Omaha daily bee., 1896-07-05
EFFECTS OF FREE COINAGE
Prominent Wyoming Farmer Cannot Sec
Any Profit in 1t.
SIMPLY HELPS OUT THE MINE OWNERS
Present Campaign Likely to See n
shifting of Party Lines In His
stnt"-sound Money Democrats
VIII Not Vote for Free silver.

one of the most prominent farmers OF that
state. where he has resided for the past
fifteen years. Concerning the political out
look in that state he says:
There are many democrats in Wyoming
who will vote the republican ticket and
some republicans who will vote the popu-
list ticket, but 1t seems to me that we
have got very easy campaign to fight.
1t depends not on theory-we don't talk
theory-but on the actual facts of history
for the last twenty-five years. All the
populist leaders in Wyoming state that,
and it is a common claim that there has
been contraction of the currency. We
all know that there has been no contrac-
tion, but that there has been an expan-
sion for the last thirty years. The claim
is that the republican party favors gold
monometallsm. The republican party ccr-
tainly favors bimetallsm. We are the BIZ
metallic nation of the world. There is in
concurrent circulation as much silver as
gold in the United States today; about 50
per capita in silver, about 50 per capita in
gold, and about 81 in paper Now, Tel
ler's bimetalism would be simply silver
circulation and no gold-would be silver
monometallism. Mexico is silver coun-
try, but it has a monometallic currency;
there is no gold in circulation there.
MEASURED BY HUMAN LABOR.
Gold itself can only be measured by hu-
man labor 1t is capable of demonstration
that less hours of labor would purchase a
dollar in gold in 1890 than 1t would in 1850,
or 1850 or 1910. The real facts are that 1t
took an average laborer in the United States
in 1910 eleven and four-tenths hours to buy
a gold dollar by labor; in 1850 1t took ten
and eight-tenths hours; in 1860 ten hours,
and in 1890 1t took six hours to buy gold
IA11n r1n ,t,Nnr hat hne IAn nnin tod
We would naturally expect that the pro-
duction of gold would decrease. The out
put has increased. 1t has almost doubled
in the last twenty-five years, while silver
has doubled nearly twice. Silver has de-
preciated greatly account of increased
production and reduced cost of production.
1t is a common belief among the silver men
among us that the output of silver has been
curtailed on account of legislative action.
But 1t has not. These are questions of
fact and facts can be demonstrated 1t
seems to me that we ought to be able to
carry conviction in cases of that kind where
it depends on historical facts and not on
theories. Certainly if the democratic con-
ventiOn declares for free silver and puts up
a free silver candidate, there is going to be
a great obliteration of party lines. Honest
money democrats are not going to vote the
democratic ticket and free silver republicans
are not going to vote the republican ticket
If they remain in their present state of
mind. Under those circumstances, it seems
to me, that with u.s. and perhaps in other
states, it would be advisable to have hon
est money clubs'-non- partisan clubs where
the issue between honest money and de-
preciated currency could be met and dis
cussed.
LABORER THE SUFFERER.
There is another point that is constantly
brought forward-that it is to the interest
of the workingman to have a cheaper dol
lar. While it is admitted that those who
have a fixed salary will suffer- yet the
laboring man Will be benefited by having
the purchasing power of the dollar less
ened, and a consequent rise in prices in
proportion to the lessening of the purchas-
ing power of a dollar. But every labor
ing man practically has fixed salary. Any
union laboring man will tell you immedi-
ately that their scale of wages is fixed by
the union. Ask him to work for less than
that and he will strike rather than DO it,
Ask him why they don't get more and he
will say they are getting about all they
can get. They would get more if they
could. The man who is receiving on a fixed
scale of wages 81 per day would hardly
be benefited by decrease in the purchas-
ing power of his 81, unless he expects he
can obtain an increase in his daily pay
equal to it. l do not think he would care
to go into fight, for instance, to double
the scale of wages Altgeld says that we
are using a 2OO-cent dollar and that we
need a 1OO-cent dollar. That is, that the
purchasing power of the dollar we want
will be one-half much as the one we
now have. Does the laboring man think
that he can succeed Immediately in doubl-
ing his wages? If he does he will then
be just where he is now. If there is any
time lost in doubling the wages after he
commences to receive the cheap dollar and
pay the increased price for whatever he
purchases with it, then he is a loser. We
all know that it will take a long time to
double wages, while the doubling process
on almost everything that we have to pur-
chase will take place at once. The com
mon necessary articles of life like sugar
clothing, the staple goods, would all ad-
vance at once in proportion to the depre-
ciation of the dollar. Otherwise it would
not be cheaper dollar.
Il asked farmer who was a very strong
free silver man If he was in favor of cheap
dollar. He said he was; that he wanted
a dollar that would give him 81 bushe
for his wheat | suggested to him that he
probably would not get but six pounds of
sugar for a dollar, and he said No, sir;
want twenty pounds of sugar for dol
lar He evidently knew what he wanted
He wanted dollar that when he took it
in was 81, and when he paid it out he
could pay 1t out as 81.
1T is stated, and l suppose there Is no
doubt of it, that the mine owners of Butte
have raised $4,000 and sent twenty-five
to confer with the labor unions to advocate
the free coinage of silver, giving them the
privilege of drawing 81 900 apiece for eX-
penses. That is the report at Butte, and |
see that the Chicago papers speak of these
men being there now and comforting with
the labor unions 1t is certainly to the in
terest of the mine owner that he be per-
mitted to pay his laborers In cheaper dol
lar. The union scale of wages for silver
miners at present is SO per day, There is
now a strike among the miners at Leadville
on account of an attempt to cut the wages
below this point. The men have refused to
accept lower wages Now the Butte mine
owners propose to reach It in a different
way. They propose to get a law enacted
that will allow them to pay their miners in
nominal dollar of the value of 412k
grains of silver bullion, which may be worth
at present anywhere from 55 cents to co
cents. You can see that it would be i'm
portant saving to the employer to be al
lowed to pay in nominal dollars, which will
cost him something less than 60 cents
apiece. He would not have to interfere
with the wage scale OF the union. He could
pay the nominal scale OF So q day and be
paying something less than 81, and where
a thousand or more men are employed the
saving would Justify him in putting up
as that brought into effect"
Omaha to Chicago for S;25. Tickets on
sale July 4. and 6 at Milwaukee ticket
Office 1904 Farnam street