Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1878-08-22


gregate liabilities of the bankrupts in the
United States amounted TO $685., 000, 600.
Their aggregate assets did not reach 331|
cents on the dollar Commenting on this
fact, commercial journal at the time re-
marked:
SIS there any one who believes that the greater
part OF this wide margin is not lost under clrcum-
stances little better than plain stealing: Alter
allowing for the shrinkage OF values, Tor losses
counted twice, and for in Inevitable mlsoItQnes the
loss Is too great TO be Incurred honestly: the
OankruptS have not only lost every dollar OF tnelT
own, but twO-thirds of all they could borrow; and
as no man knowingly gives credit to an lnsolyent,
IL Is not an overestimate TO say that the DanK-
rupts OF the United States have dishonesty MADE
away with at least 100000 OF the means OF their
confding creditors within three years. 1t VIII
hardly do for private life, to assume superior
morality. and affect 10 dread any contaglon from
political corruption"
Diminishing then, as literary quackery
the civil-service reform panacea, and as
ignorant SANDER the charges OF polltlca-
rruption-asserting and believing that
the affairs of the nation have not only
been more honestly, but, on the whole,
far more ably administered under recent
republican rule than at any other period
of our history, and that it is vastly supe-
rior in both respects, and in almost every
respect, to the government of any nation
on the earth-I come to the questions of
greater importance and of more immedi-
ate interest.
But admitting, for the sake of argu-
mentor conciliation-that civil service
reform as vital issue, does any sane man
! believe that it can be accomplished under
national democratic rule? Let the enter
! tanning history of the dOOrkeepers of the
! house of representatives answer for me.
| Every appointment made by them has
| been governed by the old maxim Of the
| democracy: "To the victOrs belong the
spoils." pass on.
CAPITAL AND LABOR.
| Capital and labor, the house of Have
and the house of Want, present to us an
| issue not yet decided.
! Would the wealth of the ma
! ton be benefited by a national democrat
! ic victory? Would taxation be less bur
| densome with the south encamped in the
white house and ~ the both houses of
congress? Would the national debt be
secure under southern dominion:
1t is time to speak the truth in plain
words, and che truth [ shall speak, I'M
pugn it whose listeth.''
The south constantly pirates of its hon
or. The word is its substitute for the
Irishman's coat-tail at Donnibrook fair
| Whose treads on it must fight. But the
commercial history of America shows
that no section is so thoroughly devoid
of commercial honor as the south has
always been in its dealings with its cred
itors of the north 1t is almost impossi-
BILE to collect debts there to-day, even
when the debtors are solvent.
What has been the financial record of
the eX-rebel states since the close of the
war? [ believe that every one of them
certainly nearly every one of them-as
soon as it passed under democratic con-
troll, has scaled or :'graded'' or "com-
promised" or "repudiated" or silently
refused to pay its state and county and
municipal debts. The history Of their
financial action has been an unbroken
chronicle Of bad faith with their credit
Ors. When these things are done in all
the southern states as separate communi-
ties, what can we expect should the south
obtain control of the finances of the
United States?
The north regards the national debt as
q solemn covenant with the creditors Of
the nation. No property is regarded as
so sacred. The shadowy host of all the
patriots who died for their country en-
compasses and protects it. Neither the
"greenback heresy" nor the "silver craze, 5"
as one class of our citizens were fond of
fcalling certain recent political phenom-
ena, owed any essential element of its
popularity to any desire to repudiate the
debt or any part of the debt. 1t was q
= dispute only as to the Interpretation of a
jcontract. The west is quite as honest as
the east. The "silver men, were quite
as honest as the "gold men," Neither
east nor west proposed to refuse to pay
n al Of + m "
with the west resolution to refuse to
pay more than it honestly believed was
honestly due. That was all. Denuncia-
ton does not change the facts of history,
and the west has shown that denuncia-
ton cannot change its convictions. If
this issue, in any other form, should arise
again, it may be we'll for the eastern
press to remember its utter impotency as
a "thunderer," so recently proved and
to argue hereafter on the basis that, while
the west will listen respectfully to reason,
it will not consent to take the sandals
from off its feet when it enters the Wall
street gold exchange.
Does any man, whatever his politics,
believe that the south either does or can
regard the national debt as the north re-
CARDS it? To the south the debt is per-
petual AppOmattoX; golden monument
of its crushing defeat; a cap of Gessler
to which it is compelled to pay daily
homage. 1t is not in human nature to
love the hand that smites, even when one
sees that the blow was deserved-which
the south does not admit and can never
see. The national credit was the spring
of all the southern woes. 1t armed our
soldiers and disarmed theirs; it pension
ed our soldiers and disgraced theirs Will
the south respect it? The federal constl-
tuition alone cannot protect it, for no
constitutional guarantee can prevent re-
pudiation by Indirect methods.
Again, the national debt, although pro
tected by the 9gis of the constitution
may be fepudiated by national bankrupt
cy. The democracy have shown, by their
congressional action, that they are eager
to travel on that broad road leading to
national destruction. With every pru-
Dental motive for conceallng and post
poning their plans Of assault on the ma
tional treasury, during the present session
| of congress, the measures already intro
duced involve the expenditure Of nearly
| S2OG,000,OO0 in the southern states. If
these things ere done in the green tree,
what shall be done in the dry? IF, with
the lion of a republican senate in their
pathway, they venture on such wild eX-
penditures, what would they not dare to
attempt with democratic congress and
a democratic executive? They are blind
TO all the teachings of history who i'm
agine that the men who did not stop be-
fore civil war would falter before national
bankruptcy. The south believes that it
has nothing to lose by the most desperate
financial raids on the national treasury.
During the last congress the southern