The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1876-01-31
The Indiana Democracy and Finance.


The Cincinnati Commercial saws the imitation
lists gained one in the e'ec ion OF Beck, OF Ken
lucky. We don't understand Mr.. Beck to be an
inflationist, but to occupy about the ground of
Indianapolis Sentinel,
We have no intention of doing Mr.. Beck in
Justice. i we could know just what the posi-
ton occupied by the Democracy of Indiana and
Penn ylvania on the financial question is, the
I Ii formation would be valuable, and help TO cor
rect conclusions. In what does the position Of
| the Democracy of IndiaC and PENNSYLVANIA
differ from that OF the democracy %
Ohio; To -whas point Of the platform
! o June IL, in Ohio, do the Dsmoc-
/ racy of Indiana and Pennsylvania object? Are
not the Indiana and Pennsylvania Democrats
| In favor OF making" the currency equal to the
wants of trade? DO they not propose to make
the volume of legal tender paper anger? Would
they not exceed the 800 10000 limit of green
b. cks, and If they should succeed in that would
not the increase of the legal tender be depend
ent upon the Will OF congress? Is IL not the
| Democratic doctrine In Indiana and PennSyl-
vsnia that legal tender paper should be pu'
forth in quantities according to the pleasure of
the politicians in time ofpeace? That is the
i worst form OF nfiation.-Cincinnati CONNER
cisl.
If the Commercial does not wish to do Mr..
Beck injustice, It manifests a very ready
willingness to do the Democracy OF Indiana
injustice, as it likewise did the Democracy
of the money power. The Democracy of In
diana, if we may judge from the general
tone of the Democratic papers of
the state and the utteramces of
prominent representatives of the
party, is not in favor of imitation ofthe cur
rency in any such seEse or meaning as the
Commercial sscrib5s to that term. Il has
been the policy of Republican orators and
Republican papers, with which the Com
mercisl may be legitimately classed, to mis-
represent the Western views of finance which
obtain generally in the Democratic party,
and also, to a very great extent, in
the Republican party. Nobody wants
to set printing presses to work to pay of the
national debt in legsl-tender greenbacks.
Everybody West whose views on finance
are worth a serious consideration recognizes
the value of metallic currency, and paper
currency convertible into coin on demand,
as the best and safest mediums for the pur,
poses of trade and commercial exchange.
But they also recognize the fact that
through the exigencies of the gil
gantic war into which the nation
was plunged, that this condition of
the finances could not be sustained and
carry on the war to a speedy and successful
issue. Right or wrong, legal or illegal, the
government exercised the power of issuing
greenbacks, Stamping paper as legal money,
not upon basis OF gold, but simply upon
an indefinite promise, pledging payment at
an indefinite time. The party in power may
have done this on the principle that IN arms
leges silent. But whether legal or illegal
it was done as a matter OF necessity. The
government did not and could not pay gold
TO carry on the war. The necessity lay in
the inability of the government to pay when
her debts were created or due. That neces-
sity the Democracy Of the West recognizes
as still existing. The government can not
pay now. Financially, we are In very
little better fix Row than then. The reck-
less extravaganza and subsidies of the
Republican party during the past ten
years leave the nation just as much
embarrassed as before. The same state of
facts exist to-day, or rather 1t is made worse
by the Republican legislation converting
the bonds of the government into other
bonds, not only paying gold interest but
making the principal also payable in gold.
This condition the Republican party rec
ognized when they put of the date of re
sumption four years. The govern
ment cannot resume now. Resum-
ton can only come with ability to pay. The
only possible way in which the govern
ment could resume would be by
thro wing upon the market sufficient bonds
at a high rate of interest TO pay off all the
greenbacks. This would entail upon the
government twenty millions per year of
additional expense, and leave the country
without medium of exchange safe and sat-
isfactory to the people. The Western Democ-
racy prefer to avoid this annual interest
and keep the greenbacks for circulst-
ing medium. Is that initiation? Not
that our Western Democracy love green
backs inconvertible better than convertible;
not that they prefer them to gold, but rec
ognizing the necessity of the hour they be-
lieve that nothing can be gained for the
masses of the people by resumption acts
and contraction. policy that will increase
the public burdens, and deprive the people
of sufhcint medium Of exchange. Does
the Commercial recognize that any currency
In the present condition of the treasury is
necessary, or was necessary, at the close OF
the WARP If any was necessary then, or
now, is not the Commercial in favor of a sui
ficiency? Is there any heresy in that? any
Initiation in that? The fact is only wretched
and perverse disposition to misrepresent
the Democracy would permit any such ac-
cusations as have been heaped upon the
party by the adherents aud defenders of the
money power. The Democracy do not
propose that the legal tender issue
shall exceed the present volume of the cur
rency, nor do they propose to place this
matter in the hands of politicians any
more than it has always been. Congress
must deal with the finances as long as her
debt makes it necessity, and there is no
"a