The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-10-16
Timely Thoughts
for Mage-Earners
From the Indianapolis News.

From the Indianapolis News.
1t should be remembered by every man
that works. for wages that In. case Mr.
Bryan is elected there will be no need or
legislation TO put 10 country on a silver
basis. If the fact of his election is not OF
itself sufficient TO do that, all that viii lie
needed will be for his secretary of the
treasury to begin redecmins' Sreenbacks
and treasury notes in silver. When that
policy is begun gold will Immediately go
TO premium, and the silver dollar VIII
begin to depreciate. What this Will mean
for the wage-earners ought TO be clear TO
any sensible man. There can be no doubt
of the depreciation of the silver dollar.
That is the result which Bryan wishes to
bring about. He openly declares that he
means to make prices higher. The man
that now gets s. "A day would still get s.,
but when he came to spend them he would
find that they woul! buy much less of the
necessaries of life than now. There is no
dispute on this point.
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Is the workingman interested in having
prices raised by cheapening his wages"
Does he not feel that he is fortunate when
he can make his wages go as far as posi-
BILE? Even If his wages were nomna!ly
doubled, wOuldshe be any better off with
prices doubled, too? What Mr.. Bryan has
s>ot ~ SiioN - iHil "dStS WIN uuN ahNN
more than prices. Unless they do, the
workingman would gain nothing by free
coinage. If they advanced less than prices
he would be worse off than now. If they
advanced equally with prices he would be
just where he Is now. The two-dollar-a
day man would have four dollars, and he
would have to pay double for his purchas-
es. If they advanced more than prices he
would be the gamer. But no one will
maintain that they will advance more than
prices. Therefore. the result will neces-
sarily be that the workingman Will be
worse off than now, or at most no better
of. Of course the fact is that wages
would not keep pace with prices. 1t is an
easy matter for u merchant to mark up
prices, and for the landlord to raise his
rent. But how are wages raised? In the
first place they cannot be raised at all
unless the conditions of production war;
rant it. When times are good and produc
tion Is large there is always a chance for
an advance in wages. But it can hardly
be expected that policy which even Mr..
Bryan has declared will bring on a panic
will have a stimulating effect on business.
So this point must be kept in mind. Free
silver so far from bringing good times
would bring industrial panic.
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The whole testimony of history is that
under cheap money the workingman al
ways gets the worst of the business. 1t
is easy to see why this must be so. In the
nature of things wages cannot rise pro-
portionately to prices They rise some-
what. but by slow degrees, and it Is rare
ly that they ever get SO high as prices
There Is always margin against the
workingman. He has to sell his labor ev-
cry day. He cannot afford to wait. But
prices move upward almost Immediately
There are many workingmen who under
stand all this perfectly. But some of
them no doubt feel yet, as they did earlier
in the campaign, that in some mysterious
way free silver will benefit the country
at large and help the "masses." So they
are willing to make the sacrifice. 1t should
be known that nothing can be good for the
country which is not good for its toilers
The masses in America are made up Of
tollers What Is good for them is good for
all of us. And II cannt be shown that that
policy Is good for them which proposes to
decrease the purchasing power of the
wages of the workngmen. That such will
be the effect of the Bryan policy is per-
fectly clear.