The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1882-05-26
The Democratic Policy of Hard Times.

The opposition of the Democratic
party to the measure to enable the na1
tional banks, whose charters are expir-
ing, to renew their existence, is only one
of a continual series of hostilities of that
party to the business of the country.
In the party lingo this course is called
hostility to capital and corporations. in
the demagogue pretense that warfare on
capital and business corporations is to
help the workingmen and the masses.
It is ON this damagegism of warfare on
the interests Of the people that the Dem
ocratic party lives, and always has lived.
The charters of eighty-seven national
banks will terminate during the next
eight months, and of 1893 during the en-
suing ten months. To refuse an extern
sion Of the charters is to put them into
liquidation at rapid rate, withdrawing
their loans and circulation, and this is
to make a great monetary revolution,
whose effects can MOI be fore
gathered. All persons of ordinary intel
hgence are aware that the chief eff ct
of money disturbances comes on the
laborer. They who lived in the credit
panic, brought on by secession in 1860
81, and in the credit panic of 1873, re-
member that the industries were pros
trated and workmen thrown ont of
employ. This is the working of all
money disturbances. The Democratic
party which, when greenbacks were
issued to carry on the war for the Union,
declared them unconstitutional, has lat
terlJ adopted the theory that plentiful
greenback circulation is a special bless
ing to the workingman but its opposi-
ton to this bank measure is making
inevitable violent contraction of the
greenback circulation. The expiring
banks have to deposit with the Treasurer
greenbacks to the amount of their cir
culation, in order to receive their de-
posted bonds, and the treasury has to
hold these greenbacks against the bank
notes, until they come IN, which is a
slow process. Thus is Democratic hos
tility to the country's welfare ordaining
violent contraction of the greenback
circulation.
All this to no end, as to destroying
capital Or the banks, for they can reor-
ganize anew without any additional leg
islation, but they must go through the
process of liquidation, which includes
the redeeming of their circulation,
which must be provided for by deposit
ing greenbacks or gold with the Treas
urer. During the next five months the
winding up of seventy-two banks would
call for withdrawal of about 50, $50, 900
of greenbacks a month from the circu-
lation. Here is Democratic provision
for a violent contraction, and this is to
continue at an accelerating pace. And
with this there is to be an export Of gold
to add to the contracting forces.
Other elements are at work-the short
crops of 1881, the reduced exports, the
large imports, and the high price of Al
per cents, already inducing banks to de-
post greenbacks to get back their bonds
to sell, which, since the LIST, has with
drawn 81, 500. 900 in greenbacks with
which the Democratic hostility to the
banks is combining to create the con-
ditions for great monetary stringency, if
not for frst-class panic. If the banks
are to be enabled to go on, they should
have the assurance now to stop their
preparations for winding up. At the
best there will be some monetary dis
turbance, but the earlier the enabling
act, the less the disturbance will be.
But the Democratic party was always at
war on the interests of the people, under
the demagogue profession of friend to
the people, and its resistance to this en-
abling act is preparing the conditions
for hard times. - Cincinnati CONNER