Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 August 1896 — ANAPPEAL TO REASON [ARTICLE]

ANAPPEAL TO REASON

WAGE earners cannot afford to ENGOURAQ.E FREE SILVER. “If Fifty Cents Will Bluy as Milch as a. Dollar, Wlmt Is the. Use of Making Fifty Cents Into a Dollar”—A Flaln Sermop For Thoughtful Minds. [Baltimore Sun (Dem.)] The Sun has altvays tried to be and has been the paper of what Mr. Lincoln called the plain people—the people who constitute the bone and sinew of the] country in peace, and who, in time of! war, stand in tho ranks and pay with their bodies. For this reason Tho Sun has, through its long career, opposed persons and political parties yrho endeavor in nation, state and municipality, to use tho government for class or individual emolument. * * * * The Sun cannoftsoe that those conditions aro to any large extent tho product of tho demonetization of silvor in 1873, or that any adequate remedy can be, 1 found in its remonetization. On tho contrary, it can but believe that, the remonetization of silver on tho ratio pro-] posed will aggravate rather than miti- ( gate the evils on which we have fdllon. Conceding for tho argument all that is claimed by the silverites as to tho effect of the “crime of 1873” iu demonetizing silvor, and that its remonetization will bring silver at the ratio of 10 to 1 to a parity with gold", where is the benefit to tho salariod man and the wagoearner in town or. country? Conceding that prices will then be advanced, is there any advantage in this to theso classes? Aro they not interested in low prices and not in high prices? Is noETtKc same to almost an equal degree true of the farmer? The use of money is tQ buy. If] 50 cents will buy as much as sl, what is tho use of making the 50 cents into $1? W o aro now looking at the economic oifcct of such legislation on the labor- j iug man, and wo confess wo cannot see how any wage-earnor or salaried man can discovor any good for himself in the romonotization of silvor at 16 to 1. We pannot see this if all follows that its friends claim will follow. But suppose it does not, and we believe it will not. j Thon wagos and salaries-will bo paid in depreciated money, and by the enhancement of prices the purchasing power of these depreciated wages will bo further reduced. Wo, can see no other result for the wage-earner and salaried man. An artificial stimulus to business from the apparent rise in prices following such legislation would work itself Out in a short time. When prices have boon adjusted to tho new money this stimulus would cease to exist and the! situation would be wages not raised or, if raised, not rateably raised, and their purchasing power diminished. For the wage-earner this is all that we can see In the remonetization of silver at 16 to 1. Believing this, wo believe that wo stand by the plain people when we-ro-sist this remonetization, and all the statistics aud figures about the quantity of gold and silver in the world and the quantity of currency needed in this country do not conceal from our view this plain result of the remonetization of silver at 16 to 1.

Turning to tho moral aspects of the question we believe that all men everywhere, and the plain people especially, nrc interested in tho maintenance of the light. Here, again, if we concede that tno “crime of 1873” was an immoral act. in imposing on debtors burdens greater j than they had assumed, how doos the remonetization of silver and the cheap-1 ening of money at this time correct that act? That was nearly a generation ago. f Most of the persons who participated in that “crime” are now dead. Senator Stewart is one of tho few survivors. Tho dobtore and creditors of that day are not tho dobtors and creditors of today. The vast mass of private obligations now' existing have been incurred since that time, and indeed, within a few years— The corporation, national, state and municipal bonds then outstanding have, to an incalculable extent, passed into the hands of now purchasers, who paid gold value for them, and those lince issued have been purchased at gold values. Is it not crude and immoral and an act of bad faith to legislate for the payment of all debts in depreciated money? If, as some silverites contend, money will not be depreciated by remonetiza-tion-of silver at 10 to 1, the debtor and creditor will stand in tho same position they did before, and, so far as their relations are concerned, this whole agita- j tion and the proposed legislation are for nothing. We are to go through'tho fire and come out where we went in. To see the Democratic party in its! platform abandon the cause of the plain man, the salaried man and the wageearner and abandon tho cause,of individual, corporate, national, state and municipal good faith is a source of unmeasured regret to The 3tln. But The Sun will not be deterred by this or anything else from advocating what it believes to bo for the genoral public good. It will continue to stand by the plain man, tho salaried man, the wagoearners and the farmer, even to the extent of fighting what it believes to be his delusions. It will try to protect him from himself as well as from his other enemies. * |