Evening star., 1896-08-07

quence. to that precise extent do you prove
that the laboring man has been gaining
more and more by the difference and that
1t has come out Of the manufacturer and
capitalist.
Imitation of Prices and Wages.
Take the opposite case 1 have no doubt
that free silver legislation would in a meas
ure accomplish what Its friends claim
that is. soon raise the price of everything
that is bought to nearly If not quite dou-
bic their present rate. Do any of you i'm
agine that your wages would be doubled a t
once? Don't you know that you would
wait months and years for the slow process
or readjustment by strikes and lockouts
petore your wages would finally be raised
in proportion?
With the wage earners, therefore. the
free silver case stands thus: The apprecia-
ton of gold. of which the free silver people
complain, Is the very process that will give
MN more and more for the wages he gets
and. therefore. practically increase his
wages. The imitation of prices that the sill
yer men are fighting for is the very thing
that Will reduce the purchasing power of
tne wages he gets. and will thus decrease
ms wages Do not understand that claim
that we should oppose free coinage and
welcome the appreciation of gold Just be-
cause II secures higher wages to labor.
am opposed to free coinage because l be-
heve 1t to be wrong. At the same time 1t
Is proper that all should understand lust
what would be It's effect. 1t NAV be that
wages are too high in this country now
reasonably l do not believe such to be the
case II they are too high. however, and it
Is desirable that they should be cut down
then let us have that issue frankly stated
But let not our free coinage friends clamor
lor cessation the first effect of which
would be to reduce by one-half the wages
that each laboring man receives and at
the same time invite laboring men to vote
IoI suGh d program without telling them
what the zeal effect would be-
1 confess that / am one Of those who are
glad to see the prices of things becoming
cheaper ard cheaper, so that the laboring
man can buy more and more with every
doiiar that he receives. / have no sym
pathy with those who, by a tariff law or a
silver law or private trusts or comhna-
tons, are continually endeavoring to raise
prices of the goods that labor has to buy
l nave no more sympathy for the men who
are working today to bring ahout high
prices of clothes and food than had the
Prophet Amos with the infiationists of his
day' whom he cursed SO thoroughly that
the void ever since then has rung with
maledictions. You remember how he de-
scribed th@m-it strikes me that hfs words
would well bef1t the present situation-as
ne told of the men of his day, who Law
awake nights. thiI king how they might
make corners in food and put up prices
making the ephah small and the shekel
great that is. making the poor pay more
!or their hour-and. he put it, "falsify-
ing the balances by deceit that they might
buy the|poor for silver and the needy with
par OF shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of
the wheat"
Appreciation of silver md wnpcs
Well" they say. why would 1t not be a
good thing to have appreciation of s:lyer?"
why! Ii the laboring men of this coun-
try wanted to sell silver or were being Maid
In silver. there might be some sense in it.
But the laboring men Of this country are
being paid In gold. not silver What
mean Is this: You take a silver dollar
Ihere Is fifty cents worth Of silver in it.
You stamp the governments Endorsement
upon It. II then passes for dollar be-
cause the governments Endorsement saws
Redeemable in gold" So that our labor
ers are now getting paid in gold values
What goou does 1t do a man who doesn't
own silver. who doesn't sell silver. who
gets paid In gold values. to have silver cost
more?
The Silver Question in n Nutshell.
But there Is another way to look at it.
We have seen how appreciation Of gold
mears higher wages to the laborer Now
let me show you what this so-called appre-
clation OF silver means. l shortly since
heard a very pleasant gentleman, Ar Can
non, delegate in the next Congress from
Utah. expound the silver side of the free
silver question, and he went on to explain
first. that prices of goods were low here be-
cause they were measured in gold, and then
that, on account of our wages here being
paid in gold-which was costly-and wages
In India, China and Japan being paid in
s.lver-whCh was worth only one-half
what it had been-they had a fifty per cent
advantage, and that therefore there was
great danger of manufacturers being driven
from the worlds markets. Do you see
what that means? That their wages are
SO much lower than ours. on account of
the appreciation of gold here. that. unless
our wages are made equivalent to theirs
IN that respect at least-unless prices are
inflated here in this country that our
gold wages will buy no more than their sill
yer wages, their labor will tend to drive our
labor out. In other words the propositio
to appreciate silver is practically a propo-
sition to cut the wages of the laborers
of this country squarely in half in order
to increase the profits Of their employers.
A Boomerang.
Three months ago, though 1 should have
argued this-for l believe 1t to be true-I
should not have ventured to state that 1t
was the serious contention Of the free sill
yer advocates. But l have not merely heard
it put forcibly by the gentleman have men,
uUhed AS speaking for that cause, but
have 1t in another statement. Sir Henry
Meysey Thompson. one of the leading silver
advocates, offered a large prize for the best
essay explaining how it was that China and
India and other silver-using countries were
StttlHS an advantage over England. Mr..
Jameson, British consul at Shanghai was
awarded the prize, and his essay is now the
chief stock in trade Of the British agitation
for the restoration of silver. Let me read
you something from 1t. Sir Henry Meysey
Thompson Is proud of It: Wages in the
gold-using countries have, through the an
probation of gold. become 100 per cent dear
er than they were relatively to silver wages
and the manufacturer in the silver-stand.
ard countries can obtain his labor at haIr
the cost which he formally paid" Hence
while old-established Industries in Eng,
land are barely paying expenses, new In
dustries III India are arising broadcast and
paying handsomely"
A similar view is taken by Senior Romero,
Mexican minister at Washington in his ar
ticle In the North American Review for
June. 1885. when he asserts that the depre-
citation of silver has favored Mexican capi-
talists by lowering the actual wages of their
employees.
This is the silver question in a nutshell
1t Is simply the question as to whether our
wage earners are getting too high wages
III they believe they are. and that this coun.
try Is suffering In consequence, all they have
70 DO is to take lower wages or. If they pre-
Ter roundabout way they can favor free
coinage OF silver. and they will get their
wages cut down half without any further
trouble on their part. and We will be blessed
as in China and India
PRICES ON GOLD BASIS,