Omaha daily bee., 1896-09-29
POOR MONEY CHEATS TIE POOR,

'>HN ''''' ~ " L bt S.ilh. he
first dirty errand that a dirty dollar
does is to cheat the workingman." The
truth of his trenchant epigram is at
tested by Ill human experience since
money has paid for labor and we need
not go outside the history of our own
country for the proof. In one of his
addresses last week Major Mckinley
said in regard to the complaint that our
money is too good that the money OF no
country can be too good. ut is Door
money, not good money" he said. that
has been the cause of so much loss and
suffering in the past, both to individuals
and to nations" another fact which
every intelligent student of history
knows.
Major Mckinley referred to the period
before the war when business was done
with an uncertain and n%uctuating state
bank currency. While many of the
banks of that time were sound, still for
the most part their notes were subject
to Il discount. Gut it was not the notes
of the good banks that got into circula-
ton among the people in payment for
their labor. Very generally the work
ing people were paid in notes that were
at the greatest discount and these help
less victims of an uncertain and ffuc-
tuntinE currency lost millions by the
failure of the banks whose notes they
were compelled to take in exchange for
their work. Not only this. they suf-
Tered great loss in exchanging these
notes for currency that would pass
among the merchants. Then the poor
man was the prey of the broker. When
he got his wages ut the end of his
weeks work-hardly more thar half. in
those "bimetallic' days, than at present
in any i~ndustry-the workingman took
his money to the broker and submitted
to Il discount of 3 or 6 per cent on the
dollar in order to get currency that he
could use in the market to buy neces-
saries for his family. There was no
incentive to save money, because it was
liabla to deprcciate from day to day or
to become utterly worthless in the hands
of the holder. The general desire was
to part with it rs soon as possible and
thus thrift among the people was dis
cOuraged.
Undoubtedly men of means suffered to
some extent from this poor currency,
but the greatest hardships resulting |
from it fell upon labor, upon that Dor
ton Of the people least able TO bear the
loss. The experience was the same dur |
ing the war period of currency deprccia-
ton. Wages did not advance CORE
spondingly with the increase of the
prices of commodities that measured the
depreciation of the currency and labor
was a constant loser while the Durclrs-
ing power of the money in which it was
paid continued to decline. Labor made
many struggles in that period to right
itself, but 1T was never able TO make
wages advance as fast or as far as the
prices of commodities increased. 1t is
now proposed to give the country n cur
rency system which its advocates say
will certainly increase the prices of COM
modities, but which they do not promise
will correspondingly advance the wages
of labor, and they are appealing to work
ingmen to support this policy. They are
asking labor to abandon n financial sys-
tenn under which wages was steadily in
creased in amount and in purchasing
power and adopt one which in effect
will reduce wages by cutting down the
value of the money in which it is paid.
If the men who are asking the support
of wage workers in behalf of this policy
of currency debasemenu. We're to sug.
gest TO them that they should volun-
tarily offer TO take less wages nobody
doubt what the prompt and decisive
would be; yet what they do ask
amounts practically to this. The ad-
of free silver assert that their
policy will raise the price of everything
labor must buy, but they give no
that the price of labor will
correspOndingly rise.
That there should be any workingmen
to try another experiment with
poor money Is almost inexplicable, but
Notwithstanding the claims of the free
silyerites and the attitude of some labor
leaders, Ii is not TO be believed that a
majority of the intelligent w%orkingmen
of the country will vote to make the
money in which they are paid less val
than 1t is today.
In the present state of the city's
finances an honest and economical nd