Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-07-30
FREE SILVER AND WAGES,

One of the catchiest arguments that
the free silver advocates make is that
wages will be higher, and as everybody
wants higher wages, if he is wage
Garner, the vote for free silver is con-
sidered by many as vote for the
raising of his pay.
In the Grst place the wage Garner has
but the promise of the silverite for this
raise and this promise is not quite as
good as that made by the manufactur-
ers who employ more men than the sill
yer barOns do, and who declare that
with a protective tariff they will be
able to pay higher wages, and will be |
able to give employment to a greater
number There are many in these |
How can the wages of such be increas-
ed? What they need is chance to
work. Protection promises to give
them this chance, and at the same
time increase the wages of those who
do work. Free silver simply promises
to raise wages, but does not sromise to
furnish work. 1t promises to raise
wages by furnishing deprecated
currency, instead of increased oppor-
tunity and activity. In other words
it simply says that those who are now
at work at dollar day will get two
50c-dollars instead of one 1O0c- dollar,
so that the workingman may feel that
he is getting two dollars a day, al
though when he comes to visit the
grocery store or the meat market he
will find that for his two dollars he is
getting only the same old dollars
worth of sugar or beef. TO the man
who is not earning anything it prom |
Uses no work.
This country has tried deprecated
currency before. Those whose memory
runs back a third of century need
not be reminded that during the war
wages were somewhat higher, but they
are quite apt to forget that other
things were great deal higher. The
bold figures show that while wages
were advanced about 43 per cent,
prices advanced 1l6 per cent, so that
practically wages, measured by the
power of purchase, were, in fact, re-
duced about one. third. 1t does not
help man very much to have his
wages raised from $500 to 800 if the
cost of living is increased from $500 to
ST, 100. The only way he can make
both ends meet, and keep out of debt,
is to do away with some things which
he used to have, when he was earning
his $500 of good money.
1t is to be remembered, too, that dur
ing this time there were million men
who were drawn from the shops and
fields, and kept employed by the gov
eminent in the vocation of war, thus
making laborers scarce, and tending to
advance wages, and yet with all this
stimulant, wages did not begin to keep
up with the increase of expenses
Those who facy that free silver will
bring return of "the good times we
had during the war;" should look back
a little and See if those were really such
good times for the wage-worker after
all. What is first needed is work,
With money such as the employ
er wants when he takes his European
outing, is what the wage-worker wants.
Another fact should be born in mind.
The working man is the one who will
get the poorest dollar, if one dollar is
not just as good as another. If there
is 100-cent dollar and 50.cent dollar,
give the man with the tinpail the
50-cent one, and if he will not take it, |
the employer will tell him he need not !
come around Monday morning, as there |
is another man who wants work and |
will take it. When he takes his 5O-cent
dollar to the store he cannot compel
the merchant to give him 100 cents |
worth of goods for it. The merchant
tells him to keep his 90 cent dollar and |
he will keep his goods until the fellow
with the l00cent dollar comes in. The
wage.worker of all men on earth should
insist that there should be but one dol |
lar for rich and poor. for if there are
two dollars of different value he is
sure to have to take the poorer one
Nonpaiel.