Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1896-10-22
THE pop PERRINE.
lis vagaries Shown Up in Q Convincing
Manner.

! ED. ARGUS: / must ask for n few
lines i'm reply to Mr.. Perrine's COM
mnnicatiOn. / had hoped he would
point out i'm a plain and logical way,
r< that the average workingman
,vtIld understand where this bounty
f@lsiness came ina thing which i
pny exists at all, being unable to
well known free silver men their
"ifws which 1 may say 1 am per-
,itly familiar with, and il we have
D. It enough judgment of our own to
f' tm an opinion of our own it might
y rhaps be the proper course to give
t. e opinions of other men who disa-
re with the gentlemen quoted by
= !. Perrine, and where he can quote
o'ie senator 1 can quote two against
tie proposition.
This is the quotation from Mr..
Mantle's speech which he used:
Just SO long as silver retains the
present purchasing power over labor
and commodities i'm Asiatic countries
just so long will Chinese and Japan
ese manufacturers be able to bring
their wares to our markets, sell
them for gold, buy the equivalent Of
two silver dollars with each gold
dollar and go back home and repeat
the process. This is merely a Jug
ler's trick-the bringing in the ex-
change of the one gold dollar for the
two silver ones; the China merchant
might just as well have taken his
one gold dollar to China as to swap
it for the equivalent of two silver
ones, he could have got just as much
labor for it. The wages of China and
Japan are not paid in dollars but in
taels and yens, neither coin cores
ponding i'm weight or value to our
dollar, the weight of the metals
determining their value. Do you un-
derstand that proposition Mr.. Per-
rine? Let us state it in another way.
The China merchant comes over with
his wares and for every dollars
| worth of (our money! he takes his
pay i'm silver bullion and gets an
equivalentO of two silver dollars. Now
there is no swapping of dollars and
consequently no 100 per cent bounty
as MIR. Perrine seems very anxious to
make the labOring man believe there
is when he swaps one dollar worth
100 cents for two dollars worth 80
cents each, yet he cannot take his
two ounces of silver back to China
and buy any more goods or labor
than he could with the one gold dol
lar.
Let MIR. Perrine remember this fact
the commercial world doesn't settle
it's balances i'm dollars but In
ounces of pure gold or silver. and
this clap trap about swapping ont
dollar for two won't fool as many
working men as it will theorists likt
Mr.. Perrine who would make thu
nation rich, not by work but by leg
islation and letting the Chinese ant
other nations do the work, ant
draw the pay.
With the exception of this swap
ping one good dollar for two that ar
half as good, Mr.. Mantle's state
ment requires n few more comments
Just so long AZ silver retains it,
present purchasing price over labo
and commodities" Yes, does Mr.. Per
rine ever stop to ask what the rat,
OF wages are i'm China. a rate tha
we must come to in this country
. our costom houses are to be aban
doned; unskilled labor from 8 to /,
cts. per day, skilled labor 15 to 25cts
per day, that il it's equivalent in GU
money. Is that an encouragin,
prospect that we are to compete il
our own markets with such paupe
: labor as that? Nothing under tn
heavens can protect us except pro
lection; to adopt their standard q
money would only be trying to de
+. ceive the laboring man.
i. Be not deceived. When q man will
work a day in China for a dime yO,
cannot pay an American ten dime
and then sell the products on tn
same market.
II If Mr.. Mantle had said SO long q
one ounce of silver will purchase a
much labor in China as ten ounce
will i'm America we cannot hope t.
hold our markets against the Chimes
, without a high tariff he would hav
made the truth SO plain that evel
Mr.. Perrine could have understoo,
it.
Hartman says "a protective tarii
on gold basis cannot protect us.
i, Shades of Ananias, and yet Hart
man voted for the Dingley bill; @
: course he didn't mean too and wa
r awful sorry afterwards when b
| found out how much nOtOriety Ou
senators had obtained by slappin
one of our industries In the face with
out helping another.
wonder II Mr.. Perrine even stop