The Dakota chief. (Gann Valley, Buffalo County, S.D.) 18??-1913, 1896-09-10
ITS EFFECT ON THE FARMER.
Why the Free Coinage of Silver Would
Not Benefit Him,

Not Benefit Him.
Suppose we had free coinage of sill
yer; suppose that all the silver in this
country were mintcd and in %circula-
tion. would that sell al additional
bushel of wheat for the farmer? If it
would. how would it? Let the farmer
ask this direct question of the silver
agitator and see what the answer will
he.
Does the farmer know that in the last
three years, while our exports were
diminishing. the exports of grain from
the Argentine Republic to Europe have
increased many fold? Why? Because
cheap and, therefore. the Argentine
wheat raiser can lay down his product
in the European market cheaper than
the American farmer can. This is true
also of Russia, of Egypt and of South
Africa. The American free trader lied,
then. when he told our farmers that
the Wilson law would open to them
the markets of the world. The mar
kets of the world have been opened to
grain ~raisers who employ cheap labor.
In the Argentine Republic farm labor
ers receive less than % cents a day in
silver worth only 80 cents on the dollar;
in Egypt and Russia they receive scarce
lv more than that for a weeks wages.
What, then, will sell the crops of the
american luIIlltG ut DttttE DIlttS CitlH
Il protective tariff law that will put to
work so many men in the manufacture
ing centers that there will be an in
creased demand in these centers for
cereals. When, under the Mckinley law,
$500. 600 900 more wages were paid a
year than now. the carners of these
wages spent the bulk of that three hun
dred millions of wages annually in food
and clothes. This made the home con-
sumption of cereals so heavy that there
was not, as there is now, an enormous
surplus of American farm products seek
ing in vain Il market abroad. 1t is this
enormous surplus caused by the inability
OF the American Wage-carner to buy in
as large quantities as when he had
steady work ut full wages that has bat
tered down the price of wheat. And
when cereals had to go down to find a
market the cheap-labor grain raisers
could go lower than the American and
cut them out in the foreign markets
where the American surplus was offered
for sale.
If we put to work in the manufacture
InG districts the tens of thousands of
men who are not now buyers in the
home market for the reason that they
have less. or nothing. with which to buy;
If we enable employers TO pay out again
that additional S:i00.000.O 900 a year in
wages: if we make every able-bodied man
in the United States a buyer and a con
sumner of farm products, the farmers will
sell more cereals for home market con
sumption alone than they now sell to the
whole world. This will make better
prices; for, with our home consumption
demanding an increased supply, there
will not be on the European market mil
lions of bushels of American grain look
ing for a buyer at any price. With the
European supply thus diminished by the
Incpnas cod nps,I,pti i'm in manic, IN,,o
pean prices will advance; for Europe
must have wheat. When we offer Eu-
rope twice as much wheat as she wants,
however. Europe can fix the price. But
when Europe needs twice as much wheat
as we send her we can fix the price.
But look at the other side. If we ad-
here to the policy of free trade we shall
continue to pay less and less wages to
the American wOrkingman. His con-
sumption of cereals. therefore. will di-
minish steadily. Each year there will
he Il bigger surplus of cereals. and so
the price of wheat and other grains must
fall still lower. And added to this de-
structive operation of free trade there
will he free silver. Small as free trade
makes the gross value of wages now
paid. free silver would make it still
smaller. The Wagc-earner who now gets
81 Il day may get too little-that is the
result of free trade-but his dollar will
buy a dollars worth OF -four. Free sill
yer would cut down the value of that
dollar one-half. He then could buy in
the home market only onc-half Of what
he now buys. That will reduce the de
mand for cereals among wage-earners by
Just that much. The farmer will suffer
just as much as the wagc-earner-tho
Wage-earner because he cannot buy. the
farmer because he cannot sell.
The houn IF rho \nnri.pn fnrnor *
the home market. The backbone of the
home market is the American wage
Garner. The farmer cannot exist without
the Wage-earner: the wage-earner's life
depends on protection. In protection only
is the salvation of the American wage
Garner and the American farmer.-New
York Press.