The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1875-09-02

every nundred collars OF NaIlODal DdhA
notes, and keeps mp this process until green
backs shall be reduced to three hundred
millions. Here is the law; read 1t for your
self.
Mr.. Peck-well, well, did not believe it.
National banks against greenbacks! Cen
tlemen, will not delay 20 tell you fof
the national banks, They are founded on
bonds. The people pay to the national
bankers atleast fifteen millions year for the
onerous, tremendous duty Of issuing their
notes and lending them to tht people at
eight or twelve or fifteen per cent, and then
redeemipg them at last in greenbecks! Gen.
eral Noyes SAYS national bank notes are
better than greenbacks because bank notes
are secured by bonds. What secures the
bonds? The faith and credit and honor and
taxing power of the government. And do
not the same faith, credit, honor, power
of the government secure the green
bank notes.-the legal-tender notes
| [Great applsuse.l Contraction Shall tell
you what il is? Have any OF you bought a
lot and paid for it, erected building, put in
machinery, paid for them all, employed
your hands, from the laborer to the skilled
mechanic, and gone into the market and
bought the raw material, and given your
notes and three or tour months, and then
found, when your articles are for sale, that
they would not bring enough, not only not
to pay the interest on the cost of your lot
and building and machinery, but not enough
to pay your outstanding notes for the raw
material, and then seen your stock, your
building, your machinery gone,
LOT SOLD BY THE SHERIFF.
That man knows what contraction is. [Sen-
sstion.l Has any laboring man here, when
wages were three dollars day, bought a
lot and house and agreed to pay one hun
dred dollars year-thirty-three days work
would pay it? His wages have fallen to
one dollar and a half day. The hundred
dollars--the notes and mortgage remain the
same. It takes the wages of siXty-six days
work to pay the hundred dollars. My God,
! that's SOL Contraction! Need / tell you
again what IL is. Language has been ex
hsusted. Others more tacile with words
than haYe said it blights as the frost. IL
destroys as the mildew. 1t eats IS the
canker-worm. Like the cold blasts of win
ter, il shrinks and shrivels all things within
its influence, and finally locks them in icy
and death-like inertness. 1t passes like the
angel of death, so that there is no house in
which there is not one dead. Macaulay has
painted its effect in England two centuries
ago. Alison found his glowing words too
tame for its description in the first quarter
of this century. you yourselves see its
influence all around you. Will you have
more OF it? And yet this is the only remedy
the republicans havel And to embitter it
still more, they couple with it the enormous
increase of your interest-paying debt. To-
day the secretary of the treasury has the
power to ISSUE So, ,000, 900 of gold bonds,
| bearing gold interest. with which to buy
silver, and S450,000,000 with which to buy
gold; and if he succeeds, you and your
children for thirty years will have the hap
piness of paying S25, ,00O, 600 in gold each year
for the luxury of reaching specie payments
according to this republican method. Gen.
tlemen, do not underrate specie payments.
L am in favor of reaching them as soon as is
practicable. 1t seems to me there is bet
ter, easier, safer remedy. It is to stop this
policy Of contraction; to stop this constant
tinkeriDg with the currency; to stop this ef-
fort at forcing resumption. Give stability
| for moment, so that business may revive
that enterprise may be stimulated by the
hope of gain, and labor be led to exertiOn by
the certainty of reward. We need to labor
more, to produce more: but we can have
| neither labor nor production on
FALLING PRICES AND CERTAIN LOSSES.
1 repeat, as / said before. The country is
new. Its agricultural and mineral wealth is
incslculsble. They are undeveloped. The
variety of soil and climate, and people, give
to it an infinite power of production. It's
great want, its pressing necessity, is an en-
| tire freedom for labor-the absolute removal
! of every. obstacle, the positive presence of
every aid. Falling prices, uncertain mar
kets, precarious rewards, public debt and
high interest are obestacles. Fair prices
steady markets, ready sales, are aids; andto
secure these sufficient sound currency and
/ low interest are Indispensable. These will
put in motion the vast and complicated
machinery of producing and consuming in
| dustries. And if there be superadded low
taxes, rigid economy, simplicity OF govern.
ment, purity of administration, that motion
will be continued and accelerated. Active
and prosperous and increasing business will
| increase our production, increase our capi-
tai, increase our expectations, increase the
/ influx Of coin, and thus in time bring green
| backs to a par with coin. Mr.. TAFT
objects to this system, that Congress
will continually initiate the currency beyond
the possibility of reaching payments; but
Congress will try to do right, aud the peo.
pie will current any policy which may be-
perversely followed. He objects again that
this is in fact the process OF contraction,
( only by slower steps. 1t may be so, but the
difference between stimulating our indus
tries and carrying more gold and coin and
contracting our currency to the point of
gold coin is the difference between radiant
and vigorous health and emaclated weak
ness
| Mr.. Peck-Now, Mr.. Pendleton, what L
fear-is il not true-if the democrats obtain
power, they will issue first ten millions, and
then one hundred millions, and then still
more, and end in infinite imitation and re-
| pudiati0n?
Mr.. Pendleton-No sir, it is not true
Have not democrats the same interest in
trade and commerce aud interchange OF
commodities that republicans have? Are
| they not working men, active men, money
getting men, money loving men; above all,
ara they not men who need a fair days pay
| for an honest days work? Do they not
need
AN HONEST, RELIABLE, SOUND CURRENCY,
more even than other men9 Mr.. Peck, you
are an intelligent man; your bearing ex-
cites my respect. Let me ask you a ques-
ton. Did you ever hear democrat advo-
cate repudistion?
Mr.. Peck-I never did. IApplsuse.l
Mr. Pendleton-Did you ever hear from
democratic speaker, did you ever read in