Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1896-08-31
THE REGISTERS FREE SILVER COINAGE DEBATE.

it takes only one-haf as much LABOR
10 make a table to-day as i. did when
/ lent YOU that table? l want you 10
return ne TWO tables To that l Woui0
naturally say: You loaned me table
one -ab,e-here il is" But suppose
Browns table got burned. and am re
turning 10 him. not h-s own table, put
q new one. exactly as good in every re-
pec-. VII * s,agger me for him TO
point our The substituted table was
easier 10 make than this mad been? Not
~ all I should say: That my ability
20 make a table is twice what il was
when 1 borrowed Of you is my affair,
not yours. Ycu got the current in
crease n ability when you were n the
table manufacturing, didn't ycu?"
Take now = money loan. Robinson
ban farming IN Iowa in 1880. and had
cond. ions remained constant he would
nave accumulated $1,000 by 1870. But
al tle While LIZ vas working other fel-
lows were inv lting new machines or
finding out new wrinkles IN farming,
and Robinson was getting I'll benefit.
So by 1870 he had got ahead, not $4,000,
b1C $4,000: new he lends Ch3. $4,000
70 You and re.irsS cl the interest. And
while you arr farming new implements
are invented and nsw ways OF tilling
the soil are discovered, 50 that IN 1890
you fin1 tha, yOJr work viii turn eff
twice as much in yeSr as when rou
began. Well, you go around and ofer
Robinson his principal in dollars that
represent just as much farm product
as dad jLc dollars Robinson lent you.
But this cantankeI oJs Robinson say:
''Those are not homes l5harS. Wa;
&c. lars thar represent double Che guam
uJy OF farm produce, because it is c1S.er
for YOU 10 raise wheat than il was fer
me-. ana your days work will 90 twice
as ar" VIA, would YOU say? l should
say: "Tha. may be true. but yol had
the current Improvement IN production
while you We're farming, and l want the
sans while l am farming. After all, II
is my labor and not yours that mas
doubled in prOduc,iveneSs.
Now. The creditor who SAYS YOU must
pay aim dollars representing the same
quantity Of labor as when you made
the loan is. IN fact. asking you TO surren-
der him he fruit Of industrial progress
viz. the premium on your labor. IL
is perfectly true that we participate n
the progress Of the age, whether or lot
we have done anything 10 bring it about.
But say that the benefit ought 10 ac-
cru 10 tbs generation, and not TO a
PAS generation. And if the debtors
surrender 20 their creditors the prem
iums that come from improvements in
technique and machinery. they are prac-
ricany giving up 10 Othsrs something
tha. mas accrued on their own mach-n-
cry and their own brains. l insist that
the honest dollar must be constant IN
b7iving power. You can have a currency
thar shall. keep labor uniform in reward,
while the products Of labor are falling
in price. becauss il takes less and less
labor 10 produce them. or you can have
one under which commodities are uni
form in price and labor rising. In ne
former case You tTlnsfar the progress
from present 70 past producers. You
ask -ta, the man who produced before
1873 shall have a premium, not only OF
his generation. bu, also o. this one.
You want tvo premiums for him ana
none for US. /. A. ROSS.