Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-09-15

lent of a declaration that 50-cent pieces
are dollars. They might just as well
pass a law that 80 cents is a dollar.
That would not make it so, would it?
1t would be a legal dollar; but it would
not buy u dollars worth of anything
What is the effect of that? The mer-
chant would take care of himself
"A man keeps n store down here on
broadway, and that law is going into
operation tonight. He summons all his
clerks and buys % cents worth of pen
ellis. and before he opens his store IN the
morning he has marked up his goods to
the new scale. He can do all that. But
there are great numbers of people, num-
berless people, who enlist our interest,
and sGule of them enkindle our sympa-
thies, who cannot use the pencil. Take
the work of man. He cannot go to the
pay roll with pencil and mark it up.
He has got to consult somebody. He
has TO enter into an argument. He has
got TO get some. other mans consent be-
fore he can mark up his wages. Then
there is the pensioner, those that are re-
ceiying pensions from this government
for gallant deeds done in the war, and
others for the loss of beloved ones. He
cannot take his pension certificates, and
when it re.Lds eight dollars make it read
sixteen dollars. He must wait for an
appeal to Congress, and a Congress that
is populistic i'll character would be un-
sympathetic. lApplause). Take the
men who have life insurance. Can they,
where the rolicy reads $4,000, make it
these institutions make it right with
them? No. This policy coerces integ-
rity. (Applausel.
"My friends, the men surely do not
contemplate the irretrievable and extern
sive character of the disaster and dis
turbance and disruption which they are
proposing for all of us in all our business
affairs, great and simple. Take the la
boring man; how full of sympathy they
are for him. My countrymen, L never
spoke false word to the laboring man
in my life. Great applause). l have
never sought to reach his vote or intlu-
ence by appeals to that part of his ma
ture that will pollute the intellect and the
conscience. l have believed and | be-
lieve today that any system that MAIN
tains the prices of labor in this country,
that brings hope into the life of the Ia
boring man, that enables him to put by,
that gives him a stake in the good order,
the prosperity of the country, is the pol
icy that should be our American policy.
(Applause.) l have resisted in many
campaigns this idea that debased cur
rency could help the workingman. The
first dirty errand that a dirty dollar does
is to cheat the workingmen. Applause. }
"My friends, a cold statistical inquiry,
non-partisan in its character, was made
by committee of the Senate in 1890
and some following years. The commit
tee was composed of Democrats ana of
Republicans, and they set out to study
as statisticians the relative prices of com
modities and wages at different periods
in the history of our country. This in
yestigation covered the years of the war
1t showed how prices of goods went up
and in what proportion labor advanced
Goods went up rapidly because the PEN
Gil process is a quick process. Wages
went up haltingly and slowly, because
the employer has to be persuaded and
the pencil won't serve.
"Now, 1 have here a memorandum of
some of those facts resulting from that
investigation. Labor in one period adj
vanced 3 per cent: goods, the things
the men had to buy out of their wages
for their families and their living, adj
vanced Is per cent. Through another
period the laborers' wages advanced 10b
per cent. and the price of goods adj
vanced 40 per cent. In another period
the wages of the laborer went up % per
cent and the prices of merchandise adj
vanced 80 per cent. In another peri