Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1875-09-02
THE FINANCIAL QUESTION.

The money question will be the great issue
in the next Presidential campaign, and as it
is now affecting the political parties in Ohio,
so will it divide and disintegrate the two great
parties of the Nation. The State canvass in
Ohio is now being conducted on the issue Of
early resumption and hard money against
"rag-money" or initiation of the paper prom
ises-to- pay of the United States Government.
The platform of the Democratic party of that
State, adopted few weeks ago, advocates in
fation or expansion of the currency and a
restoration of the old State banking system,
while the Republicans oppose the measures.
The Republican speakers profess to adhere
to the provisions of the currency acts of 1862
and 1868 restricting the amount Of legal ten
der issues to s4OO,OO0,OOO, while the Democ-
racy advocate unlimited paper circulation.
Already is the question being discussed in
other States, and the politicians are trimming
their sails to suit the breeze which must inevi-
tably come Ex-Governor B. Grstz Brown,
of Missouri, has written letter in opposition
to the present National Banking system. Re-
ferring to the policy of contraction, he says :
"One immediate result is to discourage all
new industries, to compel old enterprises to
suspend, to concentrate money upon specula-
tive objects, in frantic struggle for large
gain, causing it to abandon the currents of
ordinary trade that yield moderate profit, and
above all else by causing general stagnation,
to put the debts of the country upon the land
in the shape of mortgages, rather than on the
personal securities which sustain active busi-
ness" Near the close of his letter Governor
Brown says: "It is safe to predict that full
and fair discussion Of all the problems con-
nected with this financial controversy will
reach like conclusion in behalf of free,
elastic currency, regulated solely by the wants
of business, determined in its use by reception
for debts, taxes, customs, assured as to its
value by convertibility into an interest-bear-
ing bond of all average rate, and reposing
upon the credit of the Government, represent
ing the whole wealth of the country"
The Pennsylvania Democracy also favor a
"free elastic currency" in support of which
one of the party papers says
"The Democracy of Pennsy lvania must not
be behind their brethren in Ohio upon the
money question, which is paramount to all
other questions now agitating the public mind.
The people of this State understand that it is
the duty of the National Government, instead
of contracting the currency, to provide enough
to meet the wants Of general trade, so that it
may be had without having to pay for it a
heavy. rate of interest. The Democratic
masses in this State understand these questions
perfectly, and it becomes the leaders to take
lesson from their Ohio nelghbors if they ex-
pect this fall to tread the same road to victo-
ry over which the Democratic hosts in the
buckeye State are moving in irresistible force. .
But while representatives of the two parties
are discussing the question, we also find disa'
greement among the oracles Of the same party
For instance, the utterances of two represen'
tative Democratic papers, one in New York
and the other in Indiana, conflict quite seri'
ously. The Troy Press, speaking of the fl
nancial plank in the next Democratic plat
! form, says: "Infation will be thoroughly
squelched in the National Convention. NJ
one really fears that it will not. What the
people demand will be DONE The Ohioans
might as we'll begin to look forward to taking
back seats and being required to go on proba
tion till they have proved themselves renewed
in the genuine faith" And at about the same
time this was printed, the Courier, of Evans