The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1896-08-14
AN OPEN LETTER.
Printed by request.
Owosso, MICH, AUG. g, 1896.
MrEANr

Owosso, MICH, AUG. g, 1896.
w. j. McKoNE,
SUPT. MASON SCHOOLS.
DEAR SIR: Referring to your favor of the
Goth, would say that am glad you sent to
A. G. McClurg & Co., Chicago, for Brooks
| Adams History of the Gold Standard"
No one can read it without feeling the ini-
guilty of an approaching standard There
is much in the financial question that is pre-
scented by the gold standard side that is un-
true and misleading.
answer the question of how it will effect
farmers by the following actual condition.
Our farm produced $40 bushels of wheat
which was sold for $500 90. We paid
SIS 90 freight Oh same or per cent of the
crop for transportation to Detroit Our
taxes are about $50 90 per year or 10 per
cent, farm property insurance $50 90 or
per cent, physicians fees $4,000 or 10 per
cent, and as the final destination of the
wheat is Liverpool which would be Is per
cent in addition, repairs and other charges
easily make 10 per cent more, would make
a total of 81 per cent of the crop which is
paid for fixed and customary charles which
do not vary with the price of the crop.
Now with free coinage of silver or the
bimetalic standard and wheat worth one
dollar or over per bushel, instead of fifty
four acres out of one hundred being
devoted to fixed charges there would
be but twenty-seven acres required. In
other words, the gold standard has COM
peeled the farmer to double his labor to
Secure the same number of dollars as before.
Econon,izing begins on the comforts of
life and the embellishments thereof and as
labor must be employed for the items
just mentioned, labor is unemployed. For
example if the wheat crop just mentioned
had brought 100000, there would have
been $500 90 which l would have used IN
erecting new buildings purchasing a new
buggy, and laying tile drain, consequently
the lumber dealer is cut off from selling me
lumber, the hardware merchant nails, paint
ETC., the carriage maker buggy and the
brick yard owner does not sell me tile.
These as employers of labor discharge their
men or cut wages and the whole industrial
structure is disturbed because the founda-
ton, the farmers, who are the most varied
users of all kinds of goods, cannot pay.
We are told that what Is needed is conf
dence and this means credit or debt and all
the world knows what debt is at the present
time. 1t is not more debt that is needed,
but more ability to pay debts which is high.
er prices for farm products.
An advance Of 100 per cent in farm pro-
ducts does not mean 100 per cent increase
to the consumer on the price now paid, and
1t is necessary to correct this impression for
1t Is the same old scheme that was used to
deceive the wage Garner on the tariff ques-
ton, to array labor against capital, and
country weekles and city dailies are
arraying wage earners against the farmer
because he will have to pay more for his
produce and they untruthfully say his
wages will not increase with the increase of
price of what he consumes. This is so con-
Trajectory to the claim that protection raises
prices and enables the employer to pay
wages above the pauper wages Of Europe
that in the denial of wages rising because of
double or increased standard for the price
Of commodities, the gold standard advocates
place themselves upon the identical ground
that Cleveland appealed to the wage earners
for tariff reform. The st. Louis platform
] supporters In their haste to denounce silver,
have struck down the strongest support of
protection, which as Garfield said, is "a
matter Of wages only" II wages are in
creased, they must be increased from profits
and cutting down the price of commodities
which are 30 per cent labor, means that
labor's share of the proceeds are diminished.
Over one-thlrd of the population of Shia-
wassee county labor upon the farms and the
proposition to cut down the pay of the larg-
est class of laborers is monstrous. The lack
OF remunerative employment upon the farm
has driven the former workers upon the
farm to the cities. This is shown by the
decrease of Shiawassee's rural population
who haye In turn pressed upon the city
workers and underbid them in turn to
secure foothold for their employment
The farmer as wage Garner has had his
product cut In price and so has the wage
Garner in the cities, who may In many cases
receive the same wages but is employed ir-
regularly. The reduction of wages in any
one department makes itself felt In all and
the attempt to divide the people who labor,
viz farmers and employees in shops, into
two classes and array the latter against the
! former, is neither patriotic nor wise.