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Spoke To Mill Men

Spoke To Mill Men image
Parent Issue
Day
7
Month
October
Year
1896
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

-o delegation has giren Maj. MeKinley a warmer greeting than that of the olieering. fiair-waving. hat-tossing, Hoinestead workingmen. Maj. MeKinley's Speecli. Jlaj. McKiiiley apoke as i'ollows: "Mr. President and My Follow Citirens: I a in glad to have at my home and to giro wclcome to the workingmen of Homeátead, Pa. (Oheers.) The Repuliliean party bas always believed in 'homesteads' (laughter and applauseï, whether it be the homstead upon the public domain in the i'ar West. or whether it be homésteads in t)ie busy centers of manufaeturing industries. Mr. Ijincoln Bigned the firat homstead law that was ever passed, opening up the great public territory to the freo homes of American eitiSsens, and fi'om tliat hour uutil the present the Republican party has been'e&gaged in advocating a policy tliat would give a honiestead to every man who vrorks. (A vqice: "We are lookinsf for a second Lincoln in yoo, major.") I canuot forbear to congratúlate you ou the wondorful advanceraent you have made. in the great iudustry you represent, so eloquently described by y uur spokesman. "We are now engagod in a campaign which directly affects every workingmaii in the United States (applause) and every interest beueath our Bag, We are iuterested in a contest which involves not only the question of the tariff, but involTes the question of sound nioney; whether we shall have the same good inoney we now have and have had for more than sixteen years past, or try the hazardons experiment of engaging in tlie independent free coinage of silver. au experiment that has worked disaster everywhere and is bound to work it here if ever tried. "Some phases of this question I want to especially present for your conaideration. The very frequent statement is made that the gold siaudard bas injured the business of the country, diminished the priees of agricultura! producís, appreciated the price of gold, and wrought ruin and disaster to the country. Why Prices Fall. "This is, of course, a mere assumption and is based upon the fluctuatrons of the niarket iirices of commodities, which, in many iustames, have diminished in the last tweuty-five years, and because of this decrease in prices it is assertea tnat gom nas appreciateti. me i'all in prices every man in tnis audieuee knows is easily and readily a - rounted for apon a moment's reflection. The decrease in the price of commodities has been going on ever sinoe skill and genius and invention have been at work, aml sijch cheapeniag procesa has been niarked and conspicuous for a third of a century. aided by a protective tariff and the rich rewards that oar prosprity has offered. Whatever agrieultural producís have fallen in price, it is diseoverabie that there has been an increased production and that the inereased eonsutnption has nut kept pace with the inereased product ion. "As great arcas of land have been opened to the raising of farm producís, the quantity of such production lias increased, and the demand not inereasing in the same proportion prices have logieally and inevitably fallen. It does not require a great effnrt of the mind to eomprehend that if yon lacrease the quantity of wheat in a single year onormously with about the same number of consumers as before prkes will go down. With a given number of consumera and an increased production, with more competitors and no more consumera, the èheaper will be the producís. What aereases the price of any product is that inany people want ft and can only get it by paying a ietter price than some one eJse is willing to give. The more people who want an article the better priee it will command. -The more people who want your labor the better wages you will recèive. (Applause.) If there is one day's labor for sixteen worfcingmea yon would not act as good wages as though there were sixteen days for one workin graan. iLaughter and applause.) And hat is the sort of 16 to 1 we want in the United States. (Applause.) "The changes in the prices of agricuJtural producís or any other eommodities whieh have been eheapened in their produetion by iinproved macliinery and more competition and greater proiluction do uot prove that gold has advanced in value, but simply that siu-h producís have tallen m price. Is not the labor of men rather than the thing which their labor creates, the real test? Have the wages paid to labor sinee 187:!, as measured by gold, decreasedV That is the crucial question. We reSHmed specie payments on a gold basis January 1. 1879. Since that time wagos and salaries have not deehned, but rather risen. "In 1880 the number of employés in the manufacturing establishments of oJÜPffiS States, men and youths, was s- nñnU0' aSSregating in wages $947.óio.OOO, or an average of $824 per capita. In 1890, ten yoars after resumÍPfeaSiS. number Pf wage-earners is i,tl,b2, and their aggregate earninga Were $2,283.215.529. or 4S8 per capita, llus showing would clearly indieate that the gold basis has uot injured labor Jiere was an iniroase f rom 1880 to 1890 ot nearly 50 per cent. This increase in the wages of labor is furthor sustained by the report of the committee of the 1 nited States Senate, made by ttie membs of both political parties, whieh in 1SH2 mvcstigated the subject of wages and pnces. The committee reported that m tvveuty-one of the selected industries " ailosowere in "oney 40 per cent. higher m 1880 than 1860, and 60 per cent higher in 1890 than in 1860, and the pnces of staple artieles had fallen between 1880 and 1890 in some instances one-third. In other worde, there never had been a time in our history when work was go abnndant or when wages were so high. whether measured by the enrreney in which tkey were paid or by tne power to supply the necessariea and comforts of life. (Applanse. Id 189; in 189C. That's what you left in 1892. Is there a workmgmad in the United States who does not want that condition back i??'n; (Continued applause.) Bince lbO wages have advanced 081. per cent., according to the table of the Senate committeo. The wages paid in 1860 were in timp? when we had tilo freo and uiilimited coinage of silver and thirteen years before the suspension of free coinage of silver. In 1890. aecording to the census, the number of persons over 12 vears oí age laboring at varions ocennations r?Mb?d 14,326,150. This great ai my ot which yon are a part. constltutiiig more than one-fifth of population, work for wages. and are paid in money measured by gold, that is. hen you nare work, or money as good as gold. lou have had „o other kind of money nce %9. and the werking poo■ 1 i l" Mhpr untry of the world have "VJ monea „.„■.;iit.1'' ai'' UiV toiling masses who - i " "71 r;"Ty!l more prosplülüñ before. The cheapening of commodities comes trom Üe introduction and applicalion of labor-saving machinery, both on the farm and in the factory. There is Rcarcely any branch of production which not turn out more commodities pur hour of labor than in 1878. It would ba ast as rtasouable ani just as ilusivo to say that the suspension of tlic í'i'cc coinage of silver in 1873 retí the price of stoel rails froin SlL'li per ton i" $25 or $30 per ton, the price i.i w preval) ing, as to say that art reduccd t lu' price of wheát. Fixes the Trice oí Wheat. "The price of wheat is lixod by the law of supply and demandj whioh Es ternal. Gold has not made lona crops or short crops, high prices or low prices. Gold lias no1 opened up the wheal fields of Russia, ludia or the Argentine Bfc public, nor will free silver destroy them. (oíd has not kopt up the freight retes i'or the agricultura! producer, and the Stoppage of free coinage in 1873 has aot advaneed it. ■'Ín .187;! the average of freight on grain by lako and rail from Chicago to New York was 28.9 cent per boshel. ín 1895 it was 6.9 per bushel. Oar working people havo bought the necessaries and comforts of iife cheapër for thoniM'lvos and families during all these yoars sinee 1873 and down to 1892. Thoy were getting better wages, ]aid in gold, for their labor tlian ever before. In the United States everythlBg has feeën cheapened but man. and. as nearly as 1 can ascertain it, in free silver countries- such as Mexico, Central America and South America - man nlone has been cheapened, everything he buys having boon steadily inereased, with constant Suctnations by steady deciease in the price of silver. With the oíd basis and the protectivo tariff froni 1879 to 1893 the workingmen of the country were nover before so steadily omployed. they never before received such ;ood wages, they never before were pala in better money, and their wages never before bought so many of the necessaries oomforts and hixuries of life. (Applause and crios of 'Hurrah for McKinley!') "If a gold standard doprivod the American toiler of a. single day's work or his family of a single comfort, or reduced his wagos. or made his life harder for liim I would be agaiust it. (Applausc.) As it does uot, and as it promotes the general prosperity and upholds the national credit and honor, I am for it and shall steadily favor it as long as I beliove ít ís truly beneficia! a mi advantageous to our country. (.Long and continucd applause.) Quotes John G. Carlisle. "The Hon. John G. Carlisle, the distinguished Democrat who s at present secretary of the treasury, on April 15, 1806, addressed the workingmen of Chicago in a speech of great power and eloquenee. Auiong other things, he said: 'The value of the silver dollar, ander free conage, would fluctuate from day to day, moving up and down with the rise and fall of the commercial price of the bullion contained in it. as the Mexican dollar does now, and the premium of the gold dollar would of eourse fluctuate te the same extent. thus affording au opportunity to bullion brokers and speeulators to buy and sell at a profit. It would cease to be used as money because no man would pay his debts in gokl dollars or in paper redcemable in gO.'J dollars worth 100 cents, when the law permitted him to pay them in silver dollars worth only 51 to 52 cents eacli. " 'ïhe sndden withtlrawal,' says Mr. Carlisle, 'of $620.000.000 of gold from cnrrency in the country would undoubtedly produce a financial and industrial disturbance far more disastrous to the interests of labor than ever before experienced in our history, and no man Nvho has a partiële of sympathy for woikingmen and workingwomen and their dependent families can contémplate the possibility of such a calamity without feeling that it is his duty, whether he occupies private or public station, to employ every honorable means at his command to avert it.' "These are the words of truth and soberness; 1 commend them to the workingmen of Homestead (applause), and to the entire eountry, everywhere, as well entitled to the most serious and earnest consideration. "Gentlemen, I have always been, as yon know, in favor of a protective táriff, aii'l have always advoeated it and believed in it because I tbought it was necessary to piotect the American workingman against the eheaper labor of the world. Applying that great principie, I am in favor of proteeting today the workiugnian of the United States agaiust a degraded eurreney. I am oposed to free trade because it degrades American labor. I am opposed to free silver because it degrades American money. ontinuous applause.) "You woikingmen who are making in part the great armor plate for the use of our navies must use that great armor of citizenshi]) - the ballot - in dofending the honor and credit and currency of the United States. (Applause.) I thank you more than I can teil for this cali from the men who toil. To íeel that they aro with me and the cause which for the moment I represent is a source of strength and comfort to me for which I cannot make suitable aeknowledgment. "I am glad to meet and greet you, and it wiil be my further pleasure to shake, if possible. each and everyone of you by the hand." (Cheering.)

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Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Courier