Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1896-09-09
The Crime of 1896.

Inc highest crime against natlOnal
prosperity is to strike down wages,
and the most criminal method of re-
ducing wages, because the most in
sidious and far-reaching, is to debase
the standard money in which wages
are paid. Against actual reductions
of money wages by individual en-
ploYers or corporations, laborers
can have recourse to the ordinary
means of economic defense through
organized resistance, but against the
slaughter of wages through debasing
the money laborers receive, the
methods of organized labor are i'm
potent. The evil comes, not in
reduction in the amount of wages
laborers receive, but in a reduction
in the amount of welfare the wages
will buy. Disbursement of the stand
ard money steals from the lahorer
the substance of his wages without
changing the form. 1t silently in
creases his poverty without reducing
his income. This masked aSsaSsina-
ton Of real wages, like the destroy
ing angel of old, in a single night
smites every laborer' household. No
other industrial scOurge is as uni
versal or as sudden as this. All
other forms of industrial disaster
follow the lines Of certain industries
or geographical sections, and are
more or less gradual in their coming;
out this weapon Of poverty strikes
every laborer in the land at single
stroke.
Behind the movement of 1892
there was, at least, an abstract
economic theory of equitable COM
merical relations. The scheme of
1896 lacks even this seeming excuse;
it has behind it neither history, econ
omic theory nor Financial judgment.
1t is ID scheme whose sole purpose is
arbitrarily to strike down wages in
order to double the profits of a small
and special class. In their short
sightedness, they fail to see that
thus to strike down wages is to des
troy nearly half the consuming power
of over fifty millions of people, and
with it destroy the very basis of
prosperity in every form of product
i've industry.
The farmers who are expecting to
gain by this sacrifice of the laborers
will soon find that the promised profit
is a mere mirage. The chief market
for products of American farmers is
consumption by the wage and salary
receiving population, employed In
the manufacturing and commercial
industries; let this be reduced so per
cent. and all hope of improvement
for the American farmer is gone.
There is no change for increasing his
sales abroad India, Argentine,
Russia and Austria can beat him
there. Let American markets be
destroyed and the abyss Of agricul
tural desperation will be at hand,
and the Bryan millennium with I'M
sold crops, foreclosed mortgages,
deserted farms and agricultural des
peration will be realized.
Whatever may be the theories Of
farmers regarding prices they can
not afford to destroy the markets
for their products. Whatever may
be the theories of laborers regarding
capital, public ownership of indus
tries or the reconstruction ofsociety,
they cannot afford, under any cir
cumstances, to permit a wholesale
reduction of wages. Any wage or
salary receiver who will vote directly
or Indirectly for reduction of the
purchasing power Of wages is an
enemy of his class and of his country
and will be entitled to no aid or
sympathy when the inevitable con-
sequences of his voting come. The
Debs, Sovereigns, Gompers, Maguires
and other Representatives Of organ
lied labor are bound by the history
and economics Of their position first
and all the time to resist anything
and everything which will impair
wages or the purchasing power of
wages. Not to do this is to be trait
ors to the labor movement and
earn the condemnation Of their class
everywhere. There is no crime
against prosperity, against society,
against civilization which can COM
pare in enormity with q wholesale
reduc ion of wages, and whatever
class of capitalists or producers or
traders may favor such scheme for
local, temporary, or personal
reasons, the wage classes, and es-
pecially those whose power is strength
ened by organization, should be q
solid unit against 1T. High wages,
full-value wages is the rock Of labor's
safety and the fulcrum of it's pros
perity. To lend countenance or aid
to any scheme which will impair
wages is oiuntarily to decree it's
own destruction.-From Gunton's Mag
dzine N. ~ for September.