Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1896-10-02
FOR FREE COINAGE.
HOW 1T WILL BENEFIT THE
WORKING MAN.
labor Not Receiving One Half ~ Much
in the United states Today a. II
Would Under Free CoinaEe-SInEls
Standard Means SsrfdOm.

II prices of commodities are cheap
they cannot be produced with dear la
Dor. But 1t is said that wages in some
Of the manufacturing and railroad in
dustries Of the country are as high
to-day as ever. This is not true. But
suppose 1t we're true; 1t would not
answer the question. The trades
unions have been remarkably success
full in resisting reduction of wages, but
they have utterly failed in keeping the
people employed. There are at least
three millions of willing hands which
are now idle in the United States.
Those who have employment are either
working on short hours or short days
in the week, so that the aggregate paid
in the manufacturing and railroad in
dustries to labor is certainly less than
one-half the amount that would be paid
to labor IL prices were firm, so that
enterprise could prosper. II falling
prices continue it is only question of
time when wages of labor must come
down to correspond with other things.
This is not all. 0ne-half at least of
the labor in the United States is ex-
pended on farms, which has paid the
farmers nothing in the last twenty
three years. Their farms are not
worth so cents on the dollar what they
were when silver was demonetized, and
they are still declining. Farm products
have so declined that they are on an
average below the cost Of production.
The people have borrowed money
to pay taxes and other necessary ex-
penses until the farms are mortgaged
and tenant farmers are increasing in
a geometrical ratio, and it is only a
question of a short time if prices con-
tinue to fall when Independent farm
ers must disappear, and the peasant
system of Europe must be established
here. We assert without fear of contra
diction that labor is not receiving one
half as much in the United States to-
day as it would under free coinage.
We admit that an individual who has
a job that will last him for life, of
which he cannot be deprived by his
employer or by the bankruptcy of the
concern for which he works, can buy
more with his dollar than he could IL
silver was remonetized and prices
should regain their normal condition.
But If he Is a humane man, and con-
tributes his money to the suffering peo-
pie about him, he will find that what
he receives will do him and his family
less good than it would If the country
was prosperous and the great mass of
labor was employed. We know that
thu goldites appeal to laboring men
who have job and tell them they can
buy more with their money than they
could if prices were restored and the
generally were allowed to
prosper, but they do not call attention
to the millions out of employment and
the growing army of tramps or the
farmers, who are being
driven from their homes. In short, they
fail to call attention to the fact that
civilization is decaying on account of
the increasing purchasing power of
They do not suggest to the
laborers that the fate which has be-
fallen others will certainly overtake
them, that want of employment will
drive them into the ranks of the tramps
or the unemployed. They do not ap-
peal to labor in good faith. They at
tempt to appeal to the prejudices of the
men for the benefit of one
hundred and fifty thousand millions Of
obligations which they hold against
labor. In other words, they appeal to
the laboring men to vot to increase
the value Of money, decrease the value
Of property and labor, and enslave man
kind. Contraction WI .ch produces fall
ing prices If continued will bring the
same result it always has. Serfdom and
slavery is the inevitable fate of the
American people if they do not join the
forces of reform and rebel against
goldocracy.-Silver Knight.