Evening star., 1896-10-31
SHYLOCK W0RKMEN
Cutting Off the Nose in Order to Spite
the Face.
DOWNWIFH THEEIGHTH COMMANDMENT
Proposed Silver independence
Means a Chinese Isolation.
OUR COUNTRY'S GREATNESS

The creditor Shylocks. marked for finan-
cial destruction In free coinage retaliation
for the crime of 1873. include every one
(millions in the aggregate) who is paid
salary or wages only after service or labor
is performed To the extent to which free
coinage depreciates the dollar in which
wages are paid, to that extent it reduces
wages. although they still remain nominally
at the same figure. Let us assume that
free coinage would, many of it's advo-
Gates assert, raise the price of all commod-
tiles to double their present rate. No
workingman believes that his wages would
be doubled at once. He knows that months
and years Of strikes and lock-outs would
elapse before wages could be raised in due
proportion Cutting wages in half by their
payment in 53-cent dollars might increase
our foreign trade by placing our manufac-
trrers on an equal footing with competitors
mainly In silver countries who have the
advantage of employing cheap labor
American manufacturers would not dare to
propose directly to American workmen this
cut in wages; but if the workmen them
selves clamor to be paid in deprecated
money and the same result of reduction
in wages can be reached through compli-
ance with the workingman's own demand
the thoughtless manufacturer who over
looks the disastrous effect upon his future
adoption Of a deprecated currency might
be well pleased to take the workmen at
their word.
The necessity of paying high wages in
this country in order to keep our people up
to the mark of a higher order of life, de-
velopment and culture than that prevailing
in Japan, China and Mexico, has been the
most serious drawback in American compe-
tit1on with many foreign manufacturers.
Perhaps a temporary seeming business
prosperity might follow II our workingmen
would declare of their own accord that they
are overpaid, that our money is too good
for them, and that they wish to be paid in
the kind Of money, with the same reduced
purchasing power, that satisfies foreign
cheap labor. But If any American working
men are prepared for this act of self-sacri-
flee, why go at 1t In roundabout way by
debasing the national currency-a procedure
which will swindle thousands of innocent
third persons who are SO unfortunate as to
be creditors, and work general panic and
disaster? Why not move directly to the
point and announce q willingness to have
their wages reduced one-half without any
tampering with the nations money and
the national honor?
Cutting on the Nose to Spite the Face.
The individual who cut off his nose to
spite his face Is as Solomon in wisdom in
comparison with the workman who, in re-
sponse to the demagogue's appeal to spite
the moneyed cla.'ses. cuts the purchasing
self merely with the privilege Of fighting
for proportionate increase to make mat
terS even again.
AS the farmer is invited to raise at his
own expense as taxpayer the price of sill
yer, which he does not produce, In the
hope that in some way he will thereby
also raise the prices OF what he does pro-
duce, so the laborer is invited to legaIize
half wages for himself now in the hope
that his employer. whom Mr.. Bryan is
teaching him to hate as his natural enemy
will philanthropically double wages in the
future in order to make him as prosperous
as he was before.
Dcfrauding the Republics Preservcrs.
Another group of creditors who are to
be swindled out of one-half Of their dues
by a b0-cent dollar are pensioners and
holders Of certain government bonds the
obligations to whom on the part of this
republic are based upon blood shed, danger
incurred, sufferings endured and money
advanced in order to save the Union. 1t
is now proposed that a grateful nation
shall show its appreciation of these serv-
ices by dishonorable reputation of one
half of the obligations incurred in the
struggle to preserve the nations life.
We are invited to revive in 1896 the spirit
of 1776 ard to declare our independence of
the financial tyranny Of England. The
vital facts of the proposed independence
are silver monometallism like that OF
Mexico our national financial system,
ana the payment OF 1UO-Cent debts 5O-
cent dollars.
We are invited to declare not self-re-
specting independence, but Chinese or Mex
lean isolation. We do not want to be iso-
lated. We wish to be in touch with the
rest Of the world. The American spirit is
a conquering. absorbing, dominating spirit,
Eot that of the surly hermit who shrinks
from everybody in the recesses of his
cave. We can hold our own with all the
world. We want the best of every thing
in the world. We want to profit by the
worlds experience in all respects and
build to higher levels Of civilization upon
that experience as a foundation. We want
the best lar guage, English, the coming Ian
guage of the globe. Who cares that 1t
came to us from England and who pro-
poses that we declare new independence
of Great Britain, discard the English Ian
guage and restore Choctaw as a dis
tinctively American tongue to the proud
position which it occupied on this con-
tinent prior to the time when it was struck
down by European immigration. We want
the best money in all the world In order
to make domestic and foreign exchanges
and we will not, merely because England
uses 1t, discard gold, the worlds money,
and substitute either the Asiatic and
South American money. silver, or our own
North American vampum.
Independence of the Ten Command
ments.
Our proposed isolation will be that of the
outcast, for 1t will flow from reputation of
part Of our national debt. We declare cur
independence not Of the DEGREES of Lombard
and Wall streets, but Of the Ten Command
ments. Our defiance is leveled not Mt Brit
ish financial tyranny and the Rothschilds.
but at the God of nations who declares to
governments as to individuals, Thou shalt
not steal"
The free coinage pronunciamento is not a
declaration of independence, but with its as
sociat ed issues in this campaign is rather a
PROCLAMATION of civil strife. The Chicago
and St. Louis coalitionists run up the ban
ner Of reputation, sectionalism and internal
dissension. Their campaign arrays class
against class section against section. and
appeals to the basest passions of the indi
vidual.
The American republic toward which de-
PRESSED but aspiring humanity in every
quarter Of the globe has turned for insptra
tion, is in this struggle, subjected to a test
of its right to live. Has the national con-
science become corrupted? Are the peonie
rent by passion and faction, class hatreds
sectional rancor and Individual envy. greed
and malice, to confess themselves unit To
govern themselves?
The lessons which America has taueht
| mankind are the capacity Of the people for
self-government, the dignity of labor and
the true greatness Of nations, not merely In
proclaiming peace and good will, within h.