Litchfield enquirer., 1878-10-03
Platforms.

the great questions raised by the others.
 The Greenback party are at least frank in their demands, and no doubt considerable part of their success is due to the boldness of their radicalism. On some minor points there are suggestions of valuable reforms but their financial creed, to use the mildest possible lan- guage, is full of gross error. We will reprint few of the more important blanks in this most remarkable political pronunciamento:
 Article u.-To remedy and counteract the evils complained of we demand that the gov ernment shall issue full legal tender paper money, adequate in volume fer the employ ment of labor, the distribution of it's products, the requirements of business, and for the pay ment of all bonds in absolute paper money as soon as possible, and no further issue by gov ernment of any bonds.
 Let us look little at what this article pro- poses: It calls on the government to pay off, as seon as possible, $1, 1900, 900. 900 now out standing in bonds, in irredeemable govern ment notes bearing no interest. Adding to the amount thus substituted for bonds the ex- isting greenback circulation, and the currency would be more than trebled in volume Judg ing from all precedent, the unavoidable result of such watering of the currency, supposing it to be constitutional, would be to depreciate the dollar to one third it's present value, and probably even lower, since holders would be entirely at the mercy of a government that might choose to double the imitation caused by redemption of the bonds, in order to assist en- -irrror fo fho v,,1hio 1opdc- oth fbx, but inlpecunius citizens. It is true, indeed, that large proportion of our bonds are net yet due, but within few years enough would become redeemable to put this gospel of ruin into vigorous operation, and the prospect of an indefinite future imitation could not but have tendency to further lessen the value of this irredeemable ''fiat" currency.
 Article IV.-The public lands-belonging to the people-should be sacredly held in trust for the homes of American citizens hat the government should furnish aid to families de- sirous of settling thereupon in amount suffi- cient to enable them to cultivate and improve the same, instead of squandering the public domain upon corporations or private specula- tors. We demand graduated tax on all lands.
 W hdt O FlStd VI luudIlOus ucUI, duu udIlOH- al ruin opens here! Any one desirous of farm neatly fenced, with good buildings, and sufficiently stocked, has only to apply to a gen. erous Greenback government. The land will be given him, and the money needed for the rest supplied-no doubt on the 365 per cent. interest so much favored by the Greenback statesman. Add to the volume of currency already swelled by the redemption of the na- ticnal bonds as proposed in Article H. the cur rency needed to start swarm of emigrants on their course of profitable farming, and what would the greenback dollar be likely to be worth in gold at the beginning of the Twenti-> eth century? as much as that continental dol lar of the fathers towards which greenback finance is visibly tending.
 Article We demand that the govern ment at once establish postal savings banks, for the purpose of receiving deposits by the people for safe keeping, and loaning money to the people on ample security, at rate of in- terest not exceeding the actual expense of cre- ating and lOaning the same.
 This article may not mean exactly what it says; for the "expense of creating" ''fiat" money is merely the cost of printing. Proba- bly, that is not what iSintended, and we wait for further explanation of a scheme which promises badly enough at the best
 Article VII-An income tax based upon constitutional limitation and graduating up- wards, but leaving untouched all incomes un- der $1 ,O00.
 It is easy to see how an income tax ''gradu- ating upwards" might be easily made into virtual scheme of conffscation. Overgrown estates may be dangerous, but, of the two, we should much prefer the confiscation of the es- tate to the mere confiscation of it's income, if either is to be attempted. We have always doubted the justice of even the $1,OOO ex- emption, but upon all incomes of which tax alton is proposed, taxation should certainly be equal.
 With such program of imitation, repudia- tiop, national dishonor and ruin, we are very glad to be able to contrast very differ ent scheme of national finance. The second and third resolutions of the platform adopted at last weeks Republican Convention are as follows:
 That the bonds of the United States and the legal tender notes, issued under the necessi- ties of the war, arc sacred debts to be paid to the last dollar in the standard money of the world that the only money recognized in the constitution or in the exchange of the world is gold and silver coin of the weight and fineness which give it universal currency and we de- mand that all currency shall be redeemable in coin at the will of the holder, and that both coin and currency shall be kept at par with the gold standard of the world.
 That the issue of legal tender notes was only justitiable by the necessities of the war and that any attempt to lower the standard of money to increase the volume of irredeema- ble paper currency, to make the money of the people unstable, or to deteriorate the coin~ is simply repudiation, and that we declare that q reissue of legal tender paper in time of profound peace would be without excuse and gross violation of the constitution of the United States; and therefore we demand &C., tual resumption of specie payments at the time fixed by law, and that congress shall do no act to delay it, but shall leave the country free in its reviving prosperity.
 Speedy resumption in coin kept up to the present value of the gold dollar is the creed of every man who understands anything of the financial necessities of the times, and who wishes to deal honestly with those whom he owes or who owe him. Sound financial prin- ciples are so often obscured by the cloud of rhetoric and the muddle of figures with which demagogues delude suffering people, that many sin from pure ignorance; but we cannot overlook the fact that there are many whose advocacy of Greenback financial theo- ries crows o,lt of their privata naoocci<ioo as.
 INTEMpERATR TEMPERANCE. Frost brothers, temperance advocates, recently fin ished their Norwich campaign with the efollow- ing abominable personal attack by Daniel Frost upon the Rev. Leonard w. Bacon, formerly