Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1896-09-25
The Effect Of fine Single Gold Stand
ard Upon Farm or morgan
lied Labor.

lieu LABOR.
Bourke Cochran said, at Madison
Square Garden, that IA days work
was the unit of value" 1 will take
that for my text and ask you how
does 1T fare under the single gold
standard? / mean the labor that fol-
lows the long burrows of the pillow
that scatters the seed, that cultivates
the soil. and gathers the harvest. 1
mean the labor that rises with the
sun and works till the going down
thereof. / mean over one-half of the
labor of this great country, not hire
ling labor at $50 per month or $50, :
600 per year, but that labor of free
holders that goes forth bearing
precious seed, and will doubtless re-
turn again bearing its sheaves with
it, trusting it's all to the God of the
harvest. l mean that labor upon
which all depend. mean that labor
which if injured all are mi ured;
which if prosperous all are pros per-
Gus. and which if destroyed, would
be the destruction of all values and
all wealth, for wealth is only name
for accumulated labor.
l say, how has that labor, upon
which the whole world depends for
existence, Jared at the hands of a
single gold standard? That highest
form of labor depends upon the
prices of its products for its life, its
wages and it's surplus.
Hireling labor may be temporarily
benefited by low prices, caused by
an approaching dollar; it may speak
boastfully of the almighty dollar; it
may array itself against that labor
whose very existence depends upon
the prices of what it grows and
makes.
What has been the effect of the
gold standard upon this labor. AS
the farmer of the great Northwest
who has held last years crop for a
renumerative market and is obliged
to sell both crops Gf sale is made) at
less than half the cost of production?
How much per day has the farmer in
the present sale pric e. ?-Wheat at
point of production? How much per
day has the farmer in the present
sale prices?-Wheat at point of pro-
dnction, IS to 40 cents; corn 10 to Is
cents; oats to Is censs;' beef / to 8
cents, and other products in
proportion.
The labor upon which all depend is
battling for life at 10 to Is cents a
day, the last census figures show but
safer and surer still you farmers know
it by to-day's prices. How much
have you for wages in to-days prices,
all under the single gold standard,
and as my republican friends used to
say, with the best banking system
the world ever saw"
He who antagonizes this labor, an
tagonlzes the source of all wealth and
his very existence. 1t were we'll, in
this connection, to ask what makes
price? Price is said by political
economists to be the ratio between
supply and demand. And there is
always double ratio-supply and
demand of products on one hand,
and supply and demand of money on
the other. Price is not positive, but
only relative. Any variation in the
supply and demand, on either side,
changes prices. The majority report
of the Monetary Commission (see
Encyclopedia under that head) was
that gold auctuated most, silver less,
and that the double standard-g gold
and silver-huctuated least; that for
over eighty years the average fluctua-
ton was less than II per cent. If
prices are made by supply and
demand, who should control the
supply of money ?-the people, or
class of the people? Who should
coin metals aud issue paper?-the
governmeDtGhe people, or class?
If silver mining is made profitable, so
is gold, and mining is free for all.
The more mines the more farmers to
feed and clothe them; and everybody
lives off the farmer. The remedy
then Is plnin. Vote for Bry n and
Sewall, 1G to 1, silver and gold, always
remembering that low prices, caused
by over-productlon, are blessing;
but low prices, caused by scarcity
OF money, are curse. And also,
that you can't have too much good
money; that money is never plenty
as it should be, until it seeks business
instead of interest; nor until you can
borrow it at the same rate as all
other property increases in the
United States, 3 to per cent. Vote,
as the Irishnan said, for Bryan and
Sewall and 1G to /, or for Mckinley
and Hobart and have nothing COZ to
ate 90.
Mark Hanna and most republicans,
driven from the single gold standard
by unanswerab!e logic, out-Herod
lierod by claiming to be smon=pure
bi metalsts, For the peoples benefit
| will give the definition Of
BI-MltTALISM,
In the late Encyclopedia Dictionary
page 3l12, under the heading
"Metalicii" "The legal obligation of
q national mint to coin both gold and
silver at fixed ratio between the