Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 October 1900 — MAN ABOVE THE DOLLAR [ARTICLE]

MAN ABOVE THE DOLLAR

Condition Which Makes the Working* man’s Bulwark of Independence. Mr. Bryan is daily holding up to contempt the idea that “a full dinner pail” is the paramount issue, and denounces the efforts of McKinley to establish conditions that provide opportunity to earn three meals a day as putting “the dollar above the man.” But every thinking man, and especially every leader of organized labor, knows thaF the first essential to the development of the higher nature of the masses Is that they be well fed. well clothed and thrifty. The leaders of labor order strikes in order that the wage w’orker may earn enough to relieve themselves from all anxiety about the essentials of comfortable daily living. And when these are secured they begin to agitate for a shorter day—not a short-value dollar—ih\ order that a well fed and well clothed people may have physical strength after the day’s labor, to nourish a desire for education and development of the mental and moral life. The leaders of organized labor know that when a man is ground down, is hungry, destitute and grieved at the daily sight of pinched; wan faces at home, then the dollar is above the man, and his condition shows it is out of his reach. But give the country legislation which loosens money for investment so freely that the interest rate drops to the low point of today—which opens the mills instead of the mints—which starts car wheels and keeps retail merchants busy, and We have conditions which put the man above the dollar. Then he has a chance at more than one job. If his foreman mistreats him or his Incorporated employer seeks to cut his wages, or overworks him, then he may quit, with the certainty that he can get something else to do. This situation is the bulwark of his independence. Above all men, the wage earner is vitally interested in two things: first, the fullest possible demand for his labor, and, second, the steadiest, most reliable value of the dollar he earns. He lias troubles enough, as all have, irrespoeiive of their wealth, without having to worry as to whether liis money is sound or not and .will purchase as much for himself and loved ones on the morrow as well as on the day the dollars were earned. His independence is assured and grows stronger*hs long as there are two jobs hunting him, for that throws the burden of competition upon the jobs, and he benefits. The jobs bid for his labor and his wages go up. But let two men begin to bid against each other for one job, and the burden of competition is on the men. The job goes to the lowest bidder. The dollar is above the man again. And this is the condition that Bryanism -would bring. The great apostle of cheap money rested his fame on his free trade speeches in congress prior to his nomination at Chicago. He is no less a free trader than he is for free silver. He helped frame the Wilson bill, being a member of the ways and means committee, which was stigmatized by Cleveland as “party perfidy and party dishonor,” and which every leader knows earned this stigma in the minds of the American people by spreading want and privation. With Bryan as president we would have not only a cheating, half-value dollar, but another Wilson tariff bill. With such agents of disaster, credit would disappear, business would stop, mills would close, investments cease, and industry would bear the burden of blight. The dollar would be above the man, and far beyond his reach. Let wives, who must be the chief sufferers, counsel their Bryanite husbands and sons on j the situation. To the women of the land the full dinner pail has no hallo- , cination, as Mr. Bryan teaches. McKinley is the apostle of comfortable 1 homes and a margin between earnings and the fixed charges of daily living, | Bryan’s theories will make both impossible, and the prosperity all are now enjoying a mere memory.