The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1896-08-13
Wages per diem.
Average, according
to Importance, for
all occupations, 1860
being reckoned as

100. ............. ST. 92.7 100 1885
There are in almost every community men
who worked by the day before the war. Any
young workingman who Is at all taken by the
glowing promises of the free silverites would
do well to ask one of these old gentlemen how
much he really was paid In those "bimetallic"
days and how much he could buy with his daily
pay n the way o. ne zee. and comforts
workingmen has vastly improved since the
days when we had free coinage of silver. 1t
has been shown, also, that opening our mint
to coinage Of silver on private account would
this affect wages and the men who earn themf
Every man who earns his daily bread by his
daily toll owes 1t to himself and those whom
he holds dear to think this over carefully.
Any man who will examine daily quotations
of prices as reported in the newspapers will
soon discover that they change from day to
day and sometimes change very greatly in the
course OF a month. But every man who earns
wages is familiar with the fact that they
change slowly, an increase Of 10 per cent in q
year being quite gain. Prices change quick
ly: wages change slowly.
Now let us grant what the advocates of free
silver claim-that going to the silver basis
would ''double the prices Of commodities.
Does any workingman believe that wages
would be doubled tooi Even II they SHOULD
be. how much would the wage Garner profit
by the change? No intelligent workingman
believes for a minute that his wages would be
increased by more than small per cent-that
is while his wages might be nominally in
creased somewhat the prices Of tho things he
has to buy would be increased very much
more. So the real purchasing power of day .
work would be greatly diminished: All expe-
rience shows that any debasement in the mon.
farther than it does wages. This might infiu-
ence some employers to consider the propriety
OF debasing our currency, but 1t IS precisely
the reason why workingmen should oppose it.
So far as workingmen are concerned the
whole silver question is to be summed up in
one query, Do you want your wages cut DOWN.
II so, vote for the free coinage OF silver.
Would Not Help the Farmer.
What inducements do the silver producers
hold out to the farmers to get them to cooper
ate in this scheme? They promise the farmers
higher prices for their products. Tho sensible
question which every thoughtful farmer will
naturally ask is. Could they and would they
keep their proInise2 Let US see what the
They claim that "silver would increase in
value and would carry with it the prices OF
farm products"
To say that there is any relation between
the price OF metal dug out OF our western
hills depending for its value upon conditions
peculiar to itself and the price OF any Of the
vegetable products of our fields leach Of which
depends for its value upon set of conditions
peculiar to itself)-to tell men that there Is
tny relation between the prices of things Sc
different in their nature and uses. is to insult
the intelligence Of those who are addressed.
but looking W ~ from unOtner StanupOlnt,
Jet us see what the probabilities are that the
promise could DC kept.
One would think to hear these gentlemen
talk that silver production is one of the over
shadowing Industries of this country. Let US
make n few comparisons.
The total value Of the silver product Of the
United States in 1882, even when reckoned n
the price before ls73 was sea, l0l, coo, and this
was the greatest yield in the history of our sill
yer production Mint Report. page 2i2)
According to the Statistical Abstract, pa gt
81, the farm value of the cotton crop of this
country in 1871 was Sra,Q. 000oO0: that Of tbs
wheat crop was, in round numbers, $50,
&C, and that of the corn crop was over SSJo
4 OO9,Io9. The value OF our corn crop alone wa.
ten times the value of the silver crop Of THU