The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-03-13
THE TIMES.
| Some of the Chief Causes OF Business
| Prostitution.
boston Globe.l

In yesterdays Globe appeared an article
under the caption which heads this article.
In that we endeavOred to trace some of the
causes which have led 10 financial distress in
the business world and among all of the in
dustrial interests of New England and
throughout the entire nation. We said
then and say now, that the banking system,
as advocated and adopted by the republican
party, in and out of congress, was defective
and that it wrought injury to all classes
This statement we believe to be true,
as will ultimately be proved to be SO.
We stated that the government should
furnish the circulating medium, either in
government notes or in greenbacks, or in
gold and silver. These notes the govern
ment can use and keep in circulation to the
amount of $i00, O00, 900, on which notes the
government would pay no interest whereas
the government now pays from $l5,000,000
to $50, 100000 annually in the shape of
interest on bonds deposited with the
secretary of the treasury TO make good the
circulation of the bank notes. This
interest can be saved to the people by a
system of free banking, which means that
the government should furnish the circula-
ton. and let anybody who chooses to
bank DO so; only confine those who desire to
bank to discount and depost business. This
system of free banking would. have the ad-
vantage OF holding the bankers to an indi-
vidual responsibility which does not now
attach TO the directors of the national banks.
Again, one of the causes which has operated
to create depression in trade and in the
manufacturing districts is the high protec-
tive tariff, which became a law upon the
advent of the republican party to power in
1861. Never before have the people had the
opportunity to fully test the protective
system, as lnaugurated by Henry Clay,
until now, for the reason that the advocates
of the measure were never in power long
enough at any one time to give the
protective system full swing, and allow it to
produce it's legitimate consequences, both to
the manufacturers and to the great mass of
the people. For sixteen years the manufac-
turers have had all the protection they asked
for or desired and what has been the result?
Why, at first she manufacturers OF wooden
goods made money by the exclusion of for
eign goods which came in competition with
the goods manufactured here, and the Amer
lean manufacturers made money rapidly.
But In time this branch of industry
became crowded with small manufacturers,
who erected upon almost every
stream in New England wooden mills
and IN this way the market became
glutted and overstocked, so that the home
competition became more disastrous than
the foreign, and, as consequence, the man.
ufacturers had to submit TO a reduction in
price 1Or their IdOrlcS, duu, dS u ludIteT Vi
course, the operatives must submit in their
turn to a reduction of wages. This boiling
down process has been going on until the small
concerns are closed up and the machinery sold
for old iron, while the rich concerns have
barely pulled through the panic which has
overshadowed the nation for the last fiveyears.
Again, in order to carry the protective system
through congress, 1t became necessary for
the wooden manufacturers at the north to
combine support from the south and west.
This was done by protection to the sugar
interests in Louisiana, the hemp and tobacco
in Kentucky and Virginia with the iron
interests of Pennsylvania, Maryland and New
Jersey, and with the wool growing interests
of Ohio and of Vermont. What has been
the result? Let us see. Home competition
has done for the iron interests, the sugar in
terests, the wool growing interests, what
competition has done for the wooden manu-
facturers ia New England. California and
Texas have driven wool growing from the
farms in Ohio and in Vermont, for the rea-
SON that the climate in California and in
Texas is so mild that they can raise sheep
for less money than 1t can be done at the
west or in New England. The high tariff put