The daily gazette., 1875-06-23
THE OHIO CAMPATGN.'
SPEECH OF MIR. EWING.

The most monstrous usurpa
tions and mischiefs ever proposed to tn
American Congress were supported yer
strongly by the Administration, and wer
! only defeated by the Democracy, aide,
by handful Of Independents. But fla
grant as are the vices and maladminis
tration OF the Republican party which
have referred 20, its finance policy rise
high above them in present popular in
terest. 1t is because the people are be
ing deeply injured by this policy tha
there Is that vague unrest among the
masses, which displays itself in organi
zations of all classes of labor. The re
| bellion burst on people ignorant equal
| ly of war and of the yoke of public debt
The sacrifices OF the war were enormous
but are being surpassed by the evils il
entailed. The debt has built up and
consolidated a money power stronger
and greater than the slave power. By
its feat in 1863, after the Republicans oi
Ohio and Indiana elected Grant on State
platforms declaring the bonds should be
paid i'll greenbacks, they we're payable
in gold, and several hundred millions
thus added to the burden of the debt
without q dollar Of equivalent. BY its
command TIL? currency has been reduced
since the war from $40 per capita to SIG
per capita. thus doubling the burdens of
oil debts and taxes payable in currency,
by shrinking the value of labor and its
products with which the debts and taxes
are paid. The aggregate of these cur
rency debts, public, corporate and per-
sonal, Is computed Mt $4,000, ,000, 900, which
rests as n mighty burden on the produc.
tive industries Of the country. This
enormous burden was doubled by the
contraction of the currency, and under
this added weight the Industries of the
nation are being crushed, the laborer
brought to poverty, the producing capi-
taist to bankruptcy, while the holders
or ohice and money securities are gath
ering all the vast wealth the productive
classes lose. The results Of this policy
are signally illustrated by the fact that
while the aggregate of commercial fail
ures in the United States during the war
and before the contraction of currency
was but about Sl4,000,000 annually, the
failures in 1873 aggregated S228, 900 900,
and in 1874 over S3O0,000 900. Great
Britain attempted to jump to specie
payments when her industries were
hourishlng, in 1919, when gold was but
per cent. premium, and when the bal
ance OF trade was in her favor, the pre-
cious metals steadily pouring into her
vaults. The attempt produced a panic,
and was therefore for the time abandon
ed; and We are being led blindfeld to
specie payment. with gold at II per cent
premium and rising, with industries al
ready bankrupt, with the balance Of
trade steadily against us, and with less
gold than We ever had before, and less
power to keep it. The policy of specie
payment necessarily involves prelimi-
nary measure openly avowed by the Re-
publican leaders. to wit; the retirement
of four hundred millions of greenbacks,
and the adding OF that sum to Cur bond
ed debt. This will necessarily reduce
the paper currency to greatly less than
half its present value. for we never kept
atloat but two hundred and fifty millions
of bank paper redeemabls in gold before
the war. when the condition for specie
payment was far more favorable than
now.
The policy means general and inevita-
ble bankruptcy and ruin. 1t will build
up an aristocracy of wealth for whom
the American people will be but hewers
of wood and drawers OF water. Bring
on specie payments in 1870, as proposed,
and the interest on the present aggregate
OF public debts and railway bonds, which
are in effect II public debt, added to Gus
toms excises, and taxes will about equal
in amount the net annual increase of
wealth in the United States. When that
point is reached the holders of such debts
are the masters and the payers of inter-
est their slaves. 1t will be refined sla-
very, but while it lasts thoroughly eifec-
tive in checking the heretofore rapid
growth of independence and culture
among the masses.
Will the Democratic party be the in
strument OF the passive spectator OF this
policy? Shall we cry out against petty
wrongs and see this giant robbery and
done Shall we swallow, as
a bait on the capitalists hook, Jackson's
denomination of paper money and lauda-
tion OF hard money, forgetting that that
foe Of monopoly and friend of
was then assailing the special
privileges of the United States Bank,
when we were out of debt and had mil
lions of surplus revenue? Shall we ignore
Jefferson's example, when he cried out |
in behalf of debt-ridden people in 1915
for the suppression of back paper and the |
issue OF n legal tender convertible into |
bonds? Shall we ignore the whole tra-
ditlons and spirit Of our party and refuse |
at this hour Of extreme peril to strike |
for the rights of the many against against |
the privileges of the few? The money
power holds the Repu blican party in one |
fist. Shall it hold the Democratic party |
in the other?
The Democracy of Ohio have spoken
on the question. Let the Democracy of
the other States south and west Of New
FORK answer.
Some Valuable CntfIa.