Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1896-09-19
4 ps1lrioN foR loweR WAGES.
Professional Friends of Labor Ask For
Reduction In the Purchasing Power Of
the Dollars Paid to Workingmen.

Professional Friends of Labor Ask For
Reduction In the Purchasing Power Of
the Dollars Paid to workingmen.
The Knights of Labor was at one
time great and powerful organization
with membership Of about 900. GOO.
Internal dissensions and mismanage-
ment By its leaders have reduced its
members to a mere handful and have
utterly destroyed its Influence with the
workers. This wreck of the greatest la
Dor association ever formed in America
is not surprising in view Of the kind of
men who have secretly controlled its
councils. Chief among these is Master
Workman James r. Sovereign of Ar
kansas, Populist politician who Isl
now doing all in his power to induce
workingmen to support the Silverite
candidates under the pretense that free
silver is reform in the interests of la
Dor. How the reform is to be brought
about he does not explain.
Put in the form of petition the
views of Mr.. Sovereign and his silverite
associates, E. V. Debs, Samuel Gompers,
John Mcbride and other labor leaders
who are shouting for 16 to /, would read
this way:
1--WE, the undersigned self constituted
representatives of labor. desire that our
money standard be so changed that the
dollar shall be worth only half of its
present value We respectfully submit
that under our present financial system
the wages of labor are paid either in
gold or in currency kept at par with
gold. Owing to the many new inven-
tions and discoveries which have greatly
increased the efficiency of labor and
cheapened the cost of producing all
kinds of manufactured goods, the pur-
chasing power of money has in recent
wears advanced so that the workers now
get far more in return for their wages
than they did in former years. We wish.
also to point out that owing to the open
ing up to cultivation of vast tracts of
fertile lands, both in our own western
states and in South America, Russia,
India aud Egypt, and by the greatly re-
duced cost Of transportation by rail and
water, the prices of the farm products
which we consume are now very much
lower than they were 20 years ago. The
result of this general cheapening Of
commodities is to give the workers far
too many things in exchange for the
dollars paid thar for their labor.
stAs statesmen, financial authorities
and profound economists, we hereby de-
clare that the only remedy for a condi-
ton of affairs in which wages buy too
much goods is in cheapening the value
of the dollar We therefore demand the
enactment of 16 to free coinage law,
under which 81 cents worth of silver
bullion will be stamped zone dollar,
and that such "a dollar be made legal
tender for all debts. As the millions
who work for wages are always creditors
of their employers, this will enable the
manufacturers, mine owners and other
debtors to labor to pay wages in cheaper
money.
by measuring goods in silver dol
lars, prices will be twice as high as they
are now, and the dollars received by the
workers will only buy half rs much as
at present. We therefore protest against
the gold standard system, which compels
labor 10 take its reward in dollars which
buy a great many things. We want
cheap dollars, which will buy only a
few things. High purchasing power for
money means high wages. We want
money with low purchasing power, so
that real wages will be reduced so per
cent. If there be any workers SO lest to
all sense of what is due the glorious
cause of cheap dollars that they prefer
to get their wages in currency as good
as gold, they are enemies of labor with
capital l.. We are the American
workingmen. - WHIDDEN GRAHAM.
See TO ii That Your Salary Doesn't Shrink.
This renracentS the x,1yrrhaSintr noxypr