The Republican journal., 1881-05-26
Finance. free Ships, the Color Line, etc

The June number of the North American Re-
view is notable issue of magazine which under
Its present management has brilliant reputa-
ton for the able manner in winch the living issues
and topics of the day have been treated of in its
| pages, Ex-Secretary Mc-Culloch contributes a
paper on Our Future Financial Policy which
Will attract the attention of all who make study
OF the financial question. After brief review OF
| the fiscal policy of the government during the
war and since Mr. McCuloch proceeds to discuss
the financial policy of the future. He asks
| What shall be the policy Of the Government rela
tive to the national banking system, and what
shall be the rate of interest bonds hereafter to
| be issued! Mr.. McCuoch believes that the
| Government, so long as it has q large public debt
| upon which it is desirable to secure the lowest
possible rates of interest cannot afford to legslate
against the banks unless they attempt to interfere
with the rights of the people. The bill which
| President Hayes vetoed cannot be objected to be
cause it made the rate of interest , per cent but
! because it undertook to discriminate against the
banks in a manner which would have seriously
crippled them The purpose to force the banks to
take bonds which they might not want, aud not
| to have the choice OF taking Others betrays sort
of hostility which is not becoming in legislators
Further than this, the bill forces the banks which
desire to go out of business to collect and return
| their own bills, which would be an impossi bty i,
instead of deposiing legal money with the Treas
ury for that purpose Iuasmuch the Govern
ment gains rather than loses By collection Of the
bills of the banks, this provision can but bs re
| ~
| the banks
The objections to the national banks next
considered. The claim that such banking is a
monopoly is dismissed as unworthy of considera-
| ton. The charge that the banks have attempted
to control elections by the contribution of money
is declared to be unfounded, since it would be i'm
possible for bank managers who belong to both
parties and who cling to their money to draw
from the funds of the bank in order to contribute
| to carry elections
| Mr. McCulloch believes that the maintenance of
the banking system is essential to the prosperity
OF the country and that the rate of interest which
the new bonds will bear will be largely affected
by the action of the banks Ii they are not made
distrusttnl by hostile legislation, and if none of
the taxation is removed, MIR MeCnlloch does not
believe that the banks can afford to care their
notes with per cent. bonds and const quently
| will retire "a considerable portion of their crcua
ton. If they do this the ex-Secretary does not
believe that per cent bond can be sold to take
the place of the } aud per cent. bonds If the
banks are relieved of the taxation upon their cir
culation he believes that twenty year 3 per cent
bond can readily be sold
Mr.. McCulloch believes that bimetalsm upon
an International coinage ratio should be part Of
our future fiscal policy. He would have the ratio
of l54 to adopted. which would be ii gain for
this country, The present depreciation of silver
he holds to be due not TO an increase in the yield
but TO the adverse influence Of Great Britain. the
characterization Of silver ny Germany and the lin
tied coinage by the Latin nations
Mr. McCulloeh's remaining feature Of our future
fiscal policy will attract attention and provoke
criticism lie declares that he has hitherto been
a strenuous advocate of free trade in ships as the
course to be pursued to part of the ocean
carrying trade. He has now come to the conclu-
sion that he has been wrong and that the only
means by which our foreign commera5 can be re
stored is resort to the policy of other nations,
namely, to subsidize American steamship lines -
Those who have followed Mr. McCuloch on the
free ship fallacy. and quoted him as an authority
on that subject will do we'll 20 revise this
quotations. Prot W. Ii Sumner contributes an
article the other side, which is perhaps as good
an argument can be made in favor OF tree ships
He says: ut is object at all for country to
have either ship building industry. or carving
trade or foreign commerce Unfortunately for
the Professor the world is made up of practical
men who will differ with him upon this point IF
Americans he says, "owned no ships and sailed
no ships, but hired the people of other countries
to do their ocean transportation for them, it would
simply prove that Americans had some better EN-
ployment for their capital and labor But sup
pose there fifty thousand people idle in one
State who might be employed in ship building If
the conditions all rght-what would that
prove
Frederick Douglass furnishes an article on The
Color Line" which shows that TINS distinguished
representative of the colored race has ability as a
| writer well an orator. In the present paper
he speaks for the colored people Race prejudice
| he classes moral disorder, which at some
| time in their history has afflicted all nations The
coored people of this country, he alirms, have
suffered mostly from this feeling without crime
or offence against law gospel, the colored man
is the Jean Naean Of American society. He has
escaped from the galleys, and hence all presump
tons against him" Mr. Douglass speaks with
| indignant eloquence against this evil spirit aud
proceeds to examine its cause and manifestations
He insists and in good measure proves, that color
prejudice is not natural and inevitable character
lstlc OF the white race, beyond the reach even of
evolution There is, he declares, no color preju
dice in Europe. except among Americans who
side there. Mr., Douglass cites his own experience
abroad and that OF other men of his race some of
| them black, to prove that there is no aversion to
negroes in England or on the continent account
Of their color. The existence Of such feeling in
America he attributes, OF course to slavery .
Out of the depths of slavery has tins preiu-
dice, and this color line Slavery is gone, bnt its
spirit and its shadow remain. The Inconsistencies
Of the prejudice, which tolerates all intiniacies
that involve service from the subject race but re
seuts anything looking to equality, are very
causticay presented. The trouble is that NEST
men, and especially most mean men, want to have
| something uuueF lueln. 1HtS letlDg, tle writer
has discovered, is of the vanities which en-
lightenment will dispel Men who are really
great are too great to be small" and the OK slave
who has met and mingled freely with the leading
great men OF his time, can remember no instance
when among such men, he has been made to feel
| himself an oh ect of aversion Mr. Douglass is
encouraged to lind that the number of those Tho
rise superior TO prejudice is great and increasing
and looks forward to time when it will be true
even of colored face, that "A mans man for a
| that"
The remaining articles must be dismissed with
brief mention DR.. George B. Loung, the newly
appointed Commissioner Of Agriculture, writes of
i THE Patrician Element in American Society
and in the authors estimation the patrican ele
ment here is simply the strongest popular element =
that portion Of the people, whatever their lineage