Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1897-05-14
ElkinS Says Wages Must Go Down.

of Tuesday. "Wage-earners,' continued the
Senator edo not wish to see it or believe 1t,
but it is So" And again he said: "Wages in
America stand against any revival of business. :"
He was discussing the coal trade. He tells
us that owe do not export coal to Europe, be-
cause we have wages against us, and that is the
whole kernal of the coal trade" The Senator
complained of the Supreme Court decision which
makes railroad pooling impossible. That would
seem to benefit the coal trade at the expense OF
the railroads; but so strong is the sympathy be-
tween capital invested in different directions,
yet acting together, that the great combinations,
like those between the railroads and coal mi hes,
see no way to relieve their own diminishing
revenues except the cutting Of the wages of la
Dor. No man has presented this fact with ter
rible bluntness Of the Senator from West Vi1-
ginia He has not minced words. He appears
to have sought the publication OF his vlewF
As plces decline and values shrink, those who
battle with the flood of contraction each reach
out for the plank which will not sustain all.
No limitation on the output of coal can count
eract the influence of contraction, which is
steadily reducing the price of all other commod-
tiles, including coal. And since the price must
go down, and since somebody must lose, Senator
Elkins unhesitatingly declares that the railroads
cannot be expected to suffer, nor yet the coal
mine owners. 1t is the laborer who must stand
and deliver at the bidding of those who
make money so scarce that coal is cheap end
transportation cheaper.
Mr.. Elkins has met the logic of the situation.
What he says is the natural result flowing from
the policy which the money power has forced
upon his party. "Wages must go down."
"Wages i'll America stand against any revival in
business" Senator Elkins has good business
head on his shoulders and he must know that
the men who have bought and taken possession
of the Republican organization and who have
created the present national administration
would, if they could, abolish wages altogether
but not abolish labor. They do not believe
that men, horses, cattle or dogs have any nat
ural right to compensation for their labor or any
right to any more food and clothing and shelter
for the night than will keep them in good
working condition. We do not charge upon
Senator Elkins that he is out of this class, but
we credit him with a clear view of the facts as
they exist, and with the courage to state them.
If the present system of gold contraction which
he favors is to continue-if the supply of money
is to remain stationary, and the uses for it are
to increase, then it is absolutely true that
"wages in America stand against any revival of
business" In the partnership between cap
itul and labor there can be no dividends for the
workingmen under the present conditions
But Senator Elkins overlooks one fact and
that is that our masters, who dictate the gold
standard to all the governments of the world,
have no bowels of compassion for the owners of
other property than gold money, and no reinorse
about shifting down coal mine owners and rail-
road companies and ensavng them as they do
their workingnen. Mr.. Elkins is not one of
the royal family of usurers and money-enders.
He is only capitalist, and Shyock laughs at
him as grimly as he does at the spendthrift
whom he is ruiring, or the idle workman whom
he drives from his door. If wages go down.
capital must go down. When only score of
men can ride in their carriages they, too, will
be forced to walk by force they cannot resist.
Senator Elkins, however, has remedy to
apply to his locality in West Virginia His de-
pendence is upon the negroes. Being asked
whether West Virginia will stay Republican, he
answered:
"That ought to be the natural gravitation.
Pennsylvania and Ohio coming in with their
whites from the North and West, and the he
groes from old Virginia on the East They