The record-union., 1897-12-30

Will be Required to be Paid.
WASHINGTON. Dec. 29.-Samuel
| Gompers, President of the American
Federation of Labor, has replied in an
open letter to Secretary Cages recent
letter taking exceptions to the reso-
lutions passed by the Federation with
reference to the Gage financial bill.
Mr.. Gompers says in part:
You ask what evils have resulted
from our adherence TO the gold stand
ard. l answer that the evils are those
that have grown and ever must grow
from a dishonest measure OF values,
a measure of values that interferes
with the just distribution of wealth;
! that deprives some men Of a part OF
their earnings that is rightly theirs,
and confers it upon others who have
earned it not. Any measure of values
that thus forces an unjust distribution
of the products of labor: that deprives
the producer of the fruits of has toiA.
and cuts down wages and profits there
by destroys the incentive to enterprise.
leads to industrial stagnauon, enforc-
ed idleness, distress and public suffer-
| ing.
into three general shares. One goes
as interest and rents to the money
lender and landlord, the capitalists
who do not productivity use their own
capital. who seek to avoid the risks
of production. y second share goes as
profits TO employers, and third goes
as wages TO wage earners.
The interest charges and rents are to
a
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 en-
ployers and employees and wage earn
ers. 1t is equally clear that to in
crease the value of money must de-
crease the value of the products of la
| Dor, and therefore enrich the creditor
at the expense of the debtor.
Changes in the value of money have
largely Influenced the movement of
prices during the lagt half century,
and were great factors in the price
movements during one long period.
During the quarter century following
the gold discoveries in California, there
was much progress in the line of in
vention, much introducing of labor
saving machinery, much cheapening in
the cost of production. This. on your
theory, should have caused steadily
falling prices. But what happened?
The outpourings of gold cheapened
gold to a greater degree than commo-
dities were cheapened, and the result
was that prices were in general 80 per
cent higher at the end of this period
than at the beginning. Then what
happened? We, along with many
other nations, closed our mntS to sill
Yer.
And now, just one word as to the
second resolution TO which you take
exception. This resolution declares,
and you admit it, that the purpose of
your currency bill is to cause the re-
tirement of our national greenback
currency and all Government paper
money and the substitution of bank
notes. This you hold to be desirable.
Why? Would it not give the banks
the power to regulate our foreign ex-
changes, the power to cheek gold eX-
ports by contraction and by screwing
down accommodation to merchants,
SO as to force them to throw their pro-
ducts on the market at prices at which
our foreign creditors would rather take
such products than our gold? Would
it not thus relieve the treasury of the
burden providing for gold redemptions,
and make the banks supreme? This
we hold to be undesirable. 1t would
make the banks guardian over our
volume of money, and so of our meas
ure of values; it would enable the
banks working in the interest of spec
ulators to cause movements in prices
with great certainty. enable them to
depress prices by contracting the cur
rency, and raise prices by expanding
the same; it would make the banks the
masters and the many the slaves and
would enrich the few and impoverish
the multitude.
I'm the statement you recently made
before the House Committee on Bank
ing and Currency in support of your bill
you say and repeat this truism, That
the less the Government owes, the less
it will have to pay Yet your plan
involves the proposition of the retire
ment Of our national paper currency
and the greenbacks, upon which we pay
no interest at all. and the issuance of
bonds in its stead in the sum of $500
100000, which we shall owe and upon
which we shall be required to pay in
terest. The inconsistency of your state
ment and your plan seems glaring
I'VE oppose your currency bill be-
cause. as has been well said, 1t is a
bill to provide for the abdication of the
sovereign powers of the Government
to the banks for strengthening the
hands of the speculative cliques. en-
riching the few and impoverishing the
many"
Walked OFF the Train.
MEMPHIS CTenn.), Dec. 29-S. P.
Lick. a prominent business man. Sc