men
today out of employment? Where did
you get your figures?
Mr.. Harvey-I said from two to four
millions.
Mr.. Horr-Two to four millions! Four
millions is out of the question. Two
millions is just about as bad. There is
not any truth in either statement.
PROSPERITY AND DISTRESS.
Mr.. Harvey-As to the prosperity of
this country between 1879 and 1892 you
like this in one year. 1t has taken a
cup of disappointment and distress. I
know with each four years the po-
litical parties have charged each other
with having destroyed the prosperity
of the previous four years. applause
and laughter.) Continuing, Mr.. Har-
vey asked Mr.. Horr not to refer to the
prosperity of the country from 1873
to 1895. The word tramp" was coined
in 1873. and the United States census
shows that depression has been in
creasing at disproportionate ratio.
So has the number of penitentiary con-
victs, persons confined in all classes
of prisons, insane asylums, and of
suicideS-the prosperity that has built
up millionaires and multi-millionaires
and strewed the country with millions
of tram1s and raupers, and men that
dom know how they are going to pro-
vide for their families in the coming
years. (Applause) A change in re-
lative production had no effect as long
as the mints were open to the two
metals. (Applause)
Mr.. Horr-I have never said that the
cheap price of silver was not on ac-
count of it's over production. Silver
has become cheap in this world just
precisely the same as wheat and iron
have been cheapened, just precisely for
the same reason. (Applause.) All of
these articles have been cheapened by
the natural laws which govern the
production of every substance known
to the producers in the world.
DEPRECIATION OF GOLD.
w. D. Wilcox, of Chicago - How
about gold?
Mr.. Horr-Gold the same. I am glad
you asked me. Gold has deprecated
In value in less than 100 years 90 per
Ger cent. 1t is cheaper now than it
was in 1873. All articles that can be
produced by inventions are cheaper
than they were before the invention
was made. Every method which
brings machinery into play and puts
less human toll into the production
of any article cheapens that article.
The whole trend of civil action is to
cheaper human products, gold as well
as silver and wheat. A large number
of the articles today produced in the
world have not been decreased in
value at all by the demonetization of
silver, but simply because the laws
of production have crowded down the
price. 1 can get today twice as much
gold for a days work following the
plow as I did in 1S49 The people of
this country are paid in gold for their
work; so they were in 1860. Wages are
20 per cent higher, paid in gold, for
the same amount of work, than paid
in 1860. Has not gold deprecated
then, when you measure it with the
great commodity of human toll?
What I find fault with is that the sill
yer men invariably leave out of their
calculation this article of labor, and
the article of labor is the greatest
article known in the civilized world.
Cut down. the pay of labor and you
paralyze the entire business of any ma
ton. The men who do the work, eS-
peciaily in republic like ours, are
the men who consume. And when
you propose a system that attempts
to pay me off with money that COM
pels my children to go hungry, that
compels my family to deprive them
selves of the comforts of life, 1 pro-
test.
a FINANCIAL CONTRADICTION.
Mr.. Harvey-Mr. Horr says that ev-
erything has been cheapened, includ-
ing gold. To say that gold and prod
ucts cheaper simultaneously is a
financial contradiction. You buy gold
by exchanging other property for it.
When it takes more property to buy
gold than formerly, gold has risen. In
stead of becoming cheaper, gold has
become dearer. That is the case now.
And yet, Mr.. Horr by sophistry, rea-
sons that it has become cheaper. He
says to the laboring man, You can buy
more with a gold dollar now than you
ever could and then turns to you and
says that gold is growing cheaper all
the time.
This ended the debate for the day
and questions were submitted from the
audience.
Mr.. Horr-This question is put to me
by John j. McGrath, treasurer of the
brickmakers' and stone masons' union
of Chicago: Is Mr.. McGrath here? I
do not know that I quite understand
his question but I will read it. ''Why