The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1896-08-29
TO CUT DOWN WAGES.


j
~ Payias the workingman In Cheap
Silver DoliarA
Ex-Gov. Horace Boies, of Iowa, Is
lranker than his fellow silverites, who
pretend that their 50-cent-dollar scheme
J would benefit the working classes. In
a recent interview he says:
II have myself in this state two farms,
paid for largely with money have
earned as a lawyer. One is a farm Of
P,s00 acres of land, and the other con-
tains 1000 acres. With the present
price of labor and the present price paid
for farm products, no man in the world
could take either of these farms, even IL
I should present him with the ground.
and make dollar out OF it. mean, Of
course, that he could not equip the
farm and pay interest on the money
invested in the equipment and wages
for labor out of the income he would
get by selling the products. A farmer
who works himself and is assisted by
the labor of sons and daughters
could make small farm pay. But
70 farm is profitable when conducted
ON the basis of a manufacturing bust
ness. Cheap and abundant money is
the only remedy for this intolerable
state of things"
This Is a candid admission that he
thinks that wages are now too high, and
that in some way free silver will give
the farmers cheaper labor. The mere
fact OF an increase in the price of farm
products would not make farming prof.
table, if, as is claimed by most of the
sixteen to one leaders, wages would be
doubled along with doubled prices of
everything the farmer buys. Mr.. Boies
clearly expects that the result of "cheap
and abundant money" will be the prac-
tical reduction of the price paid for
farm labor. This would no doubt be
a very good thing for a rich man with
$500 acres of land. But what does
the poor laborer think of the scheme
Are the American people ready to vote
for q debased currency which will re-
duce the wages of the workers?
Next in Importance to the confession
that free silver would cnt down wages
is the admission that % farmer who
works himself can make small farm
pay" What kind of farmers does Mr..
Boies expect to see prosper? Men who
have bought up big tracts of land which
they hold out of use in the expectation
of selling it at high price, and in the
meantime are working it with hired
labor? That is not the kind of farmers
which Americans wish to see thrive.
| The man who owns and works his own
land is the ideal farmer of this country.
The big estate with its gangs" of hired
men may do while new territories are
being opened up, but the welfare of the
republic depends on the men who Guilt
vate the soil owning the land they till.
If ex-Gov. Boies thinks himself entitled
to an income from his land without
working it himself, he is very much
mistaken. No farmer should prosper
who simply Gowns land" and expects to
make profit out of other mems labor.
| That under free silver q few men could
use cheap money to speculate in land
and get rich out of the toll of the under
paid laborers is the very best reason
| why the masses should vote against it.
| Gov. Roies admits that the farmer
who works can make his farm pay. But
In another part of the name interview he
says that farms bought 20 or Is years
ago cannot be made to pay interest on
their cost. This is a strong argument
against cheap money, for it was the
geeenback imitation of the war period
which put the price of land SO high
that the men who bought farms have
been struggling ever since to pay for
them. The heavy mortgages, with
SO many farmers, have their origin in
the higl speculative price of land
caused by the cheap money craze of the
last generation. Free coinage would re-
| peat the evils brought about by the
overissues of greenbacks, end while not
helping the present owners of farms
would benefit spectators and make it
harder for the millions of landless and
homeless men to get piece of land on
| which to make living,
Mr.. Boies Is evidently a sincere man
and is advocating free silver with the
Idea that it win help men, like himself
who own big tracts of land. But as the
only results of that policy would be the
reputation of debts, the reduction Of
wages and the enrichment Of the men
who speculate in land but do not work
themselves, he is not safe guide for
honest citizens.-Whidden Graham.
| Small Boat. Big whistle.