The Topeka state journal., 1897-12-30
Will Not Make Money Dearer
and Human Flesh Cheaper.
HE WRITES TO GAGE
In Defense of the FederatiOn's
Resolutions
In Opposition to the Secretary's
Currency Plan.


passed by the federation with reference
to the Gage financial bill. Mr.. Com
pers says in part:
You take exception both to the
position which our organization has ta-
ken upon your bill as we'll as the Ian
guage employed. Even if you are JUS
titled in the one. you certainly misap-
prehend the other. 1 submit that you
VIII seek in vain for a single denunci-
atory word either in regard to your
motives, your plan or your bill. We re-
alize that denunciation is not argu-
ment, but to declare our position and
the statement of a fact in regard to a
most important and far-reaching meas
ure, affecting the changing of the finan-
c1al system of our country, can by no
means be construed as denunciation.
Those resolutions declare against
your plan for more thoroughly commit
ting our country to the gold standard,
q plan for destroying our greenback
currency and substituting bank notes,
plan, in fact, for weakening the con-
troll of the national government over
that most important of all measures,
the measure of values, and strengthen
ing the banks, plan aiming at what
you call currency reform, and which
we call bank monopoly
THAT you should take offense at
these resolutions, 1 regret, for the right
to express disapproVal of the act of
their servants is one of the rights held
sacred by the American people and one
charge you with ignorance, relative or
absolute or aIlege any evil purpose
or a 'perversity of motive on your part
as implied in your letter, nor upon re-
reading the resolutions will you find
them either cOndemnatOry or denuncia-
tory, as you say they are. The resolu-
tiOns are declaratOry of the views of
the American Federation of Labor and
are entirely impersonal for of all men
in public life, we have the greatest re-
Spect for your integrity.
THE wage earners of America, rep
resented in the American Federation of
Labor, believe that the position taken
in regard to the retirement of the
greenback currency is antagOniStic to
their interests and are opposed to your
plan for more thoroughly committing
this country of ours to the gold stand
ard.
You ask what evils have resulted
from our adherence to the gold stand
ard. I answer that the evils are those
that have grown and ever must grow
from a dishonest measure of value,
measure of values that interferes with
the just distribution of wealth, that
depriVes some men of part of their
earnings that is rightly theirs and con-
fers 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 pro
ducer of the fruits of toll, cuts down
wages and profits, thereby destroys the
incentive to enterprise, leads to indus
trial stagnatiOn, enforced idlenesS, dis
tress and public suffering.
THE products of labor are divided in
to three general shares. One share
goes as interest and rents to the mon
ey lender and the landlord, to capital
lists who do not productivity use their
own capital who seek to avoid the
risks of production. A second share
goes as profits to employers; a third
goes as wages to wage earners. The
interest charges and rents are to
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 nominaIly fixed, and decrease |
the share to be divided among employ /
ers 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 debt |
or.
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
in money to fall in price.
However, it is not alone to the |
cheapening of the labor cost of prOduc- !
ton but also to an actual appreciation |
has been in great part due. And this
appreciatiOn has grown out of the de- |
mOnetizatiOn of silver which has in
creased the demand for gold. This is a
question that every producer can an
sWer. Has the fall in prices curtailed
my earnings? If the fall in prices has
been due only to general improved |
methods of production, a leSSening in
the true cost of production. he has suf-
fered no loss from such fall. Moreover
the fall in prices since 1898, common to
all gold using countries, fall in prices
of 20 per cent has not grown out of
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.
You must abandon the advocacy of
gold recommendation unless you can
show that the demonetizatiOn of silver,
and the doubling of the demand for
gold resultant therefrOm, has not cauS-
ed gold to grow .dearer and prices low
er to the great injury of all producers
of wealth. You should at least show /
that the perpetuatiOn of the gold stand
ard will not result in making money |
dearer and human flesh cheaper
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
tirement of our national greenback cur
rency 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 reg
lIate our foreign exchanges. the power
to check gold exports by contraction
and by ScreWing down accommodation
to merchants so as to force them to
throw their products on the market at
prices at which our foreign creditors |
would rather take such products than