The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-04-04
spolistion OF the People by Act OF
Congress-Western Plans.

Mr.. Wilson, of Indiana, in his place in the
House, on Friday, warned New England that
the South and West could control the govern
ment If they chose but if they did," he
added, lit would be on the principles Of JUS
tice to all and equal rights and privileges to
ALL" This is nothing less than we should
have anticipated from the superior virtue of
the West Mr.. Wilson's observation is sig
nifcant 1t indicates that the ordinary Con-
gressional mind has aptly seized the political
possibilities of the future as they have been
made evident by the recent votes on financial
points, and is prepared to accept the sectional
relation of its district to other parts of the
country Already Western advocate of free
currency mills warns the people of the At
lantic slope that the West can outvote them if
it will, and that, therefore, they might as well
hold their peace in Congress- People on this
side the mountains may say what they choose, if
they choose to say what meets the wishes OF
the people on the other side, and their votes
will be esteemed of value, too in support OF
Western measures; but if they oppose what
they deem unwise or shortsighted III Western
propositions, "down with them at once, says
the West, "and let them know that we can do
without them; and, in short, that we only
tolerate them in a spirit of indulgence-only
accept the fiction that their votes and voices
are of any weight here in order not to make
ourselves disagreeable." Wonderful magma
nimity Of the West For Wilson, Of Indiana,
is of course o fair average. How near this
Western tone on finance is in essential charac-
ter to the bullyragging that was formerly
heard in Congress when some member from
the middle of South Carolina informed the
world how easily his section could whip the
North But then, also, it chivalrously refrained
from doing it because it would not ruthlessly
use its power; so now the West and South
together can vote us all down, ''if they
choose" yet, even if they do, it will
only be on the principle Of 'justice to all, :"
which we are exceedingly glad to hear, though
we should like to know more exactly the
Western notion Of justice in finance.
One of the cardinal points of the Western
'.justice to all is that everybody shall have
plenty of money, to which the people can
scarcely object. Western men propose two
plans for securing this result, which plans,
like the swan on still ST. Mary's Lake, '.doat
double, swan and shadow" One is the re-
distribution of the currency in existence, SO
that those who have too much shall divide
with those that have none-a policy which is
not new, but has been urged in many coun-
tries 1t was tried by the famous Mr.. Cade,
sometimes Familiarity called Jack Cade who
this notion of the redistribution Of the cur
rency. The other plan is to respect the dis
tribution as it stands, but to print enough
currency to issue to the unsupplied districts,
so that they will have a fair proportion by
comparison with the districts already sup
Piled Although we call this another plan it
is as we have intimated in the observa-
ton that these plans float double
sanother and the same 1t is toler-
ably clear that if q law is proposed to
take away from every man fifty cents of every
dollar he possesses, and another is proposed
to make every dollar in the peoples pockets
worth only fifty cents, the result is pretty
much the same to the people. Indeed, it
would appear like a superfuous exercise of
the intellect to pretend to distinguish or
choose between these propositions. Yet these
are the propositions Of the Western men,
who, if they are not admitted, intend, many
thousands of them, as in the case of Trelaw-
ney, to s1know the reason why" Redistribu-
ton has always been more or less popular
with the people, but it was never understood
in this country that our government was or
ganized to carry it out If Congress votes it
our Police Commissioners will be under obliga-
ton to apologize most humbly to the Commu-
nists whom they caused to be dubbed in
Tompkins square some time since, because
this is the middle point of the system Of those
politicians. Redistribution is all they
ask for. They are poor and others
are rich; this they regard as o hard
ship. So the West and South are poor and
New York and New England are rich, and
that is hardship of the same class. And as
Congress is very likely to relieve one of these
hardships, it is monstrous that people should
have been dubbed tor proposing to relieve
the other AS Congress is so likely to admit
this view Of Western ''justice to all and equal
rights and privileges to ALL" it would be o
good notion if some exponent of the system in
the House would tell the country how far
down in the scale they propose to carry it.
Up to the present time they have only pro-
posed to apply it to banks; but if Congress
has the authority to say that o rich section Of
the country whose credit system is operated
by certain bank shall surrender half the
money it holds and only have half of what it
has shown itself entitled to possess, and that
this half shall 60 to poor section which has
not shown its right to possess any, then Con-
gress may have the authority to apply the
same principle to still smaller sections of the
country-say farms-and to individual for.
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