The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1896-10-05

when he was wording 900 days a year,
nnd when the debt comes due the randI-
tl0ns had changed 10 lie would lie work.
Ing only 100 days In the y1ar, would he
be- Justified In demanding u cheaper our
rCnCy to pay his debt with, or scaling thIs
debt 10 one-hplf? II he did yn, would
accuse him OF dishonesty, and Jnatly no.
This IL q question OF honor and the uu-
ti0n'B honor IL ut stake.
Increased production has been tho
cause of falling prices and not the de-
monetiEatlun OF silver. The prices OF
many kinds OF lumber are now higher
than In 1870. IL everything else falls In
price with silver, why don't lumber? In
my " trade | viii mention one Item,
and nearly everything else will bear the
same comparison. In 1878 we produced
az a cnp-foot'goblet $50 for a days work,
and to-day we make l.2bv for II days
work. surely silver has not affected the
price or Eoblets whan the production II
practically one-hnlfsgrruter. AS with
other commodities. 50 II II with silver,
which has fallen because OF tile enormous
production. {
THE sIlverltes claim that the act de-
monetizlng silver was surrrptitlously
passed. There Is no way to pass 4 law
secretly IN the Congress OF the United
states. Every bill must be printed and
read publicly In each branch and q copy
OF every bIl laid on each members desk.
This bill was printed In the house May,
lSIS. The bill was submitted by the sec
Rotary OF the treasury 10 the senate on
April Is. 1870. became Il law on February
l., 1873, and was referred TO In three sue
cesSivr messages. The law OF ~ wac
not passed surrcptltlously, or secretly.
or without due consideration. Some OF
the hottest silver men were members OF
that Congress at that time und voted for
Il.
"Mr. Seyd whom they charge with bri-
bling Congress, had not been In the Unit
ed States since 1856 lie was 4 bl-inetal-
list. had written Il book on the subject,
and In 1873 wrote n letter TO Nc. Hooper,
who had charge OF the bill. urging him
not 10 demonctiZe silver. II n bill Is be-
fore Congress two years and ten months
and Is passed secretly. how can one be
passed openly? { think free coinage
would be DISASTROUS. especially to the
w~Orkingman, for the reason that Con-
Gress a not create value. Silver Is =
labor product and the amount OF silver
In n dollar represents 81 cents worth OF
labor.
"a man who Is earning n dollar a day
could buy only ilfty-three cents worth
OF goods for his so-called dollar. when
compared with present conditions. They
say your wages would rise In price. Ii
wages would rise In the same proportion
that commodities did We would NOT be-
any better of. Nominally we would BE-
getting higher wages. but the purchasing
power would be the same as nov. They
would not buy any more goods. Surely
no n is foolish enough to think that my
wages will rise while there ore 1000
Glnsswcrkers Idle. and not until they get
work and there Is a demand for more
men. and that may occur.
Why should any person prefer lf
ounces OF silver 10 ;. ounces, IS more
than l can understand. Suppose some
me would make 2 proposition to reduce
the ounces in a pound from IL TO S. would
any sane man vote for II? Why p?ss A
law 10 give one less silver for hls money!
They gay they will cheaper money and
raise prices. Don't It seem absurd for a
party to talk abouuraising prices TINT
has always advocated cheaper goods?
AS rar back al / car remember the DEM
ocratIc party advocated cheap goods.
We were better clothed. better fed and
better housed in 1882 than ever before.
and this was brought abou. by the gold
standard and protection.