The record-union., 1896-09-14
THE CRIME OF 1896.
Striking Down Wages by Debasing
the Money Standard.

the Money Standard.
The highest crime against national
prosperity Is to strike down wages, and
| the most criminal method of reducing
wages, because the most insidious and
| far-reaching, is to debase the standard
money in which wages are paid.
Against actual reductions of money
wages by individual employers or cor
poraions laborers can have recourse to
the ordinary means Of economic defense
through organized resistance, but
against the slaughter of wages through
debasing the money laborers receive,
the methods of organized labor are i'm
potent. The evil comes, not in re-
auction in the amount of wages labor
ers receive, but in a reduction in the
amount OF welfare the wages will buy.
Disbursement Of the standard money
steals from the laborer the substance
OF his wages without changing the form.
1t silently increases his poverty with
out reducing his income. This masked
assassination Of real wages, like the
destroying angel of old, in single night
smites every laborer's household. No
other industrial scourge is as universal
or as sudden as this. All other forms of
industrial disaster follow the lines of
certain industries or geographical Sec
tions, and are more or less gradual in
their coming; but this weapon of power
ty strikes every laborer in the land at a
| single stroke,
Behlnd the movement Of 1892, there
was, at least, an abstract economic the
ory of equitable commercial relations.
The scheme of 1896 lacks even this
seeming excuse; it has behind it neither
history, economic theory nor financial
| judgment. 1t is a scheme whose sole
purpose is arbitrarily to strike down
wages In order to double the profits Of a
small and special class. In their short
slghtedness, they fail to see that thus to
strike down wages is to destroy nearly
half the consuming power of over fifty
millions of people, and with it destroy
the very basis Of prosperity in every
form Of productive industry.
The farmers who are expecting to
gain by this sacrifice of the laborers
viii soon find that the promised profit
is mere mirage. The chief market for
the products of American farmers is
consumption by the wage and salary
receiving population employed in the
|
tries; let this be reduced 80 per cent.
and all hope Of improvement for the
american farmer is gone. There is no
chance for increasing his sales abroad
india, Argentine Russia and Austria
can beat him there. Let American mar
kets be destroyed and the abyss Of agri-
cultural depression Will be at hand, and
the Bryan millennium with unsold crops
foreclosed mortgages, deserted farms
and agricultural desperation will be re-
allied.
! Whatever may be the theories OF
| farmers regarding prices they cannot
| AFFORD to destroy the markets for thei1
| products. Whatever may be the the
orles of laborers regarding capital pub
lie ownership Of industries or the recon
struction of society, they cannot afford
under any circumstances, to permit a
wholesale reduction Of wages. ANY
wage or salary receiver who will vote
| directly or indirectly for a reduction OF
the purchasing power Of wages is an en-
emy of his class and Of his country. and
VIII be entitled to no aid or sympathy
When the inevitable consequences of his
voting come. The Debs, Sovereigns
! Gompers, Maguires and other reDre-
sentatfves of organized labor are bound
by the history and economies of their
position first and all the time to resist
anything and everything which will i'm
pair wages or the purchasing power OF
wages. Not to do this is to be traitors
10 the labor movement and earn the
condemnation of their class everywhere
Ihere is no crime against prosperity
against society, against civilization
which can compare in enornity with q
wholesale reduction Of wages, and
whatever class of capitalists or produc.
ers or traders may favor such a scheme
1or local, temporary or personal rea-
sons, the wage classes, and especially
those whose power is strengthened by
organization, should be a solid uni,
against it. High wages, full-value wages
Is the rock of labor's safety and the full
crum of its prosperity To lend counte-
nance or aid to any scheme which will
impair wages is voluntarily to decree
lts own uction.-Gunton's Maya
zine On. Y.) for September.