The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1896-07-16
TO CUT DOWN WAGES.
BY PAYING LABOR IN CHEAP
SILVER DOLLARS.
The Silverites' Scheme-Why Ex-Gov-
ernor Boies Wants Free Silver-Rieh
Landlords Could Then Make Big
Proflts-Won't Buy Much.


Ex-Governor Horace Boies of Iowa is
franker than his fellow silverites, who
pretend that their so cent dollar
scheme would benefit the working
classes. In a recent interview he
says:
81 have myself in this state two
farms, paid for largely with money
have earned as a lawyer. One is farm
Of $500 acres of land, and the other
contains 1000 acres. With the present
price of labor and the present price
paid for the farm products, no man IN
the world could take either of these
farms, even if l should present him
with the ground, and make dollar out
of it. mean, of course, that he could
not equip the farm and pay interest
on the money invested in the equip
ment and wages For labor out OF the IN
come he would get by selling the pro-
ducts. A farmer who works himself
and is assisted by the labor OF sons
and daughters could make small farm
pay. But no farm is profitable when
conducted on the basis Of manu-
featuring business. Cheap and abund-
ant money is the only remedy for this
| intolerable state Of things"
This is a candid admission that he
thinks that wages are now too high,
| and that in some way free silver will
give the farmers cheaper labor. The
mere fact of an increase in the price
of farm products would not make farm
| ing profitable, il, as is claimed by most
of the 16 to 1 leaders, wages would be
doubled along with doubled prices OF
everything the farmer buys. Mr.. Boles
clearly expects that the result OF cheap
and abundant money will be the
practical reduction of the price paid for
| farm labor This would no doubt be
very good thing for rich man with
| 800 acres of land. But what does the
poor laborer think of the scheme? Are
the American people ready to vote for
debased currency which will reduce
the wages of the workers?
Next in Importance to the confession
that free silver would cut down wages
| is the admission that "a farmer who
works himself can make small farm
pay" What kind of farmers does Mr..
Boies expect to see prosper? Men who
have bought up big tracts of land which
they hold out of use in the expectation
of selling it at high price, and in the
meantime are working it with hired Ia
Dor? That is not the kind of farmers
which Americans wish to see thrive.
The man who owns and works his own
land is the ideal farmer of this country.
The big estate with it's gangs" of hired
men may do while new territories are
being opened up, but the welfare of the
republic depends on the men who cul
tivate the soil owning the land they till.
If Ex-Governor Boies thinks himself
entitled to an income from his land
without working it himself, he is very
much mistaken. No farmer should
prosper who simply owns land" and
expects to make a profit out of other
mems labor. That under free silver
few men could use cheap money to
speculate in land and get rich out of
the toll of the underpaid laborers is
the very best of reasons why the masses
should vote against it.
Ex-Governor Boies admits that the
| farmer who works can make his farm
pay. But in another part of the same
interview he says that farms bought 40
or Is years ago cannot be made to pay
| interest on their cost. This is a strong
argument against cheap money, for it
was the green back imitation of the war
period which put the prices of land so
high that the men who bought farms
have been struggling ever since to pay
for them. The heavy mortgages, with
high interest rates, which are crushing
SO many farmers, have their origin in
the high speculative price of land caus-
ed by the cheap money craze of the last
generation. Free coinage would repeat
the evils brought about by the overis-
sues of greenbacks, and while not help
ing the present owners Of farms would
benefit spectators and make it harder
for the millions Of landless and home
less men to get piece Of land on which
to make a living.
Mr.. Boies is evidently sincere man
and is advocating free silver with the
idea that it will help men, like himself,
who own big tracts of land But as
the only results of that policy would
be the population of debts, the reduc-
ton Of wages and the enrichment Of
the men who speculate in land but do
not work themselves, he Is not a safe
guide for honest citizens.
Whidden Graham.