The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1895-05-23

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 workingman's dollar
would buy as much of the neces-
saries and comforts of life as
1T will buy now, and there never
was a time in the history of the world
when the workingman received more good
dollars for the same amount of labor
than he receives now in this country. Any
policy which reduces the value of this dol
lar ON the day lit MS earned or on the day
it is expended, by diminishing its purhas-
ing power in the markets. has precisely
the same effect upon the holder as if the
amount paid for his labor We're reduced.
1T, therefore, the favorite argument of
the advocates of free coinage-that the
free coinage of silver at the ratio of 16
to l would double the prices of all pro-
ducts-is correct, the wages of the labor
ing man would purchase under that sys-
TEN only one-half what they purchase
now. This would undoubtedly be the case
wages ulSO De
which,, according to the uniform expert
ence of the past, is most improbable
thing. For more than quarter of a
century the working people of the United
States have struggled earnestly and per-
SiStently, through their labor organiZa-
tions and otherwise, to increase their
wages to point which would enable
them to live decently and comfortably by
expanding their earnings for commodities
at their present prices, and how long do
you think they would have ITO struggle in
the future to raise their wages to a point
which would enable them to purchase the
same articles when their prices have been
doubled? No man in this audience will
live to see such q result accomplished
and 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. My position upon this sub
iect is that when the labOrer receives a
dollar on account of his wages he has a
right to be assured that it will purchase
as much in the market as any other
mans dollar, or if he desires to lay it up
for use in time of need he has right to
be assured that it will be worth as much
when he wants to spend it as it was
worth ON THE day he earned it.
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 10 cent
piece dollar and declare it to be the
standard of value would add nothing
whatever to its purchasing power; it
would still require 10 of them to purchase
what a real dollar will purchase now,
and prices of commodities expressed in
dollars would appear to have been in
creased ten-fold, when, in fact, nothing
would have happened except the debase-
ment of the dollar An actual increase in
prices resulting from an increase in the
volume of sound money in circulation is
quite q different thing from a nominal
increase in prices resulting from the use
of a deprecated currency, and no argu-
ment upon the subject of prices can be
sound that does not recognize the distinc-
ton between them. The proposition of
our free-coinage friends is Ito double prices
nominally but at the same time to have
them paid in money intrinsically worth
only one-half as much as it was before the
prices were doubled and | confess my in
ability to see how this would help any
body.
You have been detained too long already
but in view of the determination exhibit
ed in some quarters to criticise my per
sonal record upon this question rather
than answer my arguments, think my