Kansas City daily journal., 1896-10-26
Railway Men and Free silver.

From the New York Press.
In this election those who have the most
at stake are the wage-earners, and that
division of the wage-earners which has the
most at stake is made up of the men who
work for railroads.
The railroads of the United States have
a bonded Indebtedness of more than S5,0Oo.-
100000. This Indebtedness, principal and
interest, is payable in gold. When a rail-
road receives a dollar of receipts to-day,
that dollar will discharge 81 of its gold in
debtedness, but If We had free coinage of
silver. with gold at a premium of 100 per
cent, it would take 81 of a railroads re-
ceipts instead of 81. now, to discharge
S. of gold Indebtedness. The reason for
this would be that all the receipts of the
railroads would be in silver. Silver being
legal tender. no man would pay to rail-
road anything but the cheapest money,
which would be silver. When a railroad
had to pay interest on its bonds, 1t would
be compelled to go into the market and
buy gold, giving 81 Of its silver receipts for
81 in gold.
| Now, let us see what the result of this
would be. The items which form the two
greatest expenditures of railroads are la
bor and payments on bonded Indebtedness.
Moreover. the greater part of this bonded
Indebtedness also represents labor charges.
because it represents chiefly construction
and equipment of railroads, the greatest
/ charges of which are labor. 1t takes about
S2S0, ,OO0.000 a year in gold to pay. the inter-
est of bonded Indebtedness of the railroads
of the United States. These railways pay
in wages to their employees about SiOo. 600, coo
| a year.
Now, when it takes 81 of receipts to pay
I 81 of gold Indebtedness. where are the
railroads going to get their additional re-
| ceipts? They can't get them out of busi-
| ness. because most all railroad rates are
| fixed by law. They could not increase
| their rates sufficiently to provide an excess
| o. revenue that would give them twice the
amount that they now require to pay their
| gold Indebtedness. In order to get double
the sum which they now require to dis
| charge this gold Indebtedness, the rail-
roads would be compelled. since they could
| not increase their receipts, to take the
| greater part of the extra money needed for
| this purpose out of wages.
Where would the railway employe come
| in? How would he fare when, in order to
| get sufficient gold to pay the interest and
| principal of their debts, the railroads were
| compelled to get along with less labor and
| to pay less money to what labor they kept
| employed?
| Free coinage OF silver would do more
| damage to the railway employees of this
| country than to any other people in the
| United States. 1t would throw into ths
| hands of receivers railroads which never
| since the time they were built ever failed
to pay their oDuSatlonS, Whether they were
| to bcndholders, to labor or to anyone else
The first thing that railroad does wher
| it goes into the hands of receiver is t
| cut down expenses all along the line. The
| biggest saving that it can make is II
| wages. More than any other item of ex
| penditure, the wage payments are instant
| ly reduced.
| II Mr.. Bryan were elected president O.
| the United States, all railroad employees il
this country would instantly feel the shock
| Thousands of them would be turned ou
| of work. and those who remained woult
| have before them the prospect of a less
| ened number of dollars every month ant
OF dollars that would buy only one-half O
what their dollars will buy to-day.
II there is a railway employe who pro
poses to vote for William ]. Bryan, h
proposes to make the employees Of his rail
way pay one-half the bonded Indebtedness
of that railroad out Of the wages of it
men. The bonded Indebtedness. principa
and interest. must be paid in gold. Unde
free coinage it could be paid only out o
the wages Of employees. Will railway em
| ployes vote for financial system tha
will pay bonded indebtedness out Of theil
| wages?