The River Falls times. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1894-1933, 1896-10-27
WAGES TO COME DOW
RESULT If M'KINLEY SHOULD
BE ELECTED.
If the Gold Standard Is to Become Per
manent Wages Will Decline Along
With Everything EIse-The Pros of
Business Already Gone.

Chicago, Oct 81, Especially
The most sweeping and disastrous re-
duction Of wages in the history Of
American industry will follow the
presidential election, if the gold stand
ard is finally hoisted upon the nation.
Wage-earners are warned in ad-
vance, and if they fail to heed and gov
ern themselves accordingly it is their
own fault
If Mr.. Mckinley is elected there will
be a reduction in wages in all the great
factories and mills of the country.
Were it not for the certainty that a
general reduction in wages would bury
Mr.. Mckinley under an avalanche of
votes, wages would have been reduced
two months ago. By almost superhu-
man energy Mark Hanna and the re-
publican managers have averted the
reduction except in few unimportant
instances. The great trusts, with their
billions of money and their millions
of employees have bene federated into
a campaign machine, and have acted
in concert. They have done so at an
enormous sacrifice in profits. Many
great corporations have been running
at an actual loss and the banks have
been called on for support, until the
strain threatened a panic.
But it was life or death. To shut
down was fatal admission. To reduce
al dol 1o Il
were encouraged financially and they
are now entering on what they pro-
pose shall be the last month of the
present wage scale.
If Mr. Mckinley is elected, the po-
grow eloquent in description of the
good times of 1896" They will de-
scribe how in the fall of 1893 the great
factories were running on full time;
how every man who desired work
could find it; how the tramp became
rarity and how the smoke from a thou
sand factory shafts blackened the sky
and the hum of industry made CAD
music in the land
There is not a well-posted man in
Chicago, New York, Philadelphia,
Pittsburg or any other manufacturing
center who does not know that there
will be a general reduction in wages
put into effect the Gay after Mckinley
is elected.
This is so self-evident that it re-
Qutres no written or verbal proof By
every act, by every move, by the col
umns Of the great daily newspapers,
they have proclaimed the coming re-
duction in wages in terms so plain that
every man with common intelligence
can read between the lines.
The United States has been on an
absolute gold basis since the repeal of
the Sherman act, which repeal was in
1893. Since that time there has been
a steady and relentless reduction in
prices and consequently in profits
Wages have been reduced somewhat
but in no proportion as compared with
the decline in. selling price of all forms
of gold. Real estate has declined, rents
have fallen, manufactured goods have
decreased in selling price; thousands
of articles of manufacture and Of COM
mon use have dropped slowly but sure
ly in the price scale Look at your
stock reports. Compare the listed
value of railroad stocks with the quo
tations of a year ago. Pick UP your
paper and compare the quotations on
the great industrial stocks with the
figures of year or two ago They tell
the same story; the story of a steady
decline in values with decreased earn
ings for capital
Capital and not labor has been the
sufferer from the condition of affairs.
By labor is meant employed labor. By
copital is meant money employed in
business or manufactures Capital
hesitates long before making wage
reduction. Capital respects the great
labor organizations which stand like a
rock in defense Of prevailing wages.
Capital knows the cost of a greas
strike, and carefully considers the CON
sequences before precipitating a wage
war. AS result organized labor is the
last to suffer from steadily falling
prices, and the wages of unorganized
labor are fixed by the relative prosper
ity of the trade unions.
Can any one deny these statements
and prove their falsity? Are they not