The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1896-09-12

lent of declaration that 5O-cent pieces
are dollars. They might just as well
pass a law that 30 cents is dollar.
That would not make it so. would it
not buy a dollars worth of anything.
What is the effect of thati The mer-
chant would take care of himself.
"a man keeps a store down here on
Broadway, and that law is going into
operation tonight. He summons al his
clerks and buys % cents worth of pen
ellis, and before he opens his store in the
morning he has marked up his goods TO
the new scale. He can do all that. But
there are great numbers of people. mum
berless people. who enlist our interest.
and some of them enkindle our sympa-
thies, who cannot use the pencil. Take
the work of man. He cannot go 10 the
pay roll with Il pencil and mark il up.
He has got to consult somebody. He
has TO enter into an argument. He has
got To get some other mans consent be-
fore he can mark up his wages. Then
there is the pensioner, those that are re-
ceiving pensions from ohis government
for gallant deeds done in the war, and
others for the loss of beloved ones. He
cannot take his pension certificates, and
when it reads eight dollars make il read
sixteen dollars. He must wait for an
appeal to Congress, and Congress that
sympathetic. lApplause). Take the
men who have life insurance. Can they,
where the policy reads $1,000, make 1t
$4,000? No. Can the managers of
these institutions make it right with
them? No. This policy coerces mteg-
rity. (Applause).
"AIy friends, the men surely do not
contemplate the irrctrievable and extern
sive character of the disaster and dis
turbance and disruption which they are
proposing for all of US in all our business
affairs, great and simple. Take the Ia
boring man; how full of sympathy they
are for him. My countrymen, i never
spoke false word 10 the laboring man
in my life. Great applause). j have
never sought TO reach his vote or infiu-
ence by appeals TO that part of his ma
ture that will pollute the intellect and the
conscience. | have believed and | be-
lieve today that any system that main
tains the prices of labor in this country,
that brings hope into the life of the la
boring man. that enables him To put by
that gives him stake in the good order
the prosperity of the country. is the pol
icy that should be our American policy
(Applause.) l have resisted in many
campaigns this idea that a debas ed cur
rency could help the workingman. The
first dirty errand that n dirty dollar does
is 10 cheat the workingmen. tApplause.)
MY friends, cold statistical inquiry
non-partisan in its character, was ma lie
! by committee of the Senate in 1890
and some following years. The commit
tee was composed of Democrats ana of
Republicans. and they set out to study
as statisticians the relative prices of COM
modities and wages ut different periods
in the history of our country. This in
vestigation covered the years of the war
1t showed how prices of goods went up
and in what proportion labor advanced.
Goods went up rapidly because the pen
Gil process is quick process. Wages
went up haltingly and slowly, because
the employer has to be persuaded and
the pencil won't serve.
"Now. have here a memorandum of
some of those facts resulting from that
investigation. Labor in one period ad-
vancod per cent: goods, the things
the men had to buy out of their wages
for their families and their living, adj
vanccd Is per cent. Through another
period the laborcrs' wages advanced 1015
per cent. and the price of goods adj
vanccd 40 per cent. In another period
the wages of the laborer went up % per
cent. and the prices of merchandise adj
vanced 30 per cent. In another peri