Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1896-09-14
WILL SILVER BENEFIT LABoR7

WILL SILVER BENEFIT LABoR7
b~<5-
If prices of commodities are cheap
they cannot be produced with dear Ia
Dor. Cheap commodities mean cheap
labor But it is said that all labor in
some Of the manufacturing and rail-
road industries Of the country is as high
to-day as ever. This is not true. But
suppose it were true, it would not an
SWer the questions. The trade unions
have been remarkably successful IN re-
sisting reduction of wages, but they
have utterly failed in keeping the peo-
pie employed. There are at least three
millions of willing hands which are
now idle in the United States IhOSe
who have employment are either work
ing on short hours or short days in the
week, so that the aggregate paid in the
manufacturing and railroad industries
to labor is certainly less than one-baf
the amount that would be paid to labor
if prices were firm, SO that enterprise
could prosper. If falling prices continue
it is only a question of time when
wages Of labor must come down to cor
respond with other things. This is not
all. One-half at least of the labor in the
United States is expended on farms,
which has paid the farmers nothing in
the last twenty three years. Their
farms are not worth so cents on the
dollar what they were when silver was
demonetiZed, and they are still declin-
ing. Farm products have so declined
that they are on an average below the
cost of production.
The people have borrowed money to
pay taxes and other necessary expenses
until the farms are mortgaged and ten
ant farmers are increasing in a geomet-
rical ratio, and it is only a question Of
a short time if prices continue to fall
when independent farmers must dis
appear and the peasant system of Eu-
rOupe must be established here. We as
sert without fear Of contradiction that
labor is not receiving one-half as much
in the United States to-day as it would
individual who has job that will last
him for life of which he cannot be de-
prived by his employer or by the bank
ruptcy of the concern for which he
works, can buy more with his dollar
than he could if silver was remonetized
and prices should regain their normal
condition. But if he is a humane man,
and contributes his money to the suffer
ing people about him, he will find that
what he receives will do him and his
family less good than it would if the
country was prosperous and the great
mass Of labor was employed. We know
the goldites appeal to laboring men who
have a job and tell them that they can
buy more with their money than if
prices were restored, and the commun-
ity generally were allowed to prosper,
but they do not call attention to the
millions out of employment and the
growing army Of tramps or the bank
rupt farmers, who are being driven
from their homes. In short, they fail
to call attention to the fact that civiliZa
ton is decaying on account of the in
creasing purchasing power of money.
They do not suggest to the laborers
that the fate which has befallen others
will certainly overtake them, that want
of employment will drive them into the
ranks of the tramps or the unemployed.
They do not appeal to labor in good
faith. They attempt to appeal to the
prejudices Of the laboring men for the
benefit Of one hundred and fifty thou
sand millions of obligations which they
hold against labor. In other words,
they appeal to the laboring men to
vote to increase the value of money, de-
crease the value of property and labor,
and enslave mankind. Contraction
which produces falling prices if con-
tinued will bring the same result it
always has. Serfdom and slavery is
the inevitable fate of the American peo-
pie if they do not join the forces Of re-
form and rebel against goldocracy.-
Silver knight.