St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1898-08-24
WAGES OF THE TOILER.

sonal visit to Mexico made by the writer
early in 1893 as special representative OF the
Michigan Republican Newspaper Association
to investigate the monetary system OF that
country.]
During the last national campaign in
the United States and in the several
state campaigns of last fall persistent
efforts were made on behalf Of the adj
vocates of the free coinage Of silver to
persuade the workingmen Of our coun-
try-those who dispose of their labor by
the day or week or month-that especial
advantage would be secured to them
through the currency change asked for.
1t was urged to them that through free
coinage more money would be circulat-
ed and wages would be increased and
that all the injury predicted to occur to
other interests and other classes would
directly result in advancing the inter-
ests of the workingman. To the farmers
it was said that free silver would COM
pei higher prices for their products, it
would enable them to pay their debts in
a cheaper currency and it would give
them unusual and hitherto unpossessed
advantages over all other producing in
terests. Banks and corporations were
denounced, and it was made to appear
that the operation of the free coinage Of
silver would in some way injuriously
tage of the classes sought to be arrayed
against them.
The greater producers and large en-
ployers of labor were included in the
list of interests against which appeals
were made and prejudice created, and
1t was made to appear that SO peculiar
and SO discriminating would be the OPP
GRAFTON of law providing for the free
and unlimited coinage of silver at the
ratio of l6 to that while the small
producers would be benefited the great
producing corporations and iron kings
and lumber barons, as they chose to
ttluu luclu, WOulQ ildNS
limited and lessened, and that while
the income of the employer of labor
would be curtailed through free silver
system the wages Of his employees
would be promptly increased.
If it is thought by any reader of this
review of free coinage assertions that it
is in the least degree exaggerated or
overdrawn, permit me to call his atten-
ton to the leading and more especially
to the closing features of the campaign
of 1896 in behalf of the free coinage of
silver. Is it not true that denunciation
of banks and corporations formed the
principal theme of free silver orators
and free silver editors? Was it not urg-
ed by professional labor agitators before
labor organizations and to labpring men
whenever addressed that the adoption
of free coinage would bestow upon them
advantages over their employers which
they had not before possessed?
Labor and Wages In Mexico.
One of the important purposes of my
visit to Mexico, where the free and un.
limited coinage Of silver is now and has
been in operation since the mint was
first established in 1887, was to learn il
possible by observation and inquiry rel
ative to the practical effects of that sys
tenn what grounds existed for appeals
to workingmen in behalf of such 6
change in the currency laws of the
United States and what reasons existed
in fact for any expectation that work
ingmen and small producers would b,
benefited rather than injured through
such change.
l shall not seek to create prejudice
against the coinage system of Mexico
through mere presentation Of the fac
that the men and women who are tn,
daily toilers here are the poorest paiC
laborers ON this continent if not in any
civilized section Of the entire globe
But l desire to state just here that t,
the continuance of the free and unlimit
ed coinage of silver by Mexico is du,
the loss to the workingmen of this coun
try of more than half the value of thei
daily earnings
Had Mexico coined its own silver ant
upheld its value through establishing
and maintaining the redemption priv
ilege, as has been done by almost ever,
civilized nation on the globe, the Mex
lean laborer could purchase today NOR
than double the quantity of food O
clothing his wages will now command
This burden Of loss by reason of adher
ence on the part of Mexico to none
tary standard which is as completely
thing of the past as the brass candle
stick or the tallow dip has fallen almos
entirely on the shoulders of the laborer
of Mexico, and it is being borne by then
today. The government of Mexico
which is government of and for tn
influential and we'll to do absolutely
finds means of profting through the FIRE
coinage of silver. Capitalists and cor
porations and banks find means of in
creasing their profits through this pol
icy, but the unfortunate from whom al
their extra profits come, the losers iron
whom all Others are gaining, are the la
boring men and their women and chill
dren. Nor is this result of the free coin
age of silver at all unique or peculiar Il
Mexico. 1t is true Of every other FREE
coinage country, and it would be tru
In the United States if such q system
were adopted there. 1t could no more b,
prevented in kind if not in degree thai
the Mississippi river can be prevented