The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-01-16
QUESTIONS OF THE HOUR.

upon the crescent, ana Lnat CnIlSt IS all
tagonizing Mohammed. We are not forget
full of the fact that England is in a quandary
as TO the course she ought to pursue in
settling the eastern question. We are not
oblivious of SANKEY'S march through central
Africa, or that he traversed the Congo from
It's source to its mouth, and that grand re-
suits are likely to follow his great achieve
ment. We have not neglected to notice that
MacMahon has been compelled to
succumb to the republican senti-
ment of France, or that Bismarck is
the ruling mind of Prussia. We have
made note of the pope's declining health,
and that Alphonso, the boy king of Spain, is
trying to marry his cousin. But what of all
these topics? They do not amount to a
"hill of beams as compared with the devil
ish curses that radical legislation have
heaped upon the people of the United
States. They may be discussed until hell
freezes four feet thick, and then discussed
on the ice, but they will not open way out
of the curse of contraction that is every
where in this country sending people into
bankruptcy. Discuss as we may car and
sultan; talk as learnedly as encyclopedias
of cross andi crescent; map as we may the
future of Europe and Asia; analyze all the
problems of European diplomacy, still every
sentence to the people of Indiana will be
worse than Dead sea fruit, that tempts the
eye and turns to ashes on the lip" 1t may
all be very nice-attract the attention of
savants-but there is no BREAD in it. 1t
does not stop contraction. 1t does not arrest
shrinkage in values. Itdoes not say TO John
Sherman, '"Take your cursed bondholder's
'beak out of the heart of the west" 1t does
not revive business, restore confidence,
or give workingmen work. 1t does not
clothe the children of the poor or help the
people out of the grasp of the bondholders,
Shylocks and money sharks, bankers,
members of syndicstes, capitalists and Wall
street gamblers, who, robed in purple and
fine linen, may be pleased with that sort of
literature as they recline on their silken
cushions while their dogs perform the cour-
tesies at their locked gates to the victims of
their rapacious greed. But the people con-
clude that they have suffered enough.
They do not want to be licked any more by
rich men or rich mems dogs. They propose
to take care OF themselves and what
little property the curse of contraction has
left to them. They have been to the ballot
box, they have selected their representa-
tives, they have massed the wisdom of the
country. They have performed their whole
duty and are awaiting results. Their repre-
sentatives have proposed to grant measures
of relief, the repeal of the resumption law
and the Bland bill. Should the silver bill
become a law as it passed the house it will
give the country the free coinage of silver
dollars. No honest objection has been made
to these measures. They are absolutely
inyulnerable. They are the citadels of
truth and honesty. They are in consonance
with the will of a vast majority of the people.
They are the higher law of the peoples SOW
ereignty. They have one, and only one, pur-
pose-the relief of the people by the revival
of business, the restoration of confidence,
and the employmento of idle men and women.
The people Representatives have so declared,
and there is no higher authority. Who
opposes these benefcent measures? Money
sharks, wreckers of the people, pirates
on the highways of trade, Shylocks
whose greed and thirst would take
the flesh and blood nearest the
hearts of the people. The eastern bankers
are massing their batteries and issuing their
threats that the west shall have no more
money. All right. Let the west mass its
forces and say to the east, You shall have
no more bread and meat" Let the food
currents stop, until starvation shall shrink
the Shylocks to skeletons and famine set
gaunt and haggard in Wall street. There
may be, should the bankers carry out their
threats, less mortgages for the west, less in
terest to pay, but in the end victory will
fash along the lines, and the we {
and south will have inaugurated
a new departure. What? Relief
from contraction and an abundance
of honest silver dollars. 1t is possible that
Hayes may veto these measures of relief.
And it may be possible that the peoples
representatives, true to their high obliga.
tons, will discard the veto and adhere to the
interests of the people-at any rate, there is
no good place presented for the people to
back down. Knowing they are right the
people are likely to go ahead, and if any
body chooses in this case to advocate the
veto power or to antagonize the people in
matters Of such vital concern they are vel
come to the harvest of thorDs and con-
tumely they will garner in due time. The
demands, of the people are not utopian they
are not creations of diseased imaginations:
they are not whims; on the contrary they
embody the matured wisdom of the country
and sooner or later will prevail.