Omaha daily bee., 1896-04-18
HONEST atoNET FoR LABOR.

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There are many wage earncrs in the
United states who have allowed them
selves to he deluded into the belief that
they would be benefited by the opening
Of our mints to the free and unlimited
coinage of silver at the existing mint
ratio. Through organizations and in
other ways these workngmen have de-
clared in favor of free silver and they
have cNerted no little influence in be-
half of that cause. There can be no
reasonable doubt that they constitute a
minority of the working classes, but
none the less they are an important ele
ment whom 1t is most desirable to con
vince of their mistake and to show that
the true interests and highest welfare
of the mcn and women of America who
live by their labor depend upon having
their earnings paid in the best money
Of the world. There Is no class of the
people more deeply concerned in the
question of honest money, of a currency
every dollar of which is at a parity with
gold and equal in purchasing power,
than the great body of wage earners.
The speech on the currency delivered
by Secretary Carlisle in Chicago on
Wednesday last, which was particularly
addressed to workingmen, is most
lucid and convincing presentation of
arguments showing that sound and
stable currency is particularly essential
to the welfare of labor. 1t is the man
,,.l,p lie 1,iS
the products of his own labor for the
means of supporting himself and his
family who always feels the first and
most disastrous effects of business or
industrial depression, no matter whether
it results from deprecated and fluctu
ating currency or from other causes.
Every intelligent workingman knows
this to be true. Whenever financial and
business confidence becomes alarmed
labor is the first TO suffer. Its earning
power is reduced or it is thrown out of
employment. Those who have capital
may be hurt at such times, but they
are exempt from many of the most seri-
Gus consequences of financial or in
dustrial disturbance. Labor cannot be
boarded and therefore steady employ
ment and good pay in good money are
essential to the comfort and happiness
of the American laborer Whatever will
produce disturbance must operate to his
injury.
Secretary Carlisle said that money re-
ceived for wages is valuable only to the
extent that it can be exchanged for
other commodities. A dollar worth 30
cents will not purchase as much in the
markets as a dollar worth 100 cents.
This being so when wages are paid i'll
deprecated currency the rates of
wages must be increased in proportion
to the depreciation of the money and i'll
proportion to the increase in the prices
of other things, or the laborer will
suffer IL loss. 1t is the universal rule,
however, that in such circumstances
wages do not rise in proportion to the
depreciation of money or the increase of
prices, our whole history, as well as
that of other civilized countries, estab-
fishing this fact incontrovertibly 1t
was so during the period when we had
Il upDreclaCeu CURRENCY, ScCfeldIy Cul-
Isle stating that the rise in the rates
of wages never corrcsponded with the
rise in the prices of other things until
the wear 1869, four years after the close
of the war There was an abundance
of cheap money during the war and yet
there has been no other period in our
history when the rates of wages fell
so rapidly or so low. This experience
should be sufficient to convince any in
telligent man that the free coinage of
silver at 16 to 1 would not give any
benefit to labor, but on the contrary
would be most harmful to it.
1t is an undeniable fact that in 1892
a days work of skilled labor would buy
more of any staple commodity of hui
man necessity than ever before, much
more than before 1878, when the So
called demonetization of silver took
place. 1t is not free silver that will re-
store tnat condition, but a change in
economic policy That will give labor
employment and with its earnings paid
in good money there will again be gen
eral prosperity