Owingsville outlook. [volume] (Owingsville, Ky.) 1879-192?, 1896-08-13


the wages of their daily labor.
Farm laborers of that class ordina-
rily get 50 cents per day, sometimes
with board, and sometimes without
board. In tobacco setting seasons,
and also during wheat harvest,
higher wages are generally paid.
But the standard wages are, and
have been for 80 years, 50 cents
per day on n farm. That fifty
cents will now on an average buy
more meal, more flour, more bacon,
more sugar. more. cotton cloth,
more calico, more provisions and
more clothing of nearly every sort,
than il ever did in any other era in
Kentucky. How can it possibly
benefit the farm laborcr To vote
upon himself that n dollar shall be
worth about fifty cents, depending
If Bryan and silvcrite Congress
are elected they will be pledged to
enact free, unlimited and indie
pendent silver law. That law will
say that 37lI grains of pure silver,
now worth lifty-thrce cents, shall
constitute lawful, legal-tender
dollar. a persons 50-cents- per-day
wages will now buy nearly 37l4
grains of pure silver. When the
proposed silver law is enacted his
j0-ccnts- pcr-day wages will buy
only half as much pure silver as it
will now. More than that, the
same wages will buy only half
as much food, clothing and other
necessaries of life, because in
reality n dollar is enacted to
mean about ffty-cents' worth of
silver. This is the true state of
the case, and one that can be I'M
derstood by everybody. 1t is use
less to say that wages will be ad-
vanced with the day laborer. Wages
remain nearly the same in name
generation after generation so far
as farm laborers are concerned.
Fifty cents per day will continue
to be the price of farm labor when
silverism is made law, and the
poor man will find out what silver
ism means when he prices coffee at
zoe to SOC per pound, brown sugar at
lie, white sugar at lie, corn meal
at soc per bushel, -four at 81 per
cwt., bacon at lie to 14c, and other
things in proportion.
These same facts apply to the
farm laborer who is hired by the
month or year. The wages of such
laborers are higher than those of
the day laborer or farm hand who
works here and there as he can get
employment. The wages of the
former vary, and are dependent to
a greater extent upon individual
ability and character, but the value
of their wages will be about halved
in purchasing power by a silyeSl.@
Now, why should the farm Labor
err vote to lessen by about half tI4
real value of his wages? There s
no reason except that he shou d
listen to and heed some politicians
misleading statements and misih-
formation because said politician
has an AK to grind in the way OF
seeking an office for himself OF
friend, now or hereafter; or owes
money that he contracted for in
l00-cent dollars and wants the lazy
full privilege of paying i'll 5''-cent
dollars; or thinks more of a plat
form that bears the Democratic
name than he docs Of a platform
that contains the true Jctfersonian
Democratic principles; or isled by
false reasoning to feel party bound
to vote for anything a majority
says vote for, regardless of whether
it is Democratic or even right; or
because he doesn't actually have
the true information on the subject
The same argument applies to
all laborers, mechanics, clerks, and
those dependent for a living on
fixed wages or a salary.
Coming to the farmer who rent:
land to cultivate for living, his
rent will be put up double on him
by a silver law, because farm that
rents for 800 in 100-cent dollars
will be worth 5000 in 50-cent dol.
lars; his tobacco, corn, wheat, live
stock, and all that he produces viii
sell for double, but all that he buys
will cost him double. So he would
neither gain nor lose anything in
those respects. But here is how he
will lose: All the capital that is
loaned out and not secured by con-
tracts to pay in gold will be halved
A large proportion of this capital
belongs to poor people who have
loaned it to savings banks and use
the interest or income to pay part
of their living expenses. The in
come from the little capital of these
poor people being halved in pur-
CudsliS power tilcy Will po CoHh-
PEELED to live more economically
that is, use less beef, less bacon,
less -four, less tobacco, and less OF
the other produce grown by the
farmer. That will cause lessened
demand and will lower prices of
farm produce, and consequently
lessen his already scanty profits.
Again, foreigners will withdraw
their capital from this country, and
our American manufacturers and
enterprise projectors will have
much less capital to use in manu-
featuring and in developing the
country, which will also lessen
greatly the demand for farm pro-
ducts. Again, our own capitalists
will have lost so much by be-
ing compelled to take fifty-cent
dollars in payment of 1OO-cent
debts that they will be ex-
tremely cautious about loaning
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