The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1876-08-05
LEW STEWARDS FINANCIAL VIEWS.

ment wants $40,000000 to carry on war. II
saws TO the people, give US $40,0O0,OO0 worth
of work, and in return issues to them 4o,O0J
900 of oblong bits of paper, or certificates
certifying that 1t has received so much WORK
and promising to pay for it. BY and by you
come along and say, Here, want dollar;
worth of labor from you, and If you'll do 1t
IN give you my certificate DO 1t, ano
take your certificate. Then l have two.
may 90 on, and in that way accumulate
hundred dollars-a thousand-and so on"
"Bul when it comes to the fulflment Of
that promise to pay what do you get for youl
certifcate?"
"Anoher certificate. That is the long and
short of it. The entire wealth of the COY
eminent, as | told you, is got from the PEG
pie. 1t can't have any othe. than what u
acquires IN that way. 1t has got to pay Vi
ia our own coin. What is the difference
whether the second certificate is a bit OF met
al or bit Of paper. Ii il is bit of metal
some one had to put dollars worth of labor
in it, or il would not represent dollar. You
can't get around that Labor is the only
standard ofvalue that does not fuctuate Sill
yer is metal, but it luctuates. It's worth ter
cents less now than it was little while ago
Gold iluctuates'-
Measured by the standard of the green
back"
"No. Measured by the mOLey lenders
Money is labor and labor is money. They
may talk about finance as much as they like,
| but that IS the bed rock of finance.
However, it makes little real difference
what the governor Of a state may think about
the matter. A governor is merely an execu-
tive officer, put there to attend to certain du-
ties in no way connected with national
finances
perhaps so, Mr.. Steward. But here you
are, nominated on the Decatur platform,
which declares for SOFT money, and again
upon the St. LOUIS platform, which declares
for hard money Your views as TO these TWO
opposite platforms are of interest to the peo-
pie, and the people have right to know
them"
That's so. But I'm not going TO anticipate
Gov. Tllden's Interpretation OF that st. Louis
platform"
"Isn't the ST. Louis platform clear and
plain enough"
Mr. Steward was not quite so certain about
that His experience and observation had
taught him that platforms aid not always de-
clare the real principles or intentions OF par
ties. "No one" said he, "objeets to the re-
sumption of specie payments at the earliest
practicable moment
"Do you mean to say that you think the
platform was constructed by the party ON the
Taleyrand principe--tlat is, a mere assort-
ment of words concealing the actual intent?
And that Gov Tilden is about TO declare
that intent or read it gu! through the plat.
form? Make another platform, in fact, aud
run on bOth|
"No; didn't mean that. mean that |
a., H,t /, hat Ia is n
Il would be indecorous in me to anticipate
him"
He was innexible on that point and the
conversation branched off upon other topics.
The substance of this seem to be, that Lew
Steward thinks the only paper money this
country needs ought to be issued directly
from the public treasury, and that this mon
ey, not issued in excess and made legal
tender, will answer all the purpose of gold
though not redeemed by the government in
gold; yet, he adds, "nobody objects to the
resumption Of specie payments at the earliest
practicable moment"
There are good many radical differences
among the so-called currency reiormers,
running from the Kelly scheme of indefinite
expansion of irredeemable paper based on IT.
redeemable bonds down TO the simplest form
of greenbackis m--that form which the demo.
cratic party in congress has virtually advo-
Gated for the last six or eight years-thc
Withdrawal of the national bank bills and
the substitution Ia their places of greenbacks,
or national treasury notes, made, las soon as
practicable" redeemabIe in gold, after which
they are to cease TO be legal tenders. Mr. Stew.
ard apparently belongs TO the latter class. II
SO, a very small proportion of the democratic
party of the west Will quarrel with him
While in the east, undoubtedly both democrats
and republicans generally favor the with
drawal of all the greenbacks and having no
paper money but national bank bills, redeem.
abe in specie, there are in the west few dem
ocrats who favor an exclusive bank rag paper
currency except such as are, like Storey of
the Times, either deeply interested in nation.
al banks themselves or bought up by them
However" as Mr.. Steward says, sit makes
little real difference what the governor of a
state may think about the matter" and we
may overlook his supposed obliquities on the
currency question, if he is otherwise with us
on the great question of administrative re.
form. II It makes little difference what he
may think about the matter as governor, 80
1t can make no difference so him, on that
question, whether Tilden or Hayes is elected,
for both occupy, 10 him, equally objections
BILE ground; but on all other questions, his
sympathies, as an old line democrat, must Toe
for Tilden and reform. Ii they are not, and
Mr.. Steward is disposed to shirk out by en-.
bracing Peter Cooperism and thus virtually
helping to enhance the chances of the success
of Hayes aud Grantism, why then we are
quite ready to say, with the Times, we don't
care pinch of snuff whether democrats vote
Tor Steward or Cullom. But we have no
idea Mr.. Steward is made of that kind of
stuff As the nominee of a Democratic Til