Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1897-10-06
LABOR AND FREE SILVER.
Vital INTEREST ct the Wssktngmaa IN
Gotd Standard


The Illinois Federation of Labor has
adopted n plank calling for the free
coinage of silver at the ratio of sixteen
I to one Hut this demand is not ac-
4 compauicd 10y amy statement ut the al
legged benefits Ia trades 0uioniSm. Nor
did amy member nf the convention SAY
( anything calculated To throw any light
ON the subject.
4 This is a singular omission. Those
who adopted that free coinage plank
claim To be friends OF labor II is To
he assumed that they would not insert
anything in their Platform which they
did not think would benefit "organized
labor" But how can that labor he
helped ny being paid wages in semi
bogus money, which is worth only 40
or ~ per cent. of its face value?
Ii the plank had demanded sound
and stable money" no explanation
would have been necessary. For every
body understands that that is the kind
of money which labor needs. aud that
worlingmen are special sufferers when
the money is not sound and stable.
But a request for uusouud and unstable
money -professedly for the benefit of
labor-is so unusual as To demand an
explanation.
1t is impossible TO get one, however,
The attention OF the so-called labor
leaders" has been invited to the fact
that the working people have 1000
millions of gold standard money on
deposit in the savings banks of the
United States, and that n change of the
money standard retroactively to 40-cent
dollars would rob the working people
of 1900 millions OF their savings.
Those laboritcs have been asked how
free coinage could be for the benefit OF
labor when the effect OF its adoption
would cost labor so dear Mt once. Their
only reply has been some ranting speech
delivered between the whisky and the
tobacco-to the effect that capitalists
must be crushed and plutocrats must be
beggared.
How much is the mind of n man who
can give no more rational reason than
that developed above the mind of iab-
bering idiot? How is the beggaring
of capitalist going 10 aid labor? IL
the owner of n mill refuses TO advance
wages. do his employees better their con-
dition by burning down that mill? La
Dor demagogues will say 1.-THE capitalist
is harmed, and therefore labor must Ice
| benefited"
The walking delegates demand free
coinage. Were il given them working
men would bc paid their wages in de-
based money of little purchasing power.
The walking delegates may say that
capitalists-em ployers-wil be injured
IL good money is driven out and bad
money put in its place. So they will
be, but their employees will he the ones
who will suffer the most The capital
/ list can protect himself to some extent
| against the evils of bad currency.
! The Workman cannot.
The walking delegates dare not say
that free coinagc will benefit labor, for
they are unable TO show any benefit
! All they can assert is that sixteen to
one" viii harm employers. So il will.
But that is n confession that free coin.
age will he harmful TO the men who
belong TO the trades unions. For what.
ever harms employers Injuries employees.
Labor and capital are so closely allied
that one suffers when the other does.
Chicago Tribune.