Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1896-02-08
PLOT AGAINST LABOR.
Free Silver Senators Scheme Against
American Workmen.


American workmcn.
"The republican silver senator's"
backed by the democratic silverite sem
ators, are reported to have signed a
declaration to the effect that the in
dustrial prosperity of the United States
is threatened by China and Japan as
result of the decrease inNthe value of
silver and the difference in the value of
exchange between silver and gold using
countries. Therefore they favor "the
free and unlimited coinage of silver at
a ratio of sixteen to one for the purpose
of obliterating this difference of ex-
change"
This is plausible way of stating
their case to ignorant people, but the
scheme is full of mischief for the
American workmen. In all the bullion
markets of the world one ounce of gold
is rated as being worth about 81 ounces
of silver. 1t has not been worth much
less than that any day in several years
rast, and at times single ounce of
gold would have purchased more than
32 ounces of silver. This, the CONNER
cial ratio has obtained in all countries
in the world, whether they be on the
silver basis or not. The merchants of
Mexico and British India, of China and
Japan, have had to pay for gold at least
81 times it's weight in silver when they
wanted the yellow metal to pay for
foreign goods or meet other interna-
tional Indebtedness, and they could get
~ times it's weight in silver for any
and all gold they might receive in the
course of business. The difference
in exchange" which these free silver
wiseacres profess to be anxious to "ob-
litcrate" represents the difference be-
tween the actual or commercial value
OF silver and the theoretical value
which has been assigned to it by coin
age laws in different countries. That
difference" no more would be oblit-
Grated by the adoption of free silver
coinage than the distance of the earth
from the sun could be changed by an
act of congress to make the distance
seem twice as great by enacting that
| hereafter the miles shall consist of $50
| yards instead of 1,760. They might
| Just as well demand that 16 ounces of
copper shall be equal in value to one
ounce of gold as to insist upon that as
the ratio between silver and gold.
The difference of exchange" they
want to "obliterate" is the higher pur-
chasing power of the wages of Amer
| lean workers due to the fact that they
are paid on the gold basis instead OF
in as many half-worth dollars as they
now receive full-worth dollars. The
destruction of that higher purchasing
power is the only way in which the
adoption of "free coinage at sixteen
to one" could help the employers to
sell their goods in competition with
those turned out by the low-pricc6
labor of China and Japan, and these
fellows know it. Hence they delib.
erately are counting on the change to
depress the value of all American la
Dor by about so per cent: this to bs
accomplished by cutting the buying
without any increase in the number o,
dollars paid to the toilers per weel
or month. This is nothing short of dia
bolical, but one might think that ever
the arch fiend would hesitate at the con
summate impudence of the silver mon
ometallists in expecting the working
men of the United Staes to vote fo,
the carrying out of the scheme de
signed to work their own ruin. Com
paratively few of the toilers seem t.
be aware of the important fact that tn
free silver monometallists are calculat
ing on the buying power of the dolla
being decreased one-half without an
nominal increase in the wages paic
the result of this to the toiling masse
being substantially the same as if the
should have their wages cut down one
half without any change in the buyin
power of the dollar. The workers ough
to be informed thoroughly in regar
to this between this and next Novem
: ber-Chicapo Tribune.