Daily Kennebec journal., 1879-08-14

count Of the public debt-any man in this
country whose taxes ever approached a sum
that ever gave him the slightest Inconvenience
TO pay? You know very well that not sim
gle dollar of the interest paid on this debt is
raised by taxation on the people.
Indirectly, say YOU by adding fifty per cent to
the amount of land. labor or products. Now
Gen. Ewing will you tell the voters of this
country what land, labor or products in this
| country except whiskey, tobacco and matches,
pay cent of the national interest? The
smokers and drunkarls bear the whole of this
burden. Why sir, the good people of Maine
| think it is so little burden that they are at
| this moment saving to their drunkards 1--WE
| want YOU To be sober, and if you will only be
so we will pay the share that now falls to you
| of the national debt interest" You dare not
tell the people of Maine that any tax on
whiskey is a burden or anything but bless
ing to this country. If AS you say, the price
of labor. products, etc, has fallen fifty per
cent, why in the name of common sense has
the national debt had anything to do with it
Impute it to contraction of currency or any
| thing else, but spare US this absurdty.
But now. sir. do you tell the whole truth
when you said that prices had fallen? We ad-
nit that some prices have fallen perhaps even
| fifty per cent. but YOU certainly do not mean
to say that the price Of labor has fallen fifty
per cent? No, no, Gen. Ewing, you merely
| forgot to state this eXception-or perhaps II
wasn't convenient to think of it. If. then,
prices of everything but labor had fallen to
whose advantage Is it if not to that of the Ia
borers ! You stated truly. as far as YOU went
but you failed to 20 far enough.
Admitting, even (Which YOU do not that
it takes more labor to pay this interest than
before, in what way are you going to remedy
it? | have not heard even the most insane
grccnbacker claim that his theory would
remedy this. Fluctuation of values has en-
listed since the world began. and is utterly be-
yond control of party influence or theory.
man may borrow to-day twelve quarts of oats
to feed his horse with and agree to feed his
ncighbor's horse on that day year in repay
mcnt. Let us suppose that, owing to failure
of crops, in the next year oats are worth
three times as much as before. Do you mean
to say YOU think it would be honest for him,
when the day came around, to feed that horse
with only four quarts of oats and let the horse
go hungry, simply because four quarts this
year are the market equivalent of twelve
quarts last year! Is that your idea of hon
esty? Debts contracted in any commodity
are subject to shrinkage or expansion of that
commodity, and this is the solemn warning
against creating debts. but if it must be done
by what legislation will you overcome this !?
IT,,
compared with gold was caused by the de-
monetization of silver by which the gold ad-
vanced in value 80 per cent. In regard to
this statement, Gen. Ewing, there can be but
l one opinion--t is either Il wilful misreprc-
sentation or the result of gross Ignorance.
| You, sir, are well aware that within the men,
ory of man gold has never experienced such
change as that. Gold is known to be the
most stable of all commodities. Its value is
a market value and tn. withdrawal of silver
from coinage could no more affect that value
than the value of wheat crops could cause the
price Of shoe leather to vary Gold and silver
are different marketable commodities; their
value is not because of the government stamp
on them, but is regulated by the unvariablc
laws of demand and supply. If all the silver
money currency at the time of the demonetiz-
alton act had been Withdrawn and nothing is
sued to take its place then You might justly
claim that the increased demand for gold had
increased its purchasing power in some de-
gree, although so per cent. would still be a
proportion only discoverablc by greenback
magnifying glass. But tho currency was not
contracted. Silver coinage was simply stop
ped while gold coinage was continued as us
ual, and to say that this could cause an in
creased demand is self-evident absurdity.
Aside from all this, the demonetizaton act is
a bye gone. Silver has been remonetizcd,
although thanks to a high prnciplcd Democ
racy, the silver dollar is still a dishonest one
The mints are pouring 1924, 900, 900 of these
coins year on us, and yet you complain of
contraction of currency! Mr.. Sherman is
right when he says this vast expansion will
eventually destroy the gold standard, for
two unequal forces pulling against each other
one must inevitably fall.
The rest of Gen. Ewings speech is mainly
devoted to the estate rights issue, through
which it is not my intention to follow him.
The foregoing are the only points of argu-
ment he assails the financial management of
the republican party with. l myself am of
the opinion that he will have to find COM
plants that will bear closer scrutiny from in
telligent voters than these, before he will be
able to damage our cause to any perceptiblc
extent, but simply desire to call a closer at
tention ofthe thinking voters to the falacies
which even this great Party Leader is obliged
to fall back upon to make out his case against
the republicans.
| q. +. ID.