The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-05-28

equivalent to the assertion GnaO ;1rou
the silver dollars, subsidiary sSLo4or
coin. silver certificates, OnlIeu H Sa%H
notes. Treasury notes, naGlOn oDo9iA
notes, and every other toILIttLno S1it
were destroyed, avn wtb6soC
the gold, prices would remaln GH5 Ame
as thew now area .propUssn4tH 50
preposterous upon It's Iace PFC
sT1me mo man with any regard Ior ma
reputation would venture 10 make IL
EXCEPT in a disguised torm'
The GREAT majority OF u people
-on5or Service for wages In one form
or another and they are compelled to
in the markets everything
tfboT cat drink. or wear, and in most
cases thew are compelled to pay rent
for the use of q home for themselves
and their families Like the farmers,
thev have no silver bullion to carry to
the mints to b -coined at the public ex
nense: they have nothing to dispose of
but their labor and their skill, and, as
q genera 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 because they can exchange it for
the necessaries and comforts of life:
and there never was a time in the his
tory 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 a time
IN the history Of the world when the
workingman received more good dol
lars for the same amount of labor than
he receives now IN this country. ANY
policy which reduces the value of this
dollar on the day it is earned or on the
day it is expended, by diminishing it's
purchasing power in the markets, has
precisely the same effect upon the
holder as if the amount paid for his
labor were reduced. If, therefore, the
favOrite argument of the advocates of
free cOinage-that the free coinage of
silver at the ratio of Is to 1 would
double the prices of all products is cor,
rect, the wages of the laboring man
would purchase under that system only
one-half what they purchase now. This
would undoubtedly be the case unless
wages should also be doubled, which,
according to the uniform experience of
the past, is a most improbable thing.
For more than a quarter of a century
the working people of the United State S
have struggled earnestly and persist
~, through their labor organic atoms
and otherwise, to increase their wages
to q point which would enable them to
live decently and comfortably by ex
pending their earnings for commodities
at their present prices, and how long
do you think they would have to strug-
gle in the future to raise their wages to
q point which would enable them to
purchase the same articles when their
prices have been doubled? Nc man in
this audience will live to see such q re.
suit accomplished, and the laboring
man whosupports the free coinageo of de
preciated silver must be content to live
and support his family upon what de
preciated silver dollars will buy. Ny
position upon this subject 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 de sires to lay it up for use in a time
Of need he has q right to be assured
that it will be worth much when be
wants to spend it as it was worth on
the day he earned IL.
But, gentlemen, the free and unlim-
tied 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 the IN
less valuable money than they have
now. To call q ten cent piece a dollar
and declare it to be the standard Of
value would add nothing whatever to
it's purchasing power; it would still re.
quire ten of them to purchase what a
real dollar will purchase now, and
prices of commodities expressed in dol
lars would appear to have been in
creased ten fold, when, in fac, nothing
would have happened except the de-
basement of the dollar. An actual in.
crease in prices resulting from an III.
crease in the volume of sound money
in circulation is quite a different thing
from a nominal increase of prices re
sulting from the use of q deprecated
currency, and no argument upon the
subject of prices can be sound that does
not recognize the distinction between
them The proposition of our free coin
age friends is to double prices nom
inally, but at the same time to have
them paid in money inGrinsically worth
only one half es much as it was before
the prices were doubled, and l confe s
my inability to see how this would
help anybody.
You have been detained too long al
ready, but in view of the determine.
ton exhibited in some quarters to crit
else my personal record upon this ques
ton rather than answer my arguments,
I think my old friends here at my
home have q right to expect at least q
brief reference to that subject. L. Is
proper, in the first. place TO say that
my opposition to free coinage is not
dictated by any prejudice against the
use of silver as the standard of value
merely because it is silver, nor by any
preference for the use of gold as the