The Dakota chief. (Gann Valley, Buffalo County, S.D.) 18??-1913, 1896-09-17
DELUSIVE PROMISES.
Ar'"ine with the Currency should Not
be Tolerated by WOrkinpmen


ne silver orator of the vacant LOT tells
ms audience that free coinage would
make money plenty. that if we had more
money prices would rise and that if
prices should rise there would be n great
deInalld for labor ut higher wages.
AS To lflat. in the first place. free coin.
age would not make money more plenty
Tor a considerable time. The first effect
would be to drive every dollar of gold
we nave out of use. and that would leave
us with about one third less of what
passes Tor money than we now have,
All experience. as well as reason. proves
iiat 'lls would be the first effect. even
II silver and other currency should fall
no more than | per cent. below gold.
But suppose free coinage should give
us more money. how would the man who
works for wages get any more of il:
lie mas no silver bullion costing him 6e
cents per ounce To take to the mint and
get made INTO dollars for his own use at
the rate of Sl.3O to the ounce.
Inc NINE owner can rake off that fine
lroht OF I'll cents an ounce, but no man
VINO works for wage can do it. no not
even the man who digs ont the ore in
the NINE or labors in the smelling works,
lriccs would go mp, unquestionably, if
we had more and cheaper money. If
money gets cheaper people will not give
so much sugar or cloth or humber for n
dollar OF the money. In other words. il
VIII take more money to buy the same
quantity of sugar. cloth. etc.
How is the nottingham going 10 get
IN" increased sums of money that he will
nave to pay for his groceries and cloth
ing lie has nothing to sell but his la
Dor. lie cannot sit down in the evening
and mark up his labor and go out and
sell ii for 10. 20. 80 or 100 per cent.
more the next day.
The chances are that he will get nc
more for his labor until long after he
has been paying more for most of the
things he has to buy. and then only af-
ter he has been subjected to the further
loss and the wearing irritation of a
strike.
While the mine owners and others on
the ground floor of this silver deal are
rakinS in their nice advance of 50 to &c
per cent. on bullion the man who works
for wages will have hard scratching to
get enough more to cover half his loss
from the rise in prices.
But says the silver orator, "when
prices begin to boom everybody will pro-
ducc more so as to make money on the
rise; wOrkmen must be hired to do the
producing. and wages must go up"
The most thorough and careful Stats
teal Investigations prove that whenever
prices have zone up under the process of
making money cheap they have always
gone up more than wages. History also
proves that whenever production has
been stimulated by the imitation of prices
it has invariably been ovcrdOne. Collapse
has always followed. usually attended
by panic, and multitudes have suddenly
been thrown out of employment-to stay
out until at Il snairs pace consumption
has ovcrtaken production once more.
These spasm of production with in
tcrvals of %stagnation are about the worst
thing possible for labor. The best thing
is the utmost steadiness compatible with
industrial progress, and that is attain
able only under a stable monetary
standard and system.
Trihing with the standard is something
that no nottingham should cOunte-
nance for Il moment. The tOilerS of
England learned that long ago, and to-
day they warn their American brethren
against the seductive wiles of the sill
v~critcs who seek to degrade the stand
ard.-Chicago Chronicle.