Ottumwa weekly courier., 1878-08-07
the cREENBAcK CRAZE
81. Louis democrat.

luc unprecedented VlCtOTy aCll6V-
ed by the National-Labor-G -Greenb back
ticket in Memphis, on Thursday, will
call the attention of the country to the
rapid growth of this party in certain
States, and will also invite closer in.
spection OF the platform on which the
success in question has been achieved
1t is idle to ignore movement OF
this kind, for it is bound to make it.
self felt in the coming campaign
That it will be short lived is as true
as that it may produce much mischief
before it's end comes. But whether
its duration is to be brief or long il
is incumbent upon thoughtful men to
study its phenomena with care, and
above all things it is important that
its aims and effects, SO far as they can
be discovered, should be fully laid
before the people. In Government
based upon popular sovereignty like
ours the best we can hope to do is to
put the people in possession of the
facts that bear upon our national well
fare. If the majority see fit to be
guided by the light thus obtained and
avoid the wild theories of dema-
gogues and charlatans, there is cause
for congratulations. We cannot al
ways compel triumph Of the right,
but we should not falter in our eff
forts TO that end.
If the majority of the people in any
State see fit to cast aside all lessons of
experience, all the dictates of honesty
and all the principles of patriotism,
and march to barren victory under
the Observation-Disclosures ban
ner, there is no help for it, and we
can only wait and work until common
sense reasserts its dominion in the
minds of these misguided masses.
But the great facts in this contest be-
tween right and wrong must be held
before the eyes of all. The Green
hackers and Democrats who are aping
them menace the welfare of the coun-
try. Their platform means repudia-
tion of debts, whose payment is
pledged by the good faith of the ma
ton. 1t means ruin TO our best busi-
ness interests, and irreparable injury
to the laboring classes. In one sense
no victories achieved by this party
in the coming campaign can effect the
course of financial legislation this
year or next. The resumption act
will 60 into effect on the first OF next
January whether the Greenbackers
will not meddle with its workings be-
fore 1880, for that body will not meet
until December, 1879. By that time
the act will have been in force for
year, and it is exceedingly doubtful
that an attempt to alter or repeal it
then will find any favor with the peo-
pie. In the long run the people are
apt to be right. But the evil will be
immediate. The sudden strength
displayed by this mongrel party,
whose power is gathered from the
odds and ends of all other political
organizations, marshaled by dema-
gogues and fools, will frighten CAPT
tai and give decided bsckset to re-
turning prosperity. Enterprises of
all kinds will be checked, because
men who possess wealth and desire
to invest in productive industry will
hesitate long before taking the risk
of being robbed by cut-throats who
hold it right to pay debts with WORTH
less bits Of paper.
The time has come when the hosts
Of honest men who recognize the fact
that just debts are sacred obligations.
must be marshaled to meet the repu-
diationists at the ballot-box, In many
of the States this fight has been made,
and the honest men have triumphed.
In many others the battle is still to be
fought. That it will be won in the
end by the honest money party can
not be doubted. Here, in Missouri,
it is quite certain that the imitation
lists and repudiationists will carry
nearly all the Congressional Districts
and majority of the Legislature, for
the Greenbackers proper and the
democrats stand upon the same plat
form. But the triumph will be of
brief duration. The people will
learn some day that their safety lies
largely in honest money. Gambling
spectators may prefer currency
constantly fuctuating in value
but the laboring classes have no use
for it.
The strongest ground for believing
that the rag-money delusion now
sweeping over the country will soon