The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-09-23

With this confession, shameless or idi-
otto as you please. contrast she life and
labors OF ex-Gov. Kirkwood,n man who
during the war, was t~ireless in his efforts
10 save the nation, and 10 whose energy |
md devotion, Iowa owes the proud pre- !
Ieminencc which, she has always held
among the loyal States. Look on this
picture; then on that; and who can woE-
der at the marked enthusiasm with which
kirkwood is greeted wherever he goes,
while LETTER can command but a score
of hearers.
After a mar so stullifies himself, it seems
almost useless to follow him further; but
we will briefly allude to the two other
questions, the consideration of which &C
cupied nearly all of Letters time. These
were the questions of Intoxicating Ii
qtor.s and FfaaHe6.
On the first question, he said that it is
altogether the most important one with
which our legislation has to deal. He
advocates hcc7ase and opposes prohibition
as we 0 have it.; and does so ph0lLy.
an the interest ct temperance, (erit Muir
phy) and no. for the purpose of revenue.
The only reason he had to offer for pre-
ferring license TO prohibition was, that
prohibition fails to restrict the sale of
liquors, and thus intemperance floods the
land, A license law, said he, would be
much better for the cause of temperance.
HhM kiR9 of a license law he would
have he did not stated nor did he go be-
yond his mere assertion, that prohibit
ton was q failure and that license would
be a success. He did not analyze and
compare these two methods of restraining
the flow of the deadly fluid, and show US
hoao license would be effected where pre-
hibition fails. We would have liked
some reasons, Mr.. Letter, for the faith
that is in you. From the way you opened
your speech, We can't give you credit for
such superior judgment that we should
take your bare assertion unsupported by
argument.
But more than this, every body knows
that license laws have been on the stat.
ute books of all civilized countries from
time lmmemorial, and everybody knows
) that in those countries liquors have flow.
mas been Inc curse Of society. Now,
| however poorly our present excellent
5 liquor laws may be enforced, we know
, that they are the latest fruit of c~iyiliza,
ton in that direction, and we are not pre-
pared to abandon these laws as yet, sim
T ply to return to something which centur.
t les of trial in many countries have proved
, to be a failure, except for purposes OF
revenue. We may be in the ,frying-paA
but let US keep out of the fire.
The only other subject of which Mr.
Letter spoke was that Of Finance. Hi,
, whole doctrine on the subject is based
on the Pe~ndletonian fallacy, that GU
| Government bonds are payable in Green
backs. He is in favor of specie-raymen'
as o as it can conveniently be reached
o He would disfranchise all our Nationa
Banks, call in their notes, take up thu
, bonds on which as a security these note.
are issued, and issue greenbacks in place
of the notes as a circulating medium.
I But let us consider, Mr. Letter: Sup
pose you hold the bond of the Govern
{ ment for $1,000 payable at some future
s day. Your bond calls for dollars, anG
. are you willing to give up that bond fol
1000 pieces of paper, each of which il
worth 50 cents, that is to say for green
backs? Perhaps you are; and if you are
not, perhaps you may say that the Gov
f eminent may compel you to do so. Blu
a ICE think that if the Government owes you
, $1,000, and c0mpets you to settle for $3.50
it simply repudiates to the extent o.
$3.50, and as to that is no better han
highway robber. Moreover, if it cal
compel the national banks to accep
= greenbacks for their deposited bonds, i
i may also compel every other bond-holdel
S including the English and Germans, WHIT
r hold 1000 millions of our debt. And il
o this is true, then it follows that the Ma.
tional debt may be easily paid. All that
the Government needs in the world is
plenty of paper and a good printing press
with which to make greenbacks. Why
so much talk about such Il matter which
. by carrying out Mr.. Letters theory,
J. might be SO easily disposed of? If l an
owing a man, | may dispose of the mat.