Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1896-05-14
SILVER And WAGES.
Speech Of Secretary Carlisle
at Chicago.
He Addresses a Mass Meeting of Work.
ingmen on the Currency Question.

Makes 1t Clear That Cheap Money ALWAYS
Was and Always VIII BE the Wage
Farmers Enemy-Free Coinage Means
Silver Recommendation and Reduced Pur-
chasing Power of Wages-Such Has Been
the Experience With Deprecated Silver
In Chile, Japan and Mexico and With
Our Deprecated Currency-would Rob
posted In Savings Banks and Building
and Loan Associations and Invested In
-nsnrance Policies.
MR.. PRESIDENT n GENTLEMEN am ue..
this evening in response to a communication
received several months ago from "a number of
gentlemen connected with various labor or
CARNATIONS Of this city inviting me to address
them and their fellow workingmen upon the
currency and financial questions, which were
then and are still agitating the minds Of our
people i'll all parts of the country. When that
communication reached me, it was not in my
power to designate a time when my official
duties would permit me to come here, but |
promised to hold the matter under considera-
ton and come whenever Ii might be possible
to do 80, and / now congratulate myself upon
my good fortune in having at last found an
opportunity to meet this great assemblage of
laboring people and to discuss in their pres
ence what | consider one of the most impor-
tant economic questions that can possibly en-
gage the attention Of wage earners in this or
any other country,
TIL Wage Farmers Interest In Good Money.
Whether the general business of the people
shall be transacted with good money or bad
money, whether the wages of labor shall be
Maid i'm "A sound and stable curraucy with full
purchasing power in the markets where they
are exchanged for the necessaries of life, or in
a deprecated and fuctuating currency. hay
ing no fixed value and therefore bearing no
permanent relation to the current prices of
commodities, are questions which affect the
comfort and happiness Of every home and the
peace and prosperity of every community.
While all are deeply interested in the settle.
ment Of these questions it is unfortunately the
case that all will not be equally affected by an
erroneous decision upon them. The wealthy
man, the man who has accumulated property
or boarded money, is always exempt from
many of the most serious consequences Of a
financial or industrial disturbance. He has
both means and credit, and, while he may DO
subjected 80 much loss and inconvenience
neither he nor his family will be pinched by
hunger or compelled to 20 without raiment or
shelter.
1t is the poor man and the man of moderate
means-the man who has not been fortunate
enough to property or money, but
whO depends upon his wages or upon the prod
ucts Of his own labor for the means of sup
porting himself and his family-that always
feels the first and most disastrous effects of a
business or Industrial depression, no matter
whether it results from a deprecated and fiuc-
tuating currency or from other causes. Such
a man has nothing to dispose Of but his labor
and nothing with which to support himself or
IL E--,l., l,4 q 1890 -. H. ~
his own labor, and any policy that even tenn
porarily suspends or obstructs the industrial
progress of the country by diminishing the
demand for the products Of labor, or by i'm
pairing the capacity or disposition Of capital
TO employ labor, must be injurious to his in
terests and infiict more or less suffering upon
all who are dependent upon him.. Labor can
not be boarded the idle day is gone forever;
lost wages are never reimbursed, and there
fore steady employment and good pay in good
money are essential to the comfort and happi-
ness of the American laborer and his wife and
children, and he will be unfaithful to himself
and TO them If he does not insist upon the
adoption and maintenance OF such a policy as
will most certainly preserve the value and sta
bility of all our currency and promote the
regular and profitable conduct of all our in
dustTisi enterprises. He cannot prosper when
the country is in distress, when its industries
are FRUSTRATED, it ~paralyzed, its
credit broken down or its social order dis
turbed, nor can he prosper when the fuctua-
tons Of the currency are such that he cannot
certainly know the value of the dollar in
which his wages are paid or estimate in i'd
vance the cost of the necessaries of life.
Whether we shall or shall not have a long
period of financial, commercial and industrial
disturbance in this country, and whether la
Dor shall be deprived of permanent employ
ment or be partially employed and made
uuately paid, are questions directly and neces-
sarily involved in the demand now seriously
made by many Of our fellow citizens that the
United States, without the cooperation of any
other government in the world. and in oppo-
sition TO the established policy of every
other great civilized and commercial nation,
shall authorize the free and unlimited coinage
of full legal tender silver at the rate OF 10 TO l,
Notwithstanding the true market ratio be-
tween the two metals Is about 81 to j, or. In
other words, that the United States alone shall
declare by law that Is ounces Of silver are
euual in value 10 | ounce OF gold, when 1t is
an indisputablo fact everywhere recognized
that in all the markets of the world. in silver
standard countries as well as in gold standard
countries, l6 ounces Of silver are worth only
about one.half as much as l ounce of gold
and will purchase only about one-haE as much
of the necessaries of life.
What Free Coinage Really Means.
The naked proposition is that the United
States shall coin, at the public expense for the
exclusive benefit of the individuals and cor
porations owning the bullion, all the silver
that may be presented at the minis into dol
lars containing 37lL grains of pure silver, or
4l2L grains of standard silver. worth antrin-
sically about 81 or 80 cents, deliver the coins
To the depositors of the bullion and compel all
the other people in the country to receive
these coins at a valuation of 100 cents each In
the payment of debts due them for property
sold, for labor and service OF all kinds. for
pensions to soldiers and sailors and their Wild
oys and children. for losses sustained under
policies issued 10y life and other Insurance.
companies, for deposits in savings banks, trust
companies, bnildiBs associations and other In
stituticns, for debts due to widows and orphans
by guardians, executors and administrators OF
deeedents, estates and other trustees, for sala-
ries of all civil. military and naval officials
and the compensation OF private soldiers and
seamen, and, in short. for every kind OK obi
cation recognized by the laws OF the land, ex-
cent only in cases whore the prudent capitalist
has taken the precaution In advance 70 con
tract for payment 0. debts one him In gold or
its equivalent