, 1896-10-05
How .ee Silver VIII Work.

various interests of the people. Til" frs,
blessing we aro promised TO flow from free
coinage il n general rise of prices. This means
that the silver dollar will buy less thuu til,
gold dollar did. and this for the reason that
it is no longer worth rs much rs the Fpll dol
lar. Evidently the promise of himcta!ii-m, 81
silver rising to its old price on the one hand,
and the promise of higher prices owing TO .
less valuable silver dollar on the other hand
do not go together. The one or the other is y
fraud. OF course the fraud is the promise OF
bimetnllism. Ths rise of prices owing to III,
de~basement of the dollar will begin at enc.
as soon as gold departs and We slip on the -!
yer basis. Bread Will he dcarer; milk, coffee.
sugar, tea, meat, vegetables, will be dcnrer:
clothes, shoes and hats will be dcarer: rents.
furniture. coal, kerossne-in short. every ar
ticle the price of which can be raised by the
seller.
High prices are a twp edged s~word-handy to
the seller, but unpleasant to the buyer. They
press, of course, hardest upon those who ar.
compelled to buy most in proportion To thuiI
income or their earnings. And who are they.
TIL poor people. What n rich family spends
upon the actual accessories of life, the Iudis-
pensablc food. clothing and shelter, j. very
little compared with its income. Most of it,
expenditures go for things that are not noccs
saries and may be classed rs luxurics. the pur-
chasing Of which may be suspended or post
poned without hardship. But the poor family,
the wage Carner's family, is obliged to spend
u very lhrEt part OF lS INCOME from 'iiN To titiN
upon FOOD. clothing. shelter, heat and light,
that cannot be temporarily dispensed with
without hardship. From II rise i'll III" prices
of the necCSSIrl.S of life the poor people there.
fore suffer by far the most.
Where the Wage Garner Will Come In.
How stands the case Of the wage Carncrs
whose product can he raised i'll price proper
tionate to the debascmeut of the dulInrP As
the dollar falls in value the manufacturer or
the merchant marks mp his goods. The work
inEman or the clerk, finding himself hard
pressed by the rise in price of the nccc-sariCs
of life. applies for u corresponding increase
of wages. The head of the factory or tho
mercanti tile establishment admits that some in
crease is called for. But" says he, "yuu are
not the only person in trouble. The value of
our money is nuctuating. We hardly know
what it is today. We surely do not know what
it will be next week. Profits arc excessively
close anyhow. We make IL sale or II purchase
today and think it is Mt n profit. Tomorrow
we may find that II was at a loss. We hardly
venture to rIake n contract to be filed at a
future time, because we can mako no safe cal
culations. We can increase your wages a lit.
tie, but not much. For that you will have to
wait until things are moro settled. Besides,
this silver free coinage has thrown ali bust
ness into dreadful confusion, and there arc
plenty of people ont OF employment who
would do your work for less than You get
now" And so the wage Garner has TO be sat,
i fled with II ! little increase Of pay and wait for
more while the advanced prices Of nccr-saries
prey upon him,
Is this mere conjycturc' 1t Is the experience
of every country that has been cursed by u
value. ! defy any one to show mo in the whole
history of the world II single exception. Have
we not, during our civil war, witnessed it with
our own cycsi In lsG2, when our irrcdccmahlr
paper currency had begun to duprcciatr, the
average wages of labor rose only , per cent,
while AVERAGE NripF3 rose Is In lAL- Whom
wage had risen lOis per cent, average prices
We're 40 per cent higher; III lhii wages had
risen PA per cent and prices 9Ol in 1865
wages had advanced 43 pur cent and prices III
above what wages and prices had been in gold
in lSGl. In other words, thu lIhoring mans
wages had lost in purchasing power more than
30 cents in every dollar. Every country "a
boring under similar conditions tyi.s Ia. -an
story. What reason in tho world il thur, I'D.
assume that this universal rule will not uItr
ate in the cas-" of free cuiuHguf
And what have the apostles of free sily,r
coinage to say to this? Hear Mr.. Bryan him
self in his famous New York Grafton, .'Whilc
"A gold standard raises the purchasing power
of the dollar 1t also makes it more difficult to
obtain possesrion Of the ymrnt
is less permanent, loss of work more probable"
and ro-cmplo' nent less certain" Is that allF
Yes, all. Does not Mr.. Bryan know that I'M
der what was practically the gold standard
We had in the 1iftics one of the most active
and prosperous periods this country has ever
seen? Does he not know that moro recently,
at the time of the return to specie payments,
we had under the gold standard years of sig
nal prosperity with all hands at work? And
does he wish to learn what has been the
trouble since and what is the trouble now?
Let him ask the employers Of labor, and with
almost one voice they will tell him that not
the existing gold standard, but the growing
danger of its overthrow, that the growing ag-
grcssivcncss of the free coinage movement,
filling the minds of men with anxious appre-
tensions as to dark future uncertainties, has
served to pnralyzc that spirit of enterprise
which sets the laboring man to work. Let him
study the history of the crisis of 1893. Not the
gold standard, but distru't of silver destroy-
ed the confidence that employs labor. This
is the truth, and Mr.. Bryan will in vain try to
deny it.
Debtor and Creditor.
The free coinage men profess especial solici
tude for those whom they call '.the debtor
class Who are the debtor class? Our silver
friends speak rs if, rs II rule, the rich people
were creditors and the poor were debtors. Is
this correct? In my household l am the debtor
to the cook and the chambermaid and the
washcrwoman two or three weeks i'll the
month, and they are my creditors. Nor
are they likely to be debtors to anybody else,
while l may be, for they have little if
any credit, while | perhaps have some. / am
therefore the only debtor in my house.
The relations between the large employer of
labor and the employees are substantially the
same. Ordinarily the employer. the rich man,
is apt to be the only debtor among them.
The employees are, as u rule. only creditors,
and as they lay up savings they are apt to be-
come creditors in n larger sense. They depos.
1t their money in savings banks or invest it in
building associations, in mutual benefit socie.
ties, in loan companies or i'll life insurance
policies and become capitalists in n small
way. The amount deposited by people of
small means in the savings banks of the United
States is Mt present something over 81, SOD, CO.
600, that invested in building associations
about SsUO, OO,0C in mutual benefit societies
1915, UO0,U and in life insurance many nun
dred millions more.
The number of such creditors belonging to
what our silver friends often call ''the toiling
masses" =, therefore very large. Together
with their dependents it .Ety, for aught we
know, amount tc sl5. 600, 900 or $40, 10000. Who
are the debtors Of these crcditorsf The saw
ings banks had, according to the reports OF
1894, loaned out a!~;nt one-half of the money
deposited with thea on real estate mortgages
and invested the yther half in United States
bonds, state, county and municipal bonds and
railroad and other bonds and stocks. The in
vestments Of tbs life insurance companies
were about proportionately the same. The in.
vestments in real estate mortgages are always
preferably in large amounts, on property be-
longing to comparatively wealthy persons or
to business corporations. Thus the debtors to
these creditors belonging TO the toilii1S MASSES
are the United States, states and municipali-
ties, railroad and other corporations and per
sons very much richer than tho creditors.
Here we have, then, rich debtors owing to
many millions of poor creditors thousands of
millions of dollars.
The silver orators pretend that they have the
toiling masses greatly at heart and that free
coinage is to be introduced mainly for their
benefit. How do they tHlle care of the toiiing
masses In this casef BY bringing us down
upon the silver basis they simply cut down