The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1897-03-04
SILVER and WAGES.
Speech Of Secretary Carlisle
at Chicago.

He Addresses a Mass Meeting Of Work.
ingmen on the Currency Question.
Makes II Clear That Cheap Money Always
Was and Always VIII Be the Wage
Farmers Enemy-Free Coinage Means
Silver Monometallism and Reduced Pur-
chasing Power Of wages-such Has Been
tho Experience with Deprecated Silver
In Chile, Japan and Mexico and with
Our DEPRECATED Currcncy-Would Rob
Workingmen Of Billions Of Dollars De-
posted In Savings Banks and Building
and Loan Associations and Invested In
Insurance Policies.
We reprint below in full Secretary Carlisle's
clear, forcible and unanswerable speech to the
labor organizations oil Chicago, at the Audito-
rum, on April ID:
Mr.. PRESIDENT AND GENTIEMEN-I am here
this evening in response to o communication
received several months ago from number OF
gentlemen connected with various labor Or
ganizations Of this city inviting me to address
them and their fellow workingmen upon the
currency and financial questions which were
then and are still agitating the minds OF our
people in all parts Of the country. When that
communication reached me, 1t was not in my
power to designate time when my official
duties would permit me to come here but
promised to hold the matter under consldera-
tion and como whenever 1t might be possible
to do So and now congratulate myself upon
my good fortune In having at last found an
opportunity to meet this great assemblage OF
laboring people and to discuss in their pres
ence what / consider one of the most impor-
tant economic questions that can possibly en-
gage the attention Of wage earners In this or
any other country.
The Wage Farmers Interest In Good Money.
Whether the general business Of the people
shall be transacted with good money or bad
money, whether the wages Of labor shall be
paid in sound and stable currency, with full
purchasing power in the markets where they
are exchanged for the necessaries OF life, or in
q deprecated and fuctuating currency, hay
ing no fixed value and therefore bearing no
permanent relation to the current prices Of
commodities are questions which affect the
comfort and happiness Of every home and the
peace and PROSPERITY Of every community.
While all are deeply interested in the settle
ment Of these questions II Is unfortunately the
case that all will not be equally affected by an
erroneous decision upon them. The wealthy
man, the man who has accumulated property
or boarded money, Is always exempt from
many of the most serious consequences OF
financial or industrial disturbance He has
both means and credit, and, while he may be
subjected to much loss and Inconvenience,
neither he nor his family will be pinched by
hunger or compelled to 70 without raiment or
shelter.
It is the Door man and the man of moderate
means-the man who has not been fortunate
enough to accumulate property or money, but
who depends upon his wages or upon the prod
ucts Of his own labor for the means of sup
porting himself and his family-that always
feels the first and most disastrous effects OF
business or industrial depression, no matter
whether ii results from deprecated and fuc-
tuatiug currency or from other causes. Such
q man has nothing to dispose Of but his labor
and nothing with which to support himself or
his family but his wages or the proceeds OF
his own labor and any policy that even tenn
porarly suspends or obstructs the industrial
progress of the country by diminishing the
demand for the products OF labor, or by i'm
pairing the capacity or disposition of capital
to employ labor must be injurious to his in
terests and inflict more or less suffering upon
all who are drpendent upon him. Labor cam
not be boarded the idle day is gone forever;
lost wages are never reimbursed, and there
fore steady employment and good pay in good
money are essential to the comfort and happi
ness of the American laborer and his wife and
children, and he will be unfaithful to himself
and to them IL he does not insist upon the
adoption and maintenance Of such policy as
will most certainly preserve the value and sta
blity of all our currency and promote the
regular and profitable conduct Of all our in
dustrlal enterprises. He cannot prosper when
the country Is in distress, when Its industries
are Frustrated, 1t commerce paralyzed, its
credit broken down or its social order dis
turbed, nor can he prosper when the fiuctua'
lions Of the currency are such that ho cannot
certainly know the value of the dollar in
which his wages are paid or estimate in adj.
vance the cost Of the necessaries of life.
Whether we shall or shall not have long
periofo Of financial. commercial and industrial
disturbance in this country, and whether la
Dor shall DO deprived of permanent employ
ment or be partially employed and made
quately paid, are questions directly and neccS-
sarily involved in the demand now seriously
made by many of our fellow citizens that the
United States, without the cooperation OF my
other government in the world, and In oppo-
sition to the established policy of every
other great civilized and commercial nation
| shall authorize the free and unlimited coinage
Of full legal tender silver at tho rate of 10 to L.
notwithstanding the true market ratio be-
tween the two metals is about 81 to |. or. in
other words, that the United States alone shall
declare by law that l6 ounces Of silver are
equal in value to ounce Of gold when it Is
an indisputabe fact everywhere recognized
that in all the markets Of the world. in silver
standard countries as we'll as in gold standard
countries, 10 ounces of silver are worth only
about onehalf as much as l ounce Of gold
and will purchase only about one half us much
Of the nocessaries of life.
What Free Coinage Really Means.
The nakai proposition is that the United
States shall coin, at the public expense, for the
| exclusive benefit Of the individuals and cor.
porations owning the bullion, oil the silver
that may be presented at the mints into dol
lars containing 87lh grains Of pure silver. or
| 4l21S grains of standard silver, worth intrin-
sically about 81 OF 81 cents, deliver tho coins
| to the depostors Of the bullion and compel all
the other people in the country to receive
these coins at valuation of lOO cents each in
tho payment Of debts due them for property
| sold, for labor and service Of all kinds, for
| pensions to soldiers and sailors and their wild
ows and children, for losses sustained under
policies issued by life and other insurance
companies, for deposits in savings banks, trust
| companies. building associations and other in
| situations, for debts duo to widows and orphans
| by guardians, executors and administrators Of
decedents estates and other trustees for sala'
ries Of all civil, military and naval officials
and the compensation Of private soldiers and
soamcn, and, in short, for every kind OF obi.
CATION recognized by the laws Of the land ex'
cept only in cases where the prudent capitalist
has taken the precauton in advance to con-
| tract for payment OF debts duo him in gold or
Its equivalent.
To say nothing Of the gross Partially and
manifest injustice Of such policy, its imme'
date effect would be to contract our currency
TO the extent of about $500 000. 900 by stopping
the use of gold as money and putting pre-
MUM upon the coins Of that metal equal, or
about equal, to the difference between the in.
triusc value OF the gold dollar and the intrin.
sic value Of the silver dollar. Gold coins would
at once become q commodity and would be
bought and sold by spectators in the market
Just as they were during the war, when we
had deprecated paper currency. The value
Of the silver liar would fuctuate from day
to day, movini up and down with the rise and
fall Of the com. nercial price Of the bullion con-
tained In ID. as the Mexican dollar does now,
and the premium on the gold dollar would of
course hu0tuate to the same extent thus ar
fording on opportunity to bullion brokers and
spectators to buy and sell 1t at profit. 1t
would cease to be used as money. because no
man would pay his debt In gold dollars or IN
paper redeemable In gold dollars. worth lOu