The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-04-16

AldQc Dy kings ana pdrlamtnlS IN every
civilized country in the world. and il has
/ failed again and again in every one OF
/ them; and II requires no gift OF prophecy
to forsee that 1t must continue TO fail
so long as self-interest. constitutes a
controlling factor in the business affairs
Of men.
We have now about S620.O00.OO0 in gold,
| and Sil3. 900 in full legal tender silver.
| besides S7S2l6.6H in subsidiary silver
coins. which are legal tender in payments
not exceeding so. and the real question
| for the people TO decide is whether they
| VIII continue to use the coins Of both
metals or adopt a monetary system which
always has and always viii drive one CT
| them out Of the country. l am not here,
therefore, this evening to advocate the
exclusive use of gold coin as money, or TO
| oppose conservative and safe use of sii-
| yer coin as money along with gold and a
| parity with gold, but l am here TO in
sist that we shall not abandon the present
legal standard OF value, eXpei all the gold
| from the country, and adopt silver mono
metallism, with free coinage of a nOmi-
| nal dollar worth intrinsically only 81 or
| y cents 1 am here to insist that the
| minis of the United States, which were
| constructed and are maintained and OPP
Grated at the expense of the people. shall
not be used for the exclusive benefit OF
| the owners of silver bullion under a Law
| giving them the right to have 81 or s.
| cents worth of their silver coined free
| OF charge and stamped as a dollar and
| compelling you and all others to receive
/ II from them as a dollar. All the minis
OF the United States, operated to their
| full capacity, and doing no other WORK,
| could not coin into standard silver dol
| lars two-thirds Of the annual production
OF silver in our own country, but, notwith-
| standing this, ii is seriously proposed to
| offer free coinage to all the silver in the
| world at a legal valuation almost double
| us commercial value in the markets of
the foreign countries where ii is produced.
| The annual production of silver in the
world is about S2l6, 100000 at our coinins
| rate, and the annual capacity of our
sill oil
| only about A0,000000. Last year we coined
| $43,933 AIS in gold, and SO, 069 4S0 in silver;
SO that If our minis were devoted exclu-
| slVeIy TO the free coinage of standard sill
yer dollars the addition to our stock OF
metallic money would be about $4,000. 900
less every year than it is now; and ii
| would not be good money after il was
| coined. More than fifteen years would
elapSe before we could at this rate coin
| enough deprecated silver dollars to sup
| ply the place of the good gold dollars ex-
| PEELED from the country, and, in the mean
| time, a complete revolution would have
TO be effected in our commercial relations
| with other nations, and in all our domes-
| tic business affairs, including a readiust-
ment or the wages of labor, the prices of
| commodities, the rates of municipal, state
| ana federal taxation, charges for trans
| portatlon, and every other matter involv-
ing the use OF money or credit. We should
descend by "a, single step from the high
| est standard of value to silver monometaI-
| ism, with contracted and at the same
tIne deprecated currency, A financiai
experiment which has no precedent in
'se monetary history Of the world.
After struggling for more than a quarter
| OF century, through labor organizations
anu otnerWlse, 10 secure a rate of wages
] which would make the proceeds of a DAYS
! work equal to the cost of a days subsis-
t fence Tor the workingman and his family.
you are asked by the advocates of free
| coinage to join them in destroying one-half
me purchasing power of the money in
which you are paid and impose upon Your
| 0OUbliDcr he
amount of your wages hereafter: that is
| 70 struggle for another quarter of a CEN
| tury or perhaps longer, to raise your
/ wages in deprecated currency to a point
| which viii enable you to purchase with
! them al much of the necessaries of life as
/ you can purchase now; and if, after years
/ OF contention, privation, and Industrial
| disorder, you should at last succeed in so
ADJUSTING wages that they would procure
/ at the higher prices of commodities lust
/ what they will procure now at the existing
/ prices, what would you have gained by the
cnange from the old to the new conditions
/ money received for wages, like money re-
! celVed on every other account is valuab bic
/ only TO the extent that 1t can be exchanged
Ior other commodities, and it is scarcely
| necessary to suggest that a dollar worth "a
| cents Will not purchase as much in fhe
markets as dollar worth 100 cents. To
| can dlrne dollar would add nothing
| Whatever to it's intrinsic value or to lis
purchasing power. If these propositions
are correct, 1t is clear that when wages
are paid in deprecated currency the
rates of wages must be increased in pro-
| portion to the depreciation of the money
ana IN proportion to the increase in the
prices OF other things, or the laborer will
| suffer a loss. But ! affirm that it is the
| universal rule that the rates of wages do
NOT not increase IN proportion to the deprecia-
| tion IN the value Of the money in which
| they are paid, and that when the currency
| is deprecated the rates of wages do NOT
| increase in proportion to the increase in
| the prices of the commodities the laborer
| IS compelled to purchase. If there has
| been single exception to this rule in this
1 n hnY mn afY~xr
have not enabled me to find it, and do NOT
believe one can be found.
In 1862 the wages of labor, paid in de-
! preclated paper, were less than per
| cent. higher in paper than when paid in
gold, but the prices of the 223 articles
| used by the laborers and other DeoDle
| In the maintenance of their families were
neanly Is per cent higher than they were
when paid in gold; in 1863 the wages of
labor paid in deprecated paper worth
| about So cents on the dollar, were 1O15 per
cent. higher than when paid in gold but
the prices of the ARTICLES the laborer
mad to buy with his wages were nearly
AZ per cent higher; in 1864 the wages Of
labor paid in deprecated paper dollars
| worth 40 cents each, had advanced 25b
per CENT, but the prices of the necessa ries
OF life had advanced 9015 per cent; in
is65 wages paid in paper currency worth.
60 cents on the dollar had advanced 43
| per cent. above the rates previously paid
| in gold, or its equivalent but the prices
of commodities had advanced nearly III
per cedlt.-tnat IS TO say, had more than
| doubled-and in 1866 wages paid in a
currency worth II cents on the dollar had
advanced a fraction more than 50 per
cent. from the previous rates in gold
or its. equivalent, but the prices of com
modities had advanced 80 per cent The
rise in the rates of wages never CORE
sponded with the rise in the prices of other
things until the year 1862 four years after
the close of the war, when the value
| of our currency was II cents on the dol
lar and 1T was quite certain that no fur
ther depreciatons would occur In 1860
this country was on a gold basis and
had been on that basis for many years;
under the operation of the acts of 1891
and 1887. Wages were then paid in gold.
or it's equivalent, and by reducing the
wages paid in a deprecated currency to
a gold basis, and comparing them with
the rates paid in gold in 1860 we shall
have another demonstration of the in
furious effects of cheap money on the
interests of the laborer On this basis
the laborer received 76 cents and mills
in 1868, instead of the gold dollar he re-
ceived in 1860; in 1854 he received so cents
and mills instead of a gold dollar,
and in 1865 he received Sc cents and 2 mills
instead of a gold dollar. In other words,
the wages of labor, measured by gold
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