The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1878-08-15

III theira, but because they have been ru
] ined by perniciOus legislation. For
9 moment turn your eyes again toward.
: Pittsburgh. Glance at her great iror
] and glass works, and other manufac
/. turing establishments. and you fine
1 business death, desolatiOn, paralysis
: and bankruptcy, and tens of Thousands
, OfindustriOus men out of employment
{ ,rhis is not simply q picture of Pitts
burgh, but Of our entire country. The
, money end of the beam is up. One
dollar buys three timee as much as II
r ought to purchase. The idle capital OF
> the bondholder pays NO taxes, and the
, drOnea are consuming the honey they
) did not help to make. f :.
Now, sirs, we of the Democratic
party propose relief. Here stands the
, beam. The money end high up-the
property end away down; labor starv-
. ing, industries paraly yzed, business
men bewildered. The people have lis
tened to the orators, and read the jour-
nails of the Republican party for these
. long years. They owe been told that
the panic commenced in 1873, and
would end in five years. Well, the
; distress and disaster commenced in
1866, twelve years ago, and the five
years theory is u delusiOn.
Again / say, we of the Democratic
party propose relief. We intend to
bring down the money end OF the beam
and raise once more the value Of labor
and property, and once more vitalize
the Industries OF the country, now dead
with palsy.
Washington have been told by the
false prrphets ''pr0sperity will soon
be restored. The crop of wool is large; |;
it will be sold for cash; money will
soon he plenty, and good times will be
restored" Well, you had good wool
crops and speedy sales at half prices,
but who saw the money? 1t vanish
ed. 1t is gone. Did the sale of the
wool crops bring good times? No.
Then for each successive year the har-
vest came along, and each year was to
ley, oats, all were garnered, sold, the
money paid but did good times re-
turn? No. For while there was plen-
| ty of wheat and plenty of corn, while
abundance was seen everywhere, the
cry of starvation was heard from every
where, and crime gathered and aug
mented around us with fearful rapid
ity. tApplause.) All, they have been
deceiving us with false hopes for years,
and while they were deceiving US they
were robbing us. (Applause.)
But why does not relief come? Be-
cause the ife-blOOd, the currency Of
the country, has been reduced till we
are in state of exhaustion. Because
strength can only be restored to the
body polite by restoring the volume
of the currency SO as to meet the de-
mands of trade and the necessities of
the country. And those necessities
can be best understood by the state
ment of a few admitted facts.
The aggregated debts of the country,
public aud private, are estimated at
thirteen thousand millions.
Twelve hundred millions of debt are
secured by mortgage.
The entire income arising from all
the industries in the country is insult
ficient to pay the interest OH our debts,
and new debts are made in order to
keep-dOwn the interest on the old ones.
Hence the Indebtedness of the country
is on the steady and rapid increase,
while the value of property is on the
decline.
What weald- be the condition of a
citizen whose income was not suff1c-
lent to pay the interest on his debts
Especially what would be the condi-
ton when by force of law the value of
his property had been reduced more
than one-half? His ruin would be re-
garded as inevitable. And if the rule
be good as to an individual, why not
good when applied to the aggregation
of individuals called State? Such is
our actual situation tonight. Thir-
teen thousand millions of debt, twelve
hundrad millions secured by mOrtg-
age, while the value of property has |
been deprecated by law more than
are those fearful debts to be paid?
Bonds and bank stock have gone up,
and taxes have been increased, while |
the law requires more than double the
amount of property to pay them than
was necessary before contraction COM
menced.
BY the census of 1870 the value of all
the property owned by the citizens of
the United States was returned at thir-
duction of the volume of money the
value of that property has been re-
duced fully one-half. Then if all this
property could be sold, we would have
fifteen thousand millions of property
with which to pay thirteen thousand
millions of debt; but as property at a |
forced sale will not, as rule, bring |
more than twO-thirds of its value, there !
is not sufficient property in the coun- |
in q state of undeclared bankruptcy, |
and this bankruptcy has been brought |
about by making laws in favor of idle !
and againstactive capital by making |
great fortunes by act of Congress for |
the few who were already rich by |
making money scarce and dear, so
that the purchasing power of the dol
lar has been more than double. But |
citizens, if by the force of law the val
ue of your property was to be reduced
more than One-half, ought not the law
70 n Hnhf Sv.f f1Hn
proportion at tie same time? Sup
pose that before Congress commenced
its work of ruin in the interest of the
money vultures; suppose, say. that
before contraction was commenced
that you had purchased a piece of
property on credit for ten thousand
dollars, its actual value but after the
purchase had been made, Congress by
law reduced its value one-half, so that
when you came to make payment, you
were forced to give the property back
the debt you owed him. He would
get the property back at one-half the
amount 1t sold for, and you would still
owe him SIS 900, with interest on the
amount of the original purchase.
Before the value of the property was
reduced by law you could have sold it
at its full value and paid your debt,
should it not at the same time have
reduced the amount of the debt to the
same extent?
1 have said and repeat that our
country is in state of exhaustion and
actual bankruptcy, aud how reliof
shall be had is the problem to be solv-
ed.
Instead of times getting better, they
are becoming worse, and will cOntin- ,
ne to grow worse and worse until there
is q radical change in the financial
policy of the federal government. I
What do we propose? Nothing new. [
Nothing strangeOr impracticable. We |
propose to execute the law according !
to the spirit of the law. We propose
to pay the 20 bonds according to the
law which authorized their issue. We
propose to pay the bonds in legal ten