The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1896-08-21
Wages in Deprecated
Dollars.

silver dollars on wages.
4 since the great BODY Of the American
people work fsraw~sss. size sxage-earn-
ers are reilly tie parties most con-
cerned. and they are the ones to settle
the entire silver question. since they
have the votes To do it with. There
are over 20. 000. 900 people in the United
States who work far wages. and not
less than half Of the number is made
up Of male citizens over 81 years OF
age, and, therefore. voters. II these
men act together at the polls they can
carry any election.
But, should the money standard OF
the country be brought down to the
commercial Ssaae of the silver dollar,
SO that this dollar, while remaining .
! legal tender for all debts, will still only
be worth. Say, 50 cents, il will be In
teresting to see who would suffer most.
The bankers have already declared that
they can make money paying deposit
tors 5U-Ccut uoAt0ESt Aoas Wig Az" SSsAS
dollars that were put in. The life in
surance companies, realize that they
can make big profit BY paying policy
holders ID appreciated money. The
] merrhant knows that he can put up the
prices OF his goocs to neet the depre-
citation ID the value of the coin and the
notes based on it.
The men who have gold contracts for
al the money that Is due them are
sure Of getting their dues, no matter
whether the money, shall be silver,
copper. paper or wood, for contracts
ukade payable in the gold coin legal
tender money Of the country will be
supported by the courts. The employ
ers OF labor will be under no obligs-
lions to raise the wages Of their ems
ployes on account Of any depreciation
in the quality 81 the money. The
government is responsible for that. II
the Government. in its savereiga pow-
er, shall substitute bad money for good
no private person can be made respon-
sible, and people will psy-put such
money as they get, and that is all they
Ars required to do. Ha working man
is earning 81 or 90 dav, and he is
promptly paid in dollars bearing the
Government stamp, he can claim no
more from his employer. even IT the
dollars are worth so cents or 10 cents.
II there has been any wrong done any
where or by any body, it was done by
the Government There is experience
in this. .
From the beginning of 1892 to the
end Of. 1878. q period of l6- years. the
Omitted States Treasury note or green
back constantly remained below its
stamped value. There never was
monent in that time when a paper dol
Mar was worth 100 cents. At one time
it was as low as IS cents in gold. but.
while il fiuctuated, its purchasing
power alwaps remained below 100 cts.
Did anybody ever hear in that time
that the salary OF the President OF the
United States was raised? Did en-
ployers. either public or private, feel
bound to make up the deficiency to
their employees, and did they, do it?
Not that anybody knows. They paid
what the law required, and NO more.
If there was anything wroag, IL was
the fault of the law.
In Secretary of the Treasury Car
isles speech before the labor organiza-
tions of Chicago, on the 18th of last
April, he went into details in this mat
ter. Some of his facts and figures
will be Important. Early in 1852.
Congress authorized the issue of legal
tender paper to circulate as money, and
the usual and inevitable result follow
ed Gold ceased to be used as money,
and the banks and the treasury hav-
ing suspended specific payments, the
country was flooded with, q deprecated
currency worth at times less than Fifty
cents on the dollar. Later on. frac-
tionsl paper currency was authorized
by Congress, and the effect of this was
70 drive out OF circulation even the
light-weight subsidiary silver coins,
and for many years not a single piece
of metallic money of any kind was us
ed BY the people, except on the Pacific
coasts. where gold continued to circu-
late at its actual intrinsic value, with
out regard TO the fictitious value which