Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-12-23
THE ezEsNsAcKERs IN CONGRESS.

be ashamed to hold, they do not hesitate to
make the most injurious charges against all
who differ from them. One of these per-
sons accused Fernando Wood of being
mere agent of the "bank ring" on the
floor of the House. This kind of charge
is however characteristic of the tribe.
They seem to think that accusing others
of interested motives is convincing way
Of indicating their own ridiculous theo-
ries. Their object in opposing the re-
funding bill is perfectly clear. They
wish to bring forward the wonderful
scheme for meeting the bonds which ma
ture next year by paying away all the
coin in the Treasury. This iunatic plan
they are pleased to regard as an inspired
device for saving interest to the country.
They iuggle with figures the significance
of which is mere Hebrew to them, and
when they conclude farrago of nonsense
by demagogieal pretense of being for the
People with capital p, and against the
:. bank-Iiug" and the bondholders, they
think they have demonstrated their case.
They are of the unfortunate class for whom
history has been written in vain. The
teachings OF experience have no meaning
for them. Unable to discriminate between
authorities and quacks, Weaver is just as
Trustworthy a guide for them as Mill or
Ricardo or Sumner or Smith. Whatever
can be made TO look plausible is
in their eyes an argument Not
knowing what money is, or what
credit is, it appears to them
perfectly easy to maintain paper cur
rency at GOLD par without any coin basis.
The fact that when the gold is in the
treasury the people are content to let it
lie there, seems to them to indicate that if
the gold was all removed the people would
i'll accept the paper at gold par. They
cannot understand that it is the converti-
bihty of the paper which makes it equal in
value to gold, and that if this convertibility
was destroyed the paper would instantly
sink in value. Their mental defect is an
absolute inability to reason logically
They cannot draw the correct conclusions
from any premises. The fact that the
measures they propose have been tried
repeatedly, and always with the same
disastrous results, does not signify
anything to them. They fortify them
selves in their absurdities by invent
ing reasons which have no basis in
fact. They assert that there is something
about credit in the United States alto
gether different from credit anywhere else.
They pretend that though it has never
been found possible TO maintain paper at
an equality with gold, unless the gold was
there to redeem it, yet such thing may
in some mysterious way be accomplished
in this country. Of such vague and in
substantial character are their theories and
arguments, yet to hear them talk it might
be supposed that they alone knew any
thing about financial science, and that all
the rest of the world were the blind
thralls of Wall Stree" and bank rings. p"
The folly and impudence Of these peo-
pie, however, become serious offenses when
they undertake to prevent the refunding
of the public debt in order to air their stu
pidity and perverseness. They are only mis-
chievous to themselves and to the few weak
minds that listen to them, so long as they
confine themselves to talking. But when
| they interfere in Congress to hinder that
body from making necessary provisions for
| the discharge of the national obligations,
and for the reduction of the rate Of inter
est on those obligations, they become public
nuisances. Their so called measures -
are unworthy of serious consideration.
They all resolve themselves into attempts,
more or less disguised, to break down
specie payments and to plunge the country
into the slough of depreciation and
imitation. All their talk about saving in
terest by the method they propose is un-
nitigated bosh. Nointerest can possibly be
saved by paying out the reserve of coin in
the treasury. Such a step would be much
more likely to entail national bankruptcy.
| When the Greenbackers say that a
hundred millions, or any other sum, is
available for the discharge of the bonds
maturing next year, they utter a
notorious and stupid falsehood. There is
not single dollar in the treasury available
for any such purpose. On the contrary,
the immense coinage of silver during the
past year has so reduced the gold reserve
that it is even now much smaller than it
ought to be. The Greenbackers and the
Silver idiots together are working for the
abolition of the gold standard in
the country, and Congress by its drifting
policy is helping the silver question to be-
come dangerous. It is time these Green
hackers. were sat down upon firmly by the
intelligent members of Congress. They
must not be permitted to retard the bust
ness of the country by their imbecile prop
ositions. Woods refunding bill, or some
refunding bill, drawn upon enlightened
financial principles, must be passed as soon
as possible after the holidays, and the
country must be delivered from all further
talk about dissipating the coin reserves in
the Treasury to please the obstinate and
incapable charletans who are posturing in
the role of opponents of bank-rings >
and ssyndicates and so forth.
TIE SCENE IN THE HOUSE.