The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1896-09-24

press, OF COURSE, hardest upon those VINO are
compelled to buy most In proportion to their
income or their earnings. And who are theyf
The poor people. What rich family spends
upon the actual necessaries Of life, the indis-
pensable food. clothing and shelter, Is very
little compared with its income. Most of its
expenditures go for things that are not neces'
saries and may be classed as luxuries, the pur-
chasing of which may BIO suspended or post
poned without hardship But the poor family,
the wage earner's family, is obliged to spend
o very large part Of it's income from day to day
upon food. clothing, shelter, heat and light
Without witt Hardship. From a rise In the prices
of the necessaries of life the poor people there
fore suffer by far the most
Where the Wage Garner VIII Come In.
How stands the case Of the wage earners
whose product can be raised in price proper
tionate to the debasement of the dollar2 As
the dollar falls in value the manufacturer or
the merchant marks up his goods. The work
ingman or the clerk finding himself hard
pressed by the rise In price of the necessaries
Of life applies for q corresponding increase
Of wages. The head Of the factory or the
mercan tile establishment admits that some in
crease is called for. "But," says he, "you are
not the only person In trouble. The value of
our money is fuctuating. We hardly know
what 1t is today. We surely do not know what
IL will be next week. Profits are excessively
close anyhow. We make sale or a purchase
today and think it is at g profit. Tomorrow
we may find that 1t was at loss. We hardly
venture to make a contract to be filed at
future time, because we can make no safe cal
culations. We can increase your wages a lit
tie, but not much. For that you will have to
wait until things are more settled. Besides,
this silver free coinage has thrown all bust
ness into dreadful confusion, and there are
nl6ntV of neOnl6 ont of amnlOymapt WI n
would do your work for less than you get
now" And SO the wage Garner has to be sat
isfed with a little increase of pay and wait for
more while the advanced prices Of necessaries
prey upon him.
Is this mere conjecturep 1t is the experience
Of every country that has been cursed by
rise of prices through money of fuctuating
value. defy any one to show mo in the whole
history OF the world a single exception. Have
we not, during our civil war, witnessed it with
our own eyesa In 1862, when our irredeemable,
paper currency had begun to depreciate, the
average wages of labor rose only per cent,
while average prices rose Is. In 1868, when
wages had risen lOH per cent, average prices
were 40 per cent higher; in 1854 wages had
risen 25A per cent and prices 9015; in 1866
wages had advanced 43 per cent and prices lit
above what wages and prices had been in gold
in 1861 In other words, the laboring mans
wages had lost in purchasing power more than
30 cents in every dollar. Every country Ia
boring under similar conditions tells the same
story. What reason in the world is there to
assume that this universal rule will not oper-
ate in tho case of free coinageP
And what have the apostles Of free silver
coinage to say to this2 Hear Mr.. Bryan him
self in his famous New York grafton, "While
gold standard raises the purchasing power
of the dollar it also makes 1t more difficult to
obtain possession of the dollar--employment
Is less permanent, loss of work more probable
and ra -ar,,n 1asS cartaip - To OH all
Yes, all. Does not Mr.. Bryan know that I'M
der what was practically the gold standard
we had in the f1fties one of the most active
and prosperous periods this country has ever
seen? Does he not know that more recently,
at the time of the return to specie payments,
we had under the gold standard years of sig
nal prosperity with all hands at work. And
does he wish to learn what has been the
trouble since and what is the trouble nowi
Let him ask the employers of labor, and with
almost one voice they will tell him that not
the existing gold standard, but the growing
danger Of it's overthrow that the growing ag
gressiveness Of the free coinage movement,
filling the minds of men with anxious appre
tensions as to dark future uncertainties, has
served to paralyze that spirit of enterprise
which set sets the abofing to work Let him
gold standard, but distrust of silver destroy
ed the confidence that employs labor. This
Is the truth, and Mr.. Bryan will in vain try to
deny it.
Debtor and Creditor.
The free coinage men profess especial solici
tude for those whom they call "the debtor
class" Who are the debtor class? Our silver
friends speak as if, as a rule, the rich people
were creditors and the poor were debtors. Is
this correct2 In my household am the debtor
to the cook and the chambermaid and the
washerwoman two or three weeks in the
month, and they are my creditors. Nor
are they likely to be debtors to anybody else,
while I may be, for they have little if
any credit, while perhaps have some. am
therefore the only debtor in my house.
The relations between the large employer of
labor and the employees are substantially the
same. Ordinarily the employer, the rich man,
is apt to be the only debtor among them
The employees are, as a rule, only creditors,
and as they lay up savings they are apt to be-
come creditors in a larger sense They depos-
it their money in savings banks or invest it in
building associations, in mutual benefit socie-
ties in loan companies or In life insurance
policies and become capitalists In a small
way. The amount deposited by people of
small means in the savings banks Of the United
States is at present something over 81, SOC, 000
900, that invested in building associations
about $500, 000, 90, In mutual benefit societies
$685., 900 200 and in life insurance many hun
dred millions more.
The number Of such creditors belonging to
what our silver friends often call "the toiling
urSStS 10 buSIoAOIC very ldTS0. 1OSttutE
with their dependents it may, for aught we
know, amount to SIS 900, 600 or s20, 0O0, 0O0 Who
are the debtors Of these creditorsP The saw
ings banks had, according to the reports of
1894, loaned out about one-haR Of the money
deposited with them on real estate mortgages
and invested the other half in United States
bonds, state, county and municipal bonds and
railroad and other bonds and stocks. The in
vestments of the life insurance companies
were about proportionately the same. The in
vestments in real estate mortgages are always
preferably in large amounts, on property be-
longing to comparatively wealthy persons or
70 business corporations. Thus the debtors to
these creditors belonging to the toiIing masses
are the United States, states and municipalt-
ties, railroad and other corporations and per-
sons very much richer than the creditors.
Here we have, then, rich debtors owing to
many millions of poor creditors thousands Of
millions Of dollars.
The silver orators pretend that : ey have the
toiling masses greatly at heart and that free
coinage is to be introduced mainly for their
benefit. How do they take care of the toiling
masses in this oaseP By bringing us down
upon the silver basis they simply cut down
the thousands of millions OF invested savings
Of poor people to about so cents on the dollar.
And for whose benefit is this donep For the
benefit Of the debtors Of these poor people, who
will gain about so cents on the dollar. And
who are they? Aside from the United States
and the states and municipalities, those
debtors are railroad and other corporations
and more or less rich men, whom our silver
friends profess to abhor very much as belong
ing to the "money power" Thus will the
silver standard bleed the poor creditor for the
benefit of the rich debtor. May not the toll
ing masses pray heaven to deliver them Of the
free coinage friendsf
How the Peoples Savings VIII Fare.
And what have these friends to say in their
own defensef Twill again let Mr.. Bryan's New
York Grafton speak. He says first, with regard
to the insurance companies, "Since the total
premiums received exceed the total losSes paid,
q rising standard must ha of more hkaefit to