The San Francisco call., 1896-09-11
WoRKINGMEN OF CALIFORNIA.

The time has come when the working
men Of California should give most care
full and serious study to the issues before
them in this campaign. 1t is folly for any
wage-earner to believe that his own per-
sonal welfare is not concerned in the
result. All the issues of the day are
economic. All of them deal directly with
:he industries of the country and every
industry that pays wages will be affected
by the measures to be carried out by the
next administration. There is no evading
the force of an economic law. No man or
nation can violate such law and prosper.
The Republican and the Democratic par
ties propose economic measures of directly
opposite tendencies. The Republican meas
ures justly bear the title of protection.
They are intended to protect American
industry from the competition of other
countries, ana the value of the American
| dollar from disastrous depreciation.
Democracy proposes to throw down the
barriers of protection, to expose the
American worker to the competition of
Europe and the Orient, and the American
! dollar to whatever fluctuations may come
from the free coinage of silver without
any governmental safeguards whatever.
These directly opposed measures cannot
be equally good. If one tends TO the well
| fare of the county the other must tend to
| its injury. If one guards the interests of
workingmen the other must be to those
interests adverse, hostile, dangerous snd
des structiye.
i The American workingman has not to
judge these measures By theory only. He
has had within the last four years ample
experience in the practical operation of a
| free-trade tariff in sharp contrast with
the operation of protection. We had
during the war an experience with fiuc-
| tuating money as compared with the
steadfast money of to-day. We know how
eager all men were after the war to return
to specie payment. We know how eager
all American producers and employers
are nov to return to protective system.
From these things every intelligent work.
ingman may learn how to vote. Expe-
rience is the teacher of the wise.
| For proper understanding OF the oper-
alton of the economic law of free trade or
| protection the workingman need not
4 study the conditi ons of the whole world,
| nor even those of all the Union. He can
find facts enough to justify a conclusion
! within the limits of his own horizon. He
need not look beyond his own city. He need
| hardly look beyond his own trade. The
| chances are he will find enough in his
own home. Nothing is required of him
but to profit by the lessons OF his indi-
vidual experience.
| We have published in THE CALL inter
views with many workingmen of different
| trades in San Francisco and all have told
the same tale of prosperity under protec-
ton ana disaster under free trade. All
! recognize that the free coinage OF silver
| without the cooperation of other nations
| would lower the purchasing power of
| wages without giving any compensating
| advantages to the wage-earner. These
men have many of them affiliated in
former campaigns with the Democratic
party but they have learned the lesson OF
experience and will vote hereafter for pro-
| lection 10 industry.
In the nature OF things we cannot
publish interviews with all the working
men of the City. They, however, can
| interview one another. They can talk
over together their experiences of the
last four years. They can learn from
one another how the economic force
Ol Iiee tI@ue LAS "oIAeu oh Tie Auuusuy
OF San Francisco and the wage-earnIng
power of its men and women. They can
see what effect has been wrought in the
shop and in the home, and as the past is
always the best lamp to light the future
they can see by what has been what will
! be in San Francisco when it has been de-
! cided whether for the next four years we
| shall continue present conditions or return
to protection and prosperity.