Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1896-08-14
WAGE FARMERS AND FREE

Tt is exceedingly aggravatlng TO near
men set up proposition that is against all
experience and against common sense,
taking the chances of its success among
the. ignorant. All over this country
efforts are being made to convince working
men, and especially railroad men, who are
sought to be organized, that free silver
will reduce wages, and at the same time
the prediction is made that it will ruin
trade through imitation. There is no man
man now living who ever saw redundancy
of money without higher wages. We OF
the South know well enough that labor
went up just as the currency became more
and more inflated, and it walked by the side
Of the Confederate note until it stood at
go to1. When -four was $50 a barIel it
cost man 81 so to have ten-cent patcn
mt ,7,a,n 4 shoe, 1t was but recently that
Mai. Myers published in the Richmond
Times a table showing the wages of the
EMPLOYEES of the Richmond. Fredericks-
h, So Potomoc railroad before the civil
wai1saring the civil war, and after the
civil war-the period Of currency imitation
TT showed that the wages Of the employees
were about as much inflated as the currency.
Tt is not necessary to 60 back to tradition
for what men of this generation have seen
with, tbe;s.>own eyes. From 1865 when
: there were plenty of greenbaciss@zthe most
inflated of currency-brought to Virginia.
up to 1874, wages were high and work plen-
tiful, and farms and farm products sold at
a good price, Whenever and wherever there
is plenty of money in circulation the prices
of labor and products go up, no matter
whether the money is to prove worthless
like the Confederate OF valuable like the
greenbacks.
4 What sort of money is it that is now
I proposed to be made more plentiful, bad OF
good b? 1t is silver coin-the fundamental
money of the country. There is not a
bond that the United States issues that is
not payable in it. not one. The govern
ment has refused to make it's bonds paya-
BILE in gold even though lower rate of in
terest was offered. There is not currency
note issued in the United States that is not
-e1eemable in it-except one and that is
lssuea,n deposits of gold and is called a
gold certificate The government is at the
Dack OF silver dollar, just as much as it
Is at the back o. a gold dollar, and will be
equally SO under free coinage. 1t is dol
lar that has al THE advantages of nation
ID oank note 81 forty-eight States of the
onlon-lt isl orth one hundred cents in
every one OhIelem. When wage Garner
gets more & hese dollars for his work he
~ doing SO y better; when farmer gets
more OF tE dollars for his products he is
ClaG mucl rther on his way to get out OF
ueoG ands BILE to look the world in the
lace ohcs ste. When the tax gathere1
o ss!s n y - stind that the tax payer has
s'a1nOre dollars and can settle with him with
out distress. The Virginian who has
I titled the land can look at his wheat crop
Il in July, If it is a good one, with satisfac-
4 zion, knowing that it will ''bring some
5TSAlng," and not, as now, with the feeling
at whether it is bad OF good it will not
ing enough to do much good. A work.
can then get up in the morning with
certainty OF finding work that day and
Man and Nature will breathe
! after the years of contraction, prOtec-
8 suffering under the gold standard.
S agreat struggle of the people who
u UNIV allowed thefmsei1 selves to be
bound by power whose strength compar-
ed with their own is as nothing. They in
tend to be free. They will make no mis-
takes. This is their country; no act of
theirs Shall bring distress to it OF add to
the years of misery through which it has
been passing. They do not intend to try
anything new-they know nothing of an
archY, Or socialism, or any of those modern
prom tiers OF trouble between classes-they
are going back to the old, old landmarks of
their fathers. They were moved from the
side OF the road twenty years ago without
their knowledge, and they are going to put
them back. They are going back to the
'hard money! Of the older and better days.
Ihey are bending their backs to lift the
great landmark of free coinage lack into
Its place. They patiently bear the denun-
cations of those who have proited by its
removal, they hear themselves denounced
as anarchists and enemies to the country
they who own the country, enemies to their
own country they will not resent it, they
WILL 60 on with their work and they will
complete 1t no matter who stands in the
way.
we are afraid we are about to lose the
esteemed editor of Yost's Weekly. Like
falstaff before his departure. his mind is
going back to bis Republican youth, and he