Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1896-09-25
TELLS HOW IT'S DONE.
THE FREE COINAGE OF SILVER
WILL BENEFIT LABOR.
Will Give Employment to the Idle on
Full Time And ut Good Wages Cheap
Money Means Dear Labor - Well
Sweep the Country.

If prices of commodities are cheap
they cannot be produced with dear
labor. Cheap commodities mean cheap
labor. But it is said that labor in some
of the manufacturing and railroad in
dustries of the country are as high to-
day as ever. This is not true. But
suppose it were true; it would not an
swer the question. The trades unions
have been remarkably successful in re-
sisting reduction of wages, but they
have utterly failed in keeping the peo-
pie employed. There are at least three
millions Of willing hands which are
now idle in the United States. Those
who have employment are either work
ing on short hours or short days In the
week, so that the aggregate paid In the
manufacturing and railroad industries
to labor is certainly less than one-half
the amount that would be paid to labor
if prices were firm, so that enterprise
could prosper. If falling prices con-
tinue it is only question of time when
wages of labor must come down to
correspond with other things. This
is not all. One-half at least of the
labor in the United States Is expended
on farms, which has paid the farmers
nothing in the last twenty-three years.
Their farms are not worth fifty cents
on the dollar what they were when
silver was demonetized and they are
still declining. Farm products have so
declined that they are on an average
below the cost of production.
The people have borrowed money to
pay taxes and other necessary ex-
penses until the farms are mortgaged
and tenant farmers are increasing in a
geometrical ratio, and it is only ques-
ton of a short time if prices continue
to fall when Independent farmers must
disappear, and the peasant system of
Europe must be established here. We
assert without fear of contradiction
that labor is not receiving one-half as
much in the United States to-day as 1t
would under free coinage. We admit
that an individual who has job that
will last him for life Of which he can
not be deprived by his employer or by
the bankruptcy of the concern for
which he works, can buy more with his
dollar than he could if silver was re-
monetized and prices should regain
their normal condition. But If he is
a humane man, and contributes his
money to the suffering people about
him. he will find that what he receives
will do him and his family less good
than it would if the country was pros
porous and the great mass OF labor was
employed. We know that the goldites
appeal to laboring men who have job
and tell that they can buy more with
their money than they could if prices
were restored and the community gen.
orally were allowed to prosper, but |
they do not call attention to the mill
lions out of employment and the grow
ing army Of tramps or the bankrupt
farmers, who are being driven from
their homes. In short, they fail to call
attention to the fact that civilization
Is decaying on account of the increas-
Ing purchasing power Of money. They
10 uOC SuSStSI W IHC idpOi Cl IudI LILO
fate which has befallen others will
overtake them, that want of
will drive them into the
'anks of the tramps or the unemployed
They do not appeal to labor in good
'aith They attempt to appeal to the
)rejudices of the laboring men for the
benefit of one hundred and fifty thou
sand millions of obligations which
hey hold against labor. In other
words, they appeal to the laboring men
o vote to increase the value Of money,
decrease the value of property and
abor, and enslave mankind. Contrac-
ion which produces falling prices If
ontinued will bring the same result it
llways has. Serfdom and slavery Is
he inevitable fate of the American
'eople If they do not join the forces :
f reform and rebel against gold
cracy.- silver-Knight.