The herald., 1896-09-11

prices OF the wheat, corn and other
grains have failed, and does 1t not seem
plain to the observing man that the
agencies which 1 have pointed out have
been far more potent in lowering prices
than the decentralization of silver? The
farmer needs market and should have
a market in which to sell at fair and
reasonable price; unfortunately, he has
been taught that he should buy in a
cheap market and sell in dear one, but
if he wishes for high prices for him
self. he should interest hirheslf in MAIN
tanning high prices for others
Mr. Powderly then told how improved
machinery had displaced hand labor in
the cities as well, and called attention
to the great influx Of immigrants who
settle in the cities and work cheaply, and
continued:
Here, then, are two causes-the in
PRODUCTION of improved machinery and
the administration combine together to
lower the prices Of products. What
remedy does the Chicago platform Of
fer for this condition of affairs? That
it recognizes such a condition is true,
for it contains a plank calculated to
lead the unthinking into the belief that
they would abolish one of these evils.
1t reads: we hold that the most ef-
ficient way of protecting American la
Dor is to prevent the importation of for
eisn pauper labor to compete with it
in the home market, etc. There is a
sample of craftsmanship for you! They
pitch their tents where the Knights of
Labor extinguished their camp fires
twelve years ago. In those days we
demanded that the importation of for
eign labor under contract-not pauper
labor, mark you-should be abolished.
Those laws were passed in 1885, and
today such thing as the importation
of labor is hardly known. Had these
patriots who affect to talk in the name
of labor been sincere, they would have
inserted immigration where they flaunt
the word importation"
Taking up the money question, Mr..
Powderly said: "They tell us that we
lack money, that there is not enough in
circulation and that the mints should
be started to coin silver in unlimited
quantities for the good of labor. But
just how the man who has no silver
" Dc COiitu " Dc O0llclllcu ildS HDL
been made clear to us yet and I be-
lieve it will do the country more good
to open our mines. mills and factories
to the unemployed than to open our
mints to the unrestricted coinage OF
silver at the ratio of 16 to l. That there
is not enough money in circulation may
be so, but it is because labor is not en-
ployed, it is because we have been i'm
porting rather than exporting. When 1t
is asserted that our per capita is not
sufficient, 1t must not be forgotten it.
self is in no small share responsible for
this state of affairs, If indeed it be true
and important if true. From the city
of Scranton alone laboring men last
year sent $4,000 in gold, or its equival-
ent, to foreign countries and scarcely
a dollar of it went to England. They
sent this money to their friends in the
homes of the poor of Europe. Every
dollar sent reduces the per capita cir
cuiation OF our currency. But what of
it? So much per capita is a meaning
less term, for 1t gives no man dollar
and adds nothing to the wealth of man
or commonwealth. Per capita circula-
tion is circulation which does not cir
culate, and no man can lay fingers on
dollar of that per capita except in one
of two ways-honest or dishonest-by
labor Of soma kind or by theft of some
kind. The per capita circulation is
greater than it ever was in the United
States, but so long as it lies idle through
a lack of confidence, so long as it is re-
duced each time a steamer lands its
the idle workman can have no share in
it. The money in circulation is what
labor looks to and not the idle dollars
which do not circulate"
Passing to the Chicago strike he said
the lawless element of the city and not
the strikers rioted and added:
II do not approve of government by