Connecticut western news., 1896-08-20
f money bu. the activity of money tha,

the government cannot affect if it tried to. can take a sl0 coldpiece. and l can defy all the power of all the governments of this earth to take cents of value from it Having earned 1t by the sweat of my brow, having earned it by the exercise of my brain. having earned it hy the exchange of my commodities can % to the nttermost ends of the earth, and wher- ever present lt it's value will be unQuestlon- ed and unchallenged. That gold dollar this meeting, the Democratic party, the honest masses of this country, without distinction of party divisions, demand shall be paid to the laborer when he earns it, and that no power on earth shall cheat him of the sweat of his brow.
 It Is perfectly clear that the purpose of the Populist is to put up the prices of certain commodities. MT. Bryan's language Is that he Is going to improve the condition of the peo- pie of this country. do not suppose he claims he multiply the number of chairs upon this platform or upon this floor, although he has shown his capacity to empty them. If he is going to work any change in the conditions of men, he must increase the material posses- sion of some part of the community. Now, if he got possession of the government tomor- row, he could not create one single thing of value by any exercise of governmental power in the world. No power ever yet exercised by tyrant or by con nstitutional monarch can cause a barren ield 10 become fruitful. c>n cause two blades of grass to grow where sne grew before. can bring together the stones tAat com pose this building and raise them into 6 state T No. it requires the labor of man and the labor of man alone to create wealth.
 Governments Cannot Be Generou.- If MT. Bryan Is going to enrich somebody. the thing which he means to bestow on him be must take from somebody else. Who is to be despoiled. and who is to be enriched by the ex- ercise of this new scheme of governments Gov ernment never can be generous. because if it be generous to one it must be oppressive to another. But his financial scheme contem- plates an increase in the price of certain com modities. We coming now pretty close to the woodpile behind which the African is con cealed. Now. if everything in this world in this country. including labor, be increased in value tomorrow in hbe proportion, not one Of would be affected at all. k everything be increased 10 per cent in value. we would psy 10 per cent in addition for what we would buy and get 10 per cent more for what would sell, and we would be exactly in the same place we occupied before. Therefore it is fSii to assume that Is not the lame and impotent conclusion which this Populist revolution con templates What then. is itf It is an increase in the price of commodities and allowing labor to shift for itself If the price of commodities be increased and the price of labor be left sta tionary, why. that means a cutting down the rate of wages If instead of dollar which consists of given quantity of gold equal to l0o cents anywhere in the world, with the pur- chasing power of loo cents, the laborer is to be paid in 6ellsrs worth 50 cents each. why, he only ouy half as much with days wages as he buys now.
 Wage earners. MT. Bryan says. know that while a gold standard raises the purchasin power of the dollar it also makes it more diffi- cult to obtain possession of that dollar. They know that employment Is less permanent. los of work more probable and unemployment less certain. If that means anything. it means that a cheap dollar would give him more em- ployment, more frequent employ yment, more work and a chance to get unemployment after a..,k k..s aw-.- means that if the laborer is willing to have his wages cut down he will get more work. But & diminution in the rate of wages does not increase the scope of employment The more abundant the product the higher the wages There cannot be an abundant product unless labor is extensively employed. MT. Bry- an would have you believe that prosperity Is advanced by eheaxening the rate of wages, but the fall in the rate of wages always comes from a narrow production. and narrow pro duction means there is little demand for laboi in the market. When. after the panic of 1873 the price of labor fell to % cents day. 1t was harder to obtain labor than when the rate of labor e, and the difference between the Populist who socks to cut down the rate wages and the Democrat whc seeks to protect 1t is that the Democrat believes that high wages ard prosperity arc synonymous. and the Populist wants to cut the rate of wages in order that he may tempt the farmer to make war upon his own workingmen.
 Says He Is After the Creditor.
 Mir Bryan leads the van in saying that 1t is the creditor he is after. In order that you should understand just how change in the standard of value enables men to cheat their creditors you have to consider the function which money plays in measuring debts If l had paid sl0 for ten yards of cloth to be de- livered to me next week and in the interim the government shonld pass law declaring
 that hereafter ths yard measure should con sist of Is inches and that all existing contracts should be settled in that system of measure. I would be cheated out of half the cloth for which I had paid. IT, the other hand. l owed a cloth merchant for ten yards of cloth. which he had delivered to me and which was payable next week. and in the meantime the government should change the standard of value and cut down the unit of coinage one
 half. then would settle that debt with & and the cloth merchant would have been cheated Now. the Populist loves to say that the cred | itor is a person who expresses tho western | farmer. The creditors of this country are not | the bankers: they not the so called capital | ists: they the laborers and it Is at the ex- pense of labor that this charge is made. The | laborer is always a creditor for at least one i day ys work. When any man can show me & la- borer who has been paid in advance for a | days work. will show him a laborer who k ] debtor. The laborer. by the very law of his being. must be a creditor for at least day s work and is generally a creditor for a week s | work or two weeks work Every great indus | own laborers. The heaviest account in every department of industry, whatever it may be, is | always the wages account
 | The pretense that the farmer of Nebraska is
 suffering under the weight of a mortgage con | tracted under a metal which has steadily in creased in value is but Populist metaphor. | Two-thirds of the farmers have mortgage | debts whatever I do not believe there is per ! cent of them that owe R mortgage over three | years old, during which time there has been | no change in the value of the metal. This pro
 posxl of the Populists Is an intent to enlist the
 farmer in a conspiracy to reduce the wages
 paid to labor. that he may have a larger pro
 portion of his own products and they are l willing to cut down the wages of every man | who works in cities, who tolls at tho bench ] who digs in the mines who manages the train, | in the hope that they can ride into power a l wave of cupidity and greed awakened in the | breast of the voter. But my friends, it is a
 triumphant vindication of American citizen
 ship that this attempt to enlist the farming | and agricultural members of this community
 into this conspiracy has failed miserably, ut
 terly. absolutely.
 Men of New York. toilers of America, guard
 ians of your own homes, will you allow your
 rate of wages to be affected by any man who
 never has paid wages at all if he could get out 1 of itf Will you submit to this conspiracy be-
 tween the professional farmers. the farmers
 who cultivate the quarrsls of their neighbors,
 farmers who labor with their jaws, Populist
 agitators of the west and the unreconciled | slaveholdeys of the southf This is a conspiracy
 between professional farmers who want to
 pay low wages and the unreconciled slavehold-
 er who would like to pay no wages
 Root of the Evil.
 Here is the real root of this conspiracy. Mir.
 Bryan did not create 1t. No man can create a
 movement like this The forces that crested
 It are active and have been working in 1000
 divergent directions. MT. Bryan, representing
 this theory, is but like drop of water on the
 tress of the wave, more conspicuous. but no
 more important than the millions of drops
 that form it's base. The PaTulist movement Is
 the attempt of these professional farmers, of
 these men who are unwilling to share wi h
 the laborer, to appeal to their greed. He is an
 rnen,y of public order. he is obstacle to | progress. He is conspirntor against the peace
 and prosperity of the industrial masses of the |