Montana labor news., 1933-12-07
Urges Labor to Get Behind Silver
Program; VIII Do More to Help
Labor than Manganese Embargo.
Washington, D. C.
November 20, 1888.

November 20, 1888.
Silver Bow Trades and Labor Council,
Butte, Montana.
| am in receipt Of your letter of
November 18th, together with copy of
resolutions sent to the President of
the United States. In reply would
say that have done everything that
| could with reference to manganese,
excepting to favor an embargo.
| am not in favor of placing an EN-
barge against anything in the world,
for the reason that it simply means
retaliation by all of the countries of
the world. 1t means in the end moth
ing but bloodshed.
In this connection l might say to
you that | just had a letter come to
my desk, telling me of the frightful
conditions which now exist in Aus
tria, Germany and Hungary by reason
of the extreme nationalistic spirit
that has been arising together with
the tariff policies that have been
adopted since the World War.
In the case Of manganese, however,
the United States Steel Company
wants free manganese, but they want
a high tariff upon steel products,
which is not only Inconsistent but I'M
fair, to the manganese people. l
do not think it could be contended,
however, that there is a sufficient
amount of manganese products in this
country at the present time, and prob
ably cannot be a sufficient quantity
produced to satisfy the needs.
You might be interested to know
that a year or so ago, l was asked
to join a movement for the purpose of
preventing the importation of any
goods from Russia to this country, and
| stated that under no circumstances
would | agree to it. | was informed
that an organization was being per-
fected to do that very thing, and that
all of those who did not join the or
ganization would be charged with car
rying the red flag, and those who did
join would be looked upon as patriots.
| stated to the gentleman that l
had been accused of carrying the red
flag so many times, that one more
charge of that kind would not bother
me in the slightest degree.
There is thing your Silver Bow
Trades and Labor Union could do,
which would be extremely beneficial
to the people of Montana, that is if
the Labor organizations in Montana
would take up with President Green
the question of the reconciliation of
silver.
Samuel Gompers, who was formerly
president Of the American Federation
of Labor ardently supported the re-
monetization of silver. The old labor
organization known as the Knights
of Labor supported the remonetization
of silver, and they did it on the ground
first:
That it would mean increased en-
ployment in something like Ia differ
ent states of this nation for the min
ing industry, and consequently it
would raise the cost of production to
that Of the Oriental countries gem
orally, and raise their standard of
living up to ours, rather than bring
ours down to theirs.
That it would open up our trade
not only in the Orient but with South
and Central America. We would be
selling them our surplus manufactured
goods, or surplus wheat or hogs. 1t
would expand the currency of this a
ton and of the world two-fold and
put it upon a sound basis. 1t would
open up South and Central America
to new great developments as well as
the entire west.
| am at a loss to understand why
the American Federation of Labor
favors the gold standard, which has
done more to keep the working people
of the world down than almost any
thing else. 1t would seem as if they
were working in conjunction with the
House of Morgan, who are apparently
far more interested in England and
France than they are in the United
States.
The talk that Matthew Void makes
that if you cheaper the dollar it is
going to work to the disadvantage of
the working man is ridiculous. AS
you people in Butte can readily appre-
ciate when work is plentiful, you can
maintain labor organizations and have
them effective, because labor will be
scarce, but when there are IL or IL
million people out of employment, it
is impossible to maintain high stand
ards of living or to maintain wages.
The psychology Of the people when
you have IL million people u%nemploy-
ed is in many instances, that they will
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