Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1875-08-28
THE CAMPAIGN i'm OHIO.


ly in opposition to the mad and
ruinous doctrine of imitation, an
nounced in the Wildcat platform
Of the party in that State. Thur
man, and Pugh, and Ranney, and
Payne, and Groesbeck, are une-
quivocally opposed to it; and now
to this list of illustrious names of
true Democrats is to be added the
name of General Durbin Ward, of
Lebanon, one of the ablest men in
the Third Congressional District
of the State. We make the follow
ing extract from his speech, deliv-
cred at Lebanon, on Saturday last.
The subject was deliberately treat
ed from non-partizan standpoint.
In conclusion, the speaker said
"When driven from every other
fallacy, the soldier of the imitation
cross takes refuge in the castle of
hard times lie shouts from be-
hind the battlements with stento-
rian lungs: Are not the times
hard? Behold business! Are not
the looms and anvils idle? Does
not the farmer languish at the
plough, and the mechanic grow
lean In his shop? Is not the labor
er compelled to trap for want of
employment? and is not every in
dustry crippled and verging upon
ruin? And how could these things
be if we had money enough?'
Alas, it is but true that our in
dustries are not all prosperous, and
that want haunts the door of many
of our people. But does it follow
that it is for lack of money? The
currency has been constantly ex-
banded for seven years, and is
greater now than it ever was be-
fore or since the war debt was fun
ded. 1t was greater in the panic of
1878 than for six years before. By
law there is now no limit to the
issuance of National Bank bills
except that they cannot exceed the
whole amount of the Government
bonds. They are at par with
greenbacks. If the one need of the
country is more inconvertible mo-
ney, why are idle the paper mills
and the bank-note presses? There
can be but one answer-the bank
ers see no millions in it, Unless
indeed, business is so partisan as
to pipe on a scanty diet of green
backs rather than regale itself to
safety ON a feast of bank notes of
equal purchasing power. Or IN
less the only need of more green
backs is that debtors may defraud
their creditors by payment in cur
rency worth half its face.
The real cause of our trouble is
not the lack of money, and no
mystery at all envelopes the real
cause. We have only to open our
eyes, freed from the spectacles of
passion and prejudice, and the
whole difficulty stares us in the
face. We have lived too fast ?
The war, including all, cost US at
least eight thousand millions per-
haps much more. From one to
two millions of able-bodied labor
ers on both sides Of the line lost
from productive industry nearly
five years. They trampled half
the United States under the iron
heel of war. Everywhere produc-
ton was lessened, and wide re-
gions disappeared. Commerce in
our own vessels was driven from
the seas. Our flag became a stran-
ger on foreign waters, and our
commerce vassal to foreign trade,
And when the war of steel was
over, the still more fatal war of
reconstruction began, and is not
even yet ended. An empire in
extent was squandered upon sci
of profiigate railway kings" and
the plumber parceled out among
"incorruptible" Congressman. a
credit-money system as bolton less
as Government faith, for 40 nation
ever failed when pressed by its
wants to uefraud its creditors, was
framed to enrich those who were
behind the curtains of the ireas-
ury Department. A tariff, the
vampire of every industry, even
those it was designed to protect,
sucked the likelihood out of the
producing employments of the
country, and, like the locusts of
Egypt, devoured what the other
plaques had left. While the sales
of bonds 10 carry on the war had
yielded but fifty cents on the dol
lar, even this pittance was the
prey OF Government contractors
and corrupt officials. The war cost
three times what a value currency
and honest administration would
have made it. And even yet the
movements toward retrenchment
are feeble and spasmodic. Every