The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-12-30
GAGE AND THE WAGE FARMERS
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Continued from Page -
The interest. charges and rents are to
a great degree fixed, and profits and
wages are subject to great fluctuations.
This being so, it is clear that anything
that reduces the total money value of
the products of labor must increase
the share Of the money lender and
creditor, though nominally fixed, and
decrease the share to be divided among
employers and wage earners. 1t is
equally clear that to increase the value
of money must decrease the value of
the products of labor, and, therefore,
enrich the creditor at the expense of
the debtor.
EFFECT OF GOLD STANDARD.
Now, if our adherence to the gold
standard has caused money to grow
dearer, you must admit that the gold
standard has done injury to our peo-
pie, brought distress to wage earners
and employers and discouraged enter
prise Our adherence to the gold
standard has caused money to grow in
value and OF course, forced the things
measured in money to fall in price.
However, it is not alone to the
cheapening of the labor cost of pro-
duction, but also to the actual appre-
citation of gold, that the fall in prices
since 1872 has been in great part due.
And this appreciation has grown out
of the decentralization of silver, which
has increased the demand for gold
tbs is question that every producer
can answer. Has the fall in prices cur
tailed my earnings?
FALL IN PRICES.
'If the fall in prices has been due
only to the general improved methods
of production, a lessening in the true
I cost of production, he has suffered no
less from such fall. Moreover, the fall
! in prices since 1893, so common to all
gold-using countries, a fall in prices of
/ 20 per cent has not grown out of i'm
proyement in machinery exclusively;
that the labor cost of production has
! not been increased by one-fifth in these
past years, and that, therefore, the
cause OF this fall in prices must lie in
! what, If not in dearer money, and was
due primarily to an appreciation in
gold.
Changes in the value of money have
largely influenced the movements of
prices during the last half century, and
We're great factors in the price move
ments during one long period During
the quarter century following the gold
discoveries in California, there was
much progress in the line of invention,
much introduction of labor saving ma
chlnefy, much cheapening in the labor
cost OF production. This, on your the
/ DRY, should have caused steadily fall
ing prices. But what happened?
GOLD CHEAPENED.
The outpouringS of gold cheapened
gold to greater degree than commod-
tiles were cheapened. and the result
was that prices We're in general 80 per
cent higher at the end of this period
than at the beginning. Then what hap
pened? We, along with many other ma
tions closed our minis to silver, we in
creased the demand fer gold with the
result that gold went up in value and
prices of commodities down. You
must abandon the advocacy of gold
recommendation, unless you can show
that the decentralization of silver and
the doubling Of the demand for gold re-
sultant therefrom, has not caused gold
to grow dearer and prices lower to the
great injury to all producers of wealth
You should at least show that the per-
petuation of the gold standard will not
result in making money dearer and hui
man flesh cheaper
And now just one word as to the
second resolution to which you take
exception. This resolution declares, and
you must admit it, that the purpose OF
your currency bill is to cause the re-
tlrement of our national greenback cur
rency and all government paper money
and the substitution of bank notes
This you holauto be desirable.
POWER OF THE BANKS.
Why? Would it not give the banks
the power to regulate our foreign ex-
changes, the power to check gold ex-
ports by contraction and by screwine
down accommodation to merchants 81
force 10 hot,
ucts on the market at prices at which
our foreign creditors would rather take
such products than our gold? Would
1t not thus relieve the treasury of the
burden of providing for gold redemp.
lions and make the banks supreme
This we hold to be undesirable L
would make the banks guardian Over
our volume of money, and so of oul
measure of values; it would enable the
banks working in the interest of the
spectators to cause movements il
prices with great certainty and enable
them to dcpreSS prices by contractins
the currency and raise prices by eX
banding the same. 1t would make thu
banks masters, and the many tn,
slaves, and would enrich the few an(
impoverish the multitude
A SOCDOLOGER.
In the statement you recently mad
before the house committee on bank
ing and currency in support of you
bill, you say, and repeat this truism
, That the less the government owes tn
,, less it will have to pay! Yet you
plan involves the proposition of tn
retirement of our national paper cur
rency and greenbacks upon which w
pay no interest at all, and the ISSUANCE
Of bonds in it's stead in the sum O
$200,000000, which we shall owe, an,
upon which we shall be required to pa,
interest. The inconsistency of you
statement and your plans seems glar
ing.
I'VE oppose your currency bill be
cause, as has been we'll said, it is
bill to provide for the abdication of tn
sovereign powers of the government t.
! the banks, for strengthening the hand
of the speculative classes enriching tn
few and impoverishing the many"