Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-07-31
Arguments Affecting Wage Farmers In
terests Both for Sound Money
and for Free Silver.

and inadequately paid are questions direct
ly and necessarily involved in the demand
now seriously made by many of our fellow
citizens that the United States. without the
cooperation of any other government in the
world, and in opposition to the established
policy of every other great civilized and
commercial nation shall authorize the free
and unlimited coinage of full legal-tender
silver at the rate of 16 to l. notwithstand-
ing the true market ratio between the two
metals is about 81 to 1; or, in other words.
that the United States alone shall declare
by law that sixteen ounces of silver are
equal IN value to one ounce of gold, when 1t
Is an indisputable fact everywhere recog-
nized that In all the markets of the world,
In silver-standard countries, as well as in
silver are worth only about one-half as
much as one ounce of gold, and will pur-
chase only about one-half as much Of the
neCeSsaries of life.
What Free Coinage Really Means.
THE naked proposition is that the United
States shall coin. at the public expense.
FOR the exclusive benefit Of the individuals
and corporations owning the bullion all
the silver that may be presented at the
minis into dollars containing 81 IA grains
OF pure silver, or 412 1-2 grains of standard
silver, worth intrinsically about 81 or 81
cents deliver the coins to the depositors of
the bullion. and compel all the other people
In the country to receive these coins at a
valuation OF 100 cents each in payment of
deDts que them Tor property sold, for labor
and service of all kinds, for pensions to
soldiers and sailors and their widows and
children, for losses sustained under policies
issued by life and other insurance compa-
MES. for deposits in savings banks trust
companies building associations and other
Institutions. for debts due to widows and
orphans by guardians executors and ad-
ministrators of decedents' estates and other
co 10 Ri Of oil pf1,tI
and naval officials, and the COMPENSATION
CT private soldiers and seamen and, in
short for every kind of obligation recog-
nlIed by the laws of the land, except only
In cases where the prudent capitalist has
taken the precauton in advance to contract
for payment of debts due to him in gold or
Its equivalent
One hmm eiliate Effect.
To say nothing of the gross Partially
anc manifest injustice Of such a policy,
its immediate effect would be to contract
our currency to the extent of about $780,
100000 by stopping the use of gold as
money and putting a premium upon the
coins of that metal equal. or about equal
to the difference between the intrinsic
value of the gold dollar and the intrinsic
value of the silver dollar. Gold coins would
at once become a commodity, and would
be bought and sold by spectators in the
market just as they were during the war
when We had a deprecated paper cur
rency. The value of the silver dollar
would f1uctuate from day to day, moving
up and down with the rise and fall of the
commercial price of the bullion contained
in 1t. as the Mexican dollar does now and
the premium on the gold dollar would of
course, huctuate to the same extent, thus
afording an opportunity to bullion brokers
and spectators to buy and sell it at a
profit. 1t would cease to be used as money
because no man would pay his debts in
gold dollars or in paper redeemable in
Onyfs- tk,eI
permitted him to pay it in silver dollars
worth only 81 or 50 cents. The sudden
withdrawal of s620,oo0,0D from the volume
of currency in the country would undoubt-
eddy produce financial and industrial dis
turEance far more disastrous to the in
terests of labor than has ever been ex-
perenced in our history. and no man who
has a particle of sympathy for working
men and women and their dependent fam
lilies can contemplate the possibility of
such a calamity without feeling that 1t is
his duty, whether he occupies a public or a
private station, to employ every honorable
means at his command to avert it.
w lille the sudden expulsion Of $500. 0OO-
600 i'll gold from our stock of money would
be in itself sufficient to create a financial
disturbance unparalleled in the history of
this or any other country, the situation
would be very greatly aggravated by the
fact that the purchasing power of all the
remainder Of our currency would sud
denly be reduced about one-half; we should
have only about two-thrds as much cur
rency as We have now. and at the same
time 1t would be so deprecated in value
that it would require about twice as much
as we have now to transact the business of
the country, provided there should be any
BUSH esS to transact.
I'm the general confusion and disorder
resulting from such a radical measure,
what will be the condition of the Ameri-
can 1aborer? Will he be benefited or in
jured by reducing the value of the money
in which his wages are paid, and at the
same time increasing the prices Of the
commodities for which his wages are ex-
per ded?
Effect on the Wage Workers..
"After struggling for more than a quar-
ter Of century, through labor organiza-
tons and Otherwise, to secure a rate Of
wages which would make the proceeds of
a days work equal to the cost of days
subsistence for the workingman and his
family. you are asked by the advocates of
free coinage to join them in destroying
one-half Of tie purchasing power of the
money IN which you are paid and impose
upon yourselves the task Of doubling the
nominal amount of your wages hereafter;
that is, to struggle for another quarter of
century, or perhaps longer, to raise your
wages in a deprecated currency to a point
which will enable you to purchase with
them as much of the necessaries of life as
you can purchase now; and If, after years
Of contention, privation and Industrial dis
order, you should at last succeed in so adj
justing wages that they would procure at
the higher prices of commodities just what
they will procure now at the existing prices,
what would you have gained by the change
from the old to the new conditions?
The Fallacy of Fifty-Cent Dollars.
Money received for wages. like money
received on every other account, is valuable
only to the extent that it can be exchanged
for other commodities. and it is scarcely
necessary to suggest that dollar worth 80
cents will not purchase as much in the
markets as a dollar worth 100 cents. To
call dime a dollar would add nothing
whatever to its intrinsic value or purchas-
ing power; it would still buy only dimes
worth of goods. If these propositions are
correct, it is clear that when wages are
paid in a deprecated currency the rates
Of wages must be increased in proportion
to the depreciation of the money, and in
proportion to the increase in the prices of
other things. or the laborer will suffer a
loss. But I affirm that it Is the universal
rule that the rates of wages do not in
crease in proportion to the depreciation in
the value of the money in which they are
paid. and that when the currency Is depre-
ciated the rates Of wages do not increase
in proportion to the increase in the prices
of the commodities the laborer is compelled
to purchase If there has been a single ex-