The Cairo bulletin. [volume] (Cairo, Ill.) 1872-1878, 1877-08-28
GENERAL TOM EWING.


to Mr.. John Sherman and the Mansfield
speech OF that willy inancier Of the gold
ring. Said Gen. Ewing:
1.-The gold resumption law towers
above all others as the Issue Of this can
vass. The Republican party is solely
responsible for IL, and irrevocably cons
United to Its enforcement. 1t enacted
that law by strict party vote; it stood
byit throughout the last congress IN
phalanx; Its president declared against
any repeal or amendment, and put It's
author Ia the treasury TO execute il; and
now sends him TO 0-illusrating by
exception the vaunted rule OF civil re-
tOrm--to hide the hideous features of
the law from the people whose hsppi-
ness and industries 1t is destroying. Mr..
Sherman boldly says, at Mansfield, that
the law ''cap, should and will be eXecut-
ed" while the silence of the Cleveland
platform on this Republican measure
only adds the vice OF cowardcce TO the
crime of its enactment and execution.
On the other hand, the Democratic
party is clearly and fully committed
against the law. Repeatedly, in the
last congress II voted tor its uncon-
ditional repeal; 1t passed through the
house bill striking out the most per-
nicious section, which bill MIR. Sherman
smothered in the senate. And our
Ohio platform this year, as last, de.
clared tor the repeal OF the whole law
not Its amendment, but its utter and
absolute repeal.
This law, involving as it does the
early and total destruction OF the green,
back currency, and the larger part OF
the national bank currency, is the sole
cause OF the unparalleled distress which
Affects all-employers and employed
allke-wb0 are engaged In industrial pur.
suits. To no other adequate cause can
The trouble be attributed. Our people
have been blessed with health and
peace-have had good crops, and, Ger.
talnly, Tor four years. have practiced
rigid econOmy-uur exports have stead.
lily diminished. Why should each
successive month bring fresh and greater
disaster? What other adequate cause is
operating with acceleraliD9 power to
drive millions of wage laborers into
idleness and pauperism, and to drag into
bankruptcy the most Of those whose
means are engaged inindustrial pursuits.
leaving none to stand but the wealthiest
and strongest!
But Mr.. Sherman tells US that this law
cannot be the cause OF the business dis.
tress, because the industries Of Germany
and Great Britain are suiieringaiso. Yes,
Germany has suffered, and from a like
cause with ourselves. She contracted
her currency enormously by the demon
citation of over two hundred and fifty
millions OF dollars OF silver money,
thinking the gold exaeied OF France rs
indemnity would I'LL the gap; but unfor-
lunately for her, the indemnity was paid
only partly in gold, the larger part being
in products and exchange, and the gold
actually sent to Germany floated back
into its wOpted channels, leaving her
industries prostratethrough the immense
contraction OF her currency. On the
other hand, France prevented any shock
10 her industries, whether from the war
or the shipment OF her gold, by the
suspension o. spece payment and the issue
OF six hundred million OF dollars ofpaper
and with every productive energy in full
play, she fi0urished like thistle under the
hoo. OF her conqueror. Her paper cur.
Tency, 10 be sure, is 'irredeemable rags,
but being full legal tender, il never fell
but a small traction below gold. while it
boie up the credit Of the nation and
kept all her Industries prosperous under
losses which but for Il would have crush.
ed her industrial classes. With her full
currency, and her debt held at home, she
has paid the vast indemnity. rebuilt her
waste phases, filled the world with her
wares, ard to-day is the most prosper
Gus people on earth.
On, ii our SherDans and Garfields -
those lovers OF honest gold money and
ha,er OF silver and 'irredeemable RACES
could have ruled France az they have
ruled u. she would have been blessed by
taking the bonds from her own people
aud selling them ia England so a. to drain
of her gold. sHer silver would have been
demonetlzed and shlpped abroad as base
and waste metal. Her paper money
would have been deprecated by making
II unpayable for public debt and Gus
toms: and when her coin had been driv-
en- abroad 10 pay interest, and her paper
30 diShonered and deprecated as TO
make resumption impossible without the
ruin OF her people she would have been
blessed with forced resumption scheme
to rob and enslave her industrial classes:
and then, after few hundred thousand
Of working men had been butchercd in
bread riot. she would have relapsed into
the old Empire OF aristocrats, soldiers
and slaves.
As to Great Britain. her industries arc
.nanr;cn Ia rUAlv hnnaucn chm IL IA,
worlds manufacturer and merchant, ant
feels the misfortunes OF any OF he great
customers; but she is not suffering 81
much as TO prevent her attracting immi
grafton Of skilled laborers fleeing from
our desolate workshops.
Taking up the subject OF currency
contraction, Gen. Ewing said
"Now the present unhappy condI.
ton Of our industrial classes Is precisely
that which inevitably follows sudden and
large contraction OF the currency. The
symptoms all point 70 that cause as
distinctly as the extreme depression,
vomiting, and burning pain IN n patient
points 10 the dose OF arsenic in hs
stomach. And | will show that the
fatal drsnght Of resumption has caused
contraction enough to account for all
the woes we suffer, and involves a
further contraction large enough TO
utterly XII our induttres.
When The resumption law passed we
had about ,aeven hundred and six,y-siy
millIops ofpaper currency, which. added
10 our coin Though that was not IN cir.
lationl gave. us per capita $l63C excluJ-
ing bank reserves. France has $3j Of
actual circulation, exclusive Of such re-
serves; England 242S, and Germany
20 % befors Standardization Of her silver,
and H23 90 After that decentralization. II