The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-06-27
HARD TIMES.

&A>@~s
The declaration of the Democrats OF Iowa
in their State Convention of June 25, on thu
subject of the currency, is, if we may trust t.
the brief telegraphic synopsis, an improve
ment on that Of the Democrats of Ohio, ye
leaning to an increase of the volume of thu
circulation. But if the return to specie pay
ments shall be as rapid as possible, withou
injury to the business of the country, accord
ing to the Iowa programme, little else can b.
expected. It will soon begin to be apparen
to the masses that business will improve will
the increasing stability, certainty and uni
formity of the medium through which bust
ness is done.
The farmers of Ohio, Iowa and the West,
are having hard times, in which they are only
sufferers in common with all except the
banking and Specializing classes. There is
cloud hanging over all industrial pursuits
while the condition Of depression and uncer-
tainty is favorable to spectators. Every dis
turbance in commercial and monetary affairs
puts money into the pockets OF that large and
powerful class who gamble on the misfor-
tunes Of their fsllow-men. Those who work
grow poor, but those who exploit the
products of that work grow very rich. Specu-
lation absorbs and masses the goods
chattels and money of the multitude, who
grow poor without knowing the cause. They
work hard, make good crops, and sell for
what seem to be fair prices, but still they find
themselves growing poorer every day. Every
now and then the farmers boy reads Of some
stupendous pile of money which speculstor
has heaped up. He reads of the increasing
wealth of the great cities; of the luxury in
which the wealthy indulge; Of the thousands
who travel yearly to foreign countries; of
shawls that cost more than his fathers
farm; of trousseaus worth "a hundred
times as much as his mothers entire
wardrobe, and Of numerous other displays of
luxuriant and extravagant folly by those who
reap where they have not sown, and gather
where they have not strewn. Can the intelli-
gent youth be long kept ignorant Of the fact
gone in part into the carriages. the mansions,
the diamonds, the dinners, the wines, the
bank account, and the bonds Of the specula-
tors? Can the fact be concealed from him
that his father gets only part Of the value
of his crops. while the balance goes to enrich
those who gamble in produce?
It is not an increase in the volume of the
currency which the farmers Of the Republic
require. That would lessen the purchasing
power of paper, but would not add
q dollar to the wealth Of the country,
nor Q dollar to the value of what
they get in exchange for their products.
They want cheap government and low taxes.
They want cheap transportation for their pro-
ducts. They want their selling and buying
done for them at the smallest expense. They
want the necessaries of life for which their
grain is sold in Europe brought home to them
as cheap as possible, and with as small tariff
exaction as possible. They, therefore. want a
cheap general government which can put
down the tariff on imports to rates as low as
will afford the needful revenue But they
want more than anything else certain,
sound, and invariable currency Of coined
gold and silver, or their always redeemable
equivalents, as the medium of exchanging
their products for such manufactures as they
need. restored gold currency would very
soon so reduce the cost of such exchanges
that the goods returned to them would be in
creased in value twenty per cent