The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1896-10-21

It should he remembered by every
man that works for wages that in case
Mr. Bryan is elected there will be no
need Of legislation to put the country
on a silver basis II the fact Of his cleo
ton il not OF itself sufficient to do that,
all that will be needed will be for his
Secretary Of the T reasury to begin re-
deeming greenbacks and treasury notes
in silver When that policy il begun
gold will Immediately go to preni-
unI, and the silver dollar will begin 10
depreeiate. What this will mean for
the wage-earners ought to be clear TO
any sensible man. There can be no
doubt of the depreciation Of the silver
dollar. That is the result which Bry-
an wishes to bring about. He openly
declares that he means To make prices
higher The Sentinel has said that
prices would advance, not because the
articles would be more valuable, but
because money would be less valuable.
The man that now gets 81 a day would
still get 81, but when he came tOspend
them he would find that they would
buy much less Of the necessaries Of life
than now. There is no dispute on this
point.
Is the workingman interested in
having prices raised by cheapening
his wages? Does he not feel that he IS
fortunate when he can make his wages
go as far as is possible? Even If his
wages were nominally doubled, would
he be any better of with prices doub-
led, too? What Mr.. Bryan has got to
show is that wages will advance more
than prices. Unless they do, the work
ingman would gain nothing by free
coinage. III they advance less than
prices he would worse off than now.
If they advanced equally with prices
he would be just where he Is now.
The twO-dOllars-a-day man would have
four dollars, end he would have to pay
double for his purchases. IL they ad-
vanced more than prices he would be
the gamer. But no cne will maintain
that they will advance more than pri-
ces. Therefore, the result VIII neces-
sarily be that the workingman will be
worse off than now, or most no better
of. OF course the fact is that wages
would not keep pace with prices 1t IS
an easy matter for merchant tomark
up prices, and for the landlord to raise
his rent But how are wages raised?
In the first place they cannot b. raised
at all unless the conditions OF product
ion warrant il. When times are good
and production i large there IS al
WAYS a chance for an advance in wa
ges. But il can hardly be expected
that that policy which The Sentinel
has declared will bring on a panic
which may last anywhere from four 20
ten years will have stimulating effect
on business. so this point must be
kept in mind. Free silver 50 far from
bringing good times would bring in
dustrial panic.
The whole testimony Of history is
that under cheap money the working
man always gets the worst Of the bGsi-
ness. IL is easy to see why this must
be so. In the nature of things wages
can not rise propOrtionately to prices.
They rise somewhat, but by slow de
grees, and il is rarely that they ever get
80 high as prices. There is always a
margin against the wcrSingman- he
has to sell his labor every day. He
can not afford to wait. But prices
move upward almost Immediately
There are many workingmen who
understand all this perfectly. But
some of them no doubt feel yet as they
did earlier in the campaign, that in
some mysterious way free silver will
benefit the country at large and help
the masses" So they are willing 10
make the sacrifice. 1t should be known
tha. nothing can be good for the
country which is not good for lis tOilers-
The ''masses in America are made up
of toilers. What is good for them is
good for all OF us And it can not be
shown that that policy is good for
them which proposes TO decrease the
purchasing power of the wages Of the
workingmen. That such will he the
effect of the Bryan policy Is perfectly
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