The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1896-07-22

| CHASING ROVER OF wages SUCH baS oeeh
the Experience with Deprecated Silver
In Chile, Japan and Mexico and With
our Deprecated Currency Would Rob
worklngmen OF Billions of Dollars Do
posted In Savings Banks and building
and Loan Associations and Invested In
Insurance Policies.
We reprint below in full Secretary Carlisle's
clear, forciblo and unanswerable speech 20 the
labor organizations of Chicago, at the Audito'
/ rum, ON April 10:
| Mr. PRESIDENT AND G ESE ydEs- I am here
| this evening in Response g. a communication
| received several months ago from 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 We're
| then and are still agitating the minds OF our
| people in all parts Of the country, When that
| communication reached me, il was not in my
power TO designate time when my official
| duties would permit me To come here, but
| promised Co hold the matter under considera-
ton and come whenever IL might be possible
| TO do so, and now congratulate myself upon
my good fortune in having at last found an
opportunity 10 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 oarners in this or
any other country.
The Wage Farmers Interest In Good Money.
Whether the general business of the people
shall DO transacted with good money or bad
money, whether the wages Of labor shall be
paid in a sound aud stable currency, with full
purchasing power in the markets whore they
are exchanged for the nocessarios of life, or in
"A deprecated and fluctuating currency, hav-
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 IL 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, il 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 be
subjected TO much loss and Inconvenience,
neither he nor his family will be pinched by
hunger or compelled TO 30 without raiment or
shelter.
1t is the poor man and the man OF moderate
means-the man who has not been fortunate
enough to accumulate 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 il results from deprecated and fluc-
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
his family but his wages or the proceeds of
his own labor and any policy that even tenn
porarily suspends or obstructs the industrial
demand for the products of Labor, or by inn
pairing the capacity or disposition of capital
TO employ labor must be injurious to his in
terests and inilict more or less suffering upon
all who are dependent upon him. Labor can
not be boarded; tho idle day is gone forever:
lost wages are mover 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 IA 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
dustrial enterprises. He cannot prosper when
the country Is in distress. when its industries
are Frustrated, it commerce 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
which his wages are paid or estimate In ad-
vance the cost OF the necessaries of life.
Whether we shall or shall not have n 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
quatcly 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 /, OF, in
other words, that tho United States alone shall
declare by law that IL ounces Of silver are
equal in value to | ounce of gold when it is
an indisputable fact everywhere recognized
that In all the markets OF the world. in silver
standard countries as well as in gold standard
countries, 10 ounces of silver are worth only
about onc-half much as | ounce Of gold
and will purchase only about one-half 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
lars containing &l14 grains Of pure silver, or
4l219 grains of standard silver worth intrin-
scally about 81 or So cents, deliver the coins
to the depositors of the bullion and compel all
the other people in the country to receive
these coins ut 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
ows and children, for losses sustained under
policies issued by life and other insurance
companies, for deposits in savings banks, trust
companies, building associations and other in
situations, for debts due to widows and orphans
by guardians, executors and administrators Of
decodents, estates and other trustees for sala.
RIGS OF all civil, military and naval officials
and the compensation Of private soldiers and
seamen, and, in short, for every kind of obi
CATION recognized by the laws of the land, ex-
cept only In eases where the prudent capitalist
has taken the Drecaution in advance to con
tract for payment of debts due him in gold or
its equivalent.
To say nothing of the gross partially and
manifest injustice of such policy, its imme-
date effect would be to contract our currency
to the extent of about $500 0OO, 600 by stopping
the use OF gold as money and putting a pre-.
MUM upon the coins Of that metal equal, or
about equal, TO the difference between the in.
trinsc value Of the gold dollar and the intrn.
sic value OF the silver dollar. Gold coins would
at once become n commodity and would be-
bought and sold by spectators in the market
Just as they were during the war, when we
had depreciated paper currency. Tho value
OF the silver dollar would nuctuate from day
to day, moving up and down with the rise and
fall Of the commercial price Of the bullion con
tanned in 1t, as the Mexican dollar does now
and the premium on the gold dollar Womb %,
course 1uctuate To the same extent TINS AZ
iording an opportunity TO bullion brokers ana
speculators to buy and sell 10 at n profit n
would cease to be used as money because No
mnn Nnnll M l.l.t L.. w