The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-06-21
CURRENT PRESS COMMENT.

parry treasures the money they would like to keep.
But for all that it is such a violent assumption of
authority for Congress to prescribe how a man shall
or shall not spend his own money, and to emphasize
its deliverances by providing penalties for their non
observance, that even as a piece of party buncombe
the bill is most unlikely to pass.-Newark IN. j.
News.
THE definite object which any congressional inves.
tigation should propose to itself should be to investi-
gate the relations of the banks to the Stock Exchange
and to other speculative associations, as speculation
in this form alone is capable of sustaining dangerously
high premiums on bank favors. 1t may be readily
conceded that the bank officials of New York are able
and reliable men as a class, but a system should not
be allowed to exist so replete with temptation to those
estimable fellows without an occasional inquest into
the casualties. -Louisville Courier-Journal
NEW YORK is, indeed, the Empire State, and it has
been particularly honored by the Democratic party in
the matter of presidential candidates. Glance over
the roster for the last twenty years and what do we
fndl In 1864 it was called upon for a leader of the
Democratic host and gave us George B.. Mcclellan; in
1868 it put forward the venerated Horatio Seymour;
in 1872, the gifted and magnanimous Horace Greeley:
in 1876. the dashing reformer, Samuel j. Tilden, and
in 1886 the superb Hancock. All of these has it
sacrificed on the altar of Democracy, and yet it is not
weary of welldoing. From its abundance it is still
willing to give, and to give freely.-Brooklyn Eagle
(Deml
THERE is no doubt that if people knew anything
about the real conditions of properties there would be
buyers enough of what was good. Lack of confidence
is a greater drawback than lack of funds. The Finan-
cial Chronicle thinks that a congressional committee
to investigate the New York banks might be a good
thing as likely to teach Congress that the banks need
not restriction but freedom. 1t does not suggest, but
it might, that a committee of artistic taste would es-
peclally enjoy q look at the Seney picture gallery,
which recently became a part of the assets of the New
York banks. Why they do not exhibit it, and so
make the property productive, is not explained--Hart
ford Courant.
THE nomination of Blaine means an advance like
that which Jefferson took when he raised his party to
the level of the forward march involved in the Louis.
lana purchase. 1t means an assertion OF national
power like that with which Jackson q~uickened the
national sense and gave his party a new lease of
power. 1t means a refusal to pattern after the blum
der OF the w hg party when 1t lodged the slavery
gu estion and lodging, died all over to give room TO
the Republican party Will its new mission, 1t was
Webster, the idol of exclusive Massachusetts, who
stopped the forward march then. 1t is the same ee
ment in Massachusetts, which Intellectually seeks to
stop it now.-Philadelphia Press.
NOTHING can be palmer than that this cam
paign is to be one of principles and issues
and not of men, except so far as they repre-
sent principles and issues. Here and there a
vote may be gained or lost in New York. Indiana.
Massachusetts or elsewhere because of the per-
sonality of the man who will receive the Democratic
nomination for President about three weeks from now,
but for all practical purposes ii is not assuming too
much for Democrats to take it for granted that they
can win this fight by the nomination of any good and
capable man of sufficient prominence to be known to
She country without any regard to the State in which
he lives.-Washington Post Dem)
WHAT shall justice do to protect itself from the
law? VIII the people of this city be driven to riot, as
the people of Cincinnati werel viii they feel that it
will be necessary for them to take the law into their
own hands! Is there no way to punish such law as is
manifestly, if not Intentionally, crimel Alittle tech
nicaity in the case of the murderer Conroy is deemed
OF more Importance than the safety and the Justice
which demand his death, and the people are taxed to
the extent of thousands of dollars to pay for it.
There is not a greater or more objectionable tyrant
than the law as it exists at this moment, and the
rights of the people are more in danger from thSr
own judiciary than from all the foreign armies in the
world,-New York Graphic.
THERE are some who doubt whether the old issues
are not dead, so that the Republican party can be
safely folded up and put away on the shelf, as of no
further use. When they think soberly, they will con.
slider what spirit has been displayed by the Demo
cratic party to this day, and even by the Democratic
House now in session, in regard to every one of the
questions raised by the civil war. Then they will reflect
that it is not time, and never will be, to have the ma.
ton ruled by a solid South, made solid by ~shotguns.
There are many other matters about which sober and
serious thought is desirable. 1t would be well to
think seriously of the Copiah murders and of the Dan
vile massacre. 1t would be well to think seriously of
the public debt and the national banking system.-New
York Tribune.
REVENUE reform, reduction of taxation, the restora-
ton of American commerce, are other objects which,
it is thought, may be attained by the formation of a
new party. Aside from the fact that people agreed
as to these purposes and the means of accomplishing
them might be firm believers in the "spoils system"
could any considerable number of persons, agreeing
with one another and differing from both the great ex.
listing political parties as to these objects, be found
outside of the free-trade clubs! We notice, by the
way, that some of the gentlemen who want a third
party are free-traders. They are doubtless right in
their wish for a new party. But the new party would
be likely to remain hopelessly small if it were not re-
cruited from other ranks than those of the free-trad-
ers.-New York Sun.
THE Supreme Court of the State, made Democratic
by the amount OF attention bestowed upon the Second
Amendment last fail, has had the Scott law in hand,
and the presumption that they would declare the law
unconstitutional was almost universal. They did not
do that, however. They confined themselves to a sin
gle clause, and the amount of the decision is that tile
owners of real estate rented for retail liquor-selling
purposes are no longer responsible to the State for the
payment of the tax. That is to say, the tax is no
longer a lien on the real property, but the tax remains,
and the question of its constitutionality has not been
decided. 1t is another way of saying that the Demo-
cratic Supreme Court has lodged the main question.
1t is a Democratic habit to dodge business questions.
Cincinnati Commercial Gazette.
WHEN the supply falls to the level of the demand,
especially if the present crop should prove nearly so
abundant as it now gives promise to do, the sluggish
wheels of trade will begin to revolve faster again. In
the meanwhile the suicidal folly of mere speculation,
the shrinkage of values, the contraction of profits, the
shutting down of so manyw works, the total loss or re-
duction of wages, should suggest to both employers
and employed that when the active time comes again
and everybody shall be busy and making money, it
will be a good time to practice voluntary economy,
which is better and easier than the enforced sort
which so many are now practising. Americans know
how to make money; they have yet to learn how to
spend it, for to spend it Alright it should yield one
hundred cents of value to the dollar either in comfort.
health, or happiness. In mere extravagant living it
does not yield 10 per cent. to the dollar.-Philadelphia
Telegraph.
THIS promises a good, if not a brilliant, harvest,
and is a most important hint to all men of affairs.
They cannot count on a "boom;" they may count on
moderate or fair business in all proper lines. 1t is an
element of strength, also, that railroad building is
more limited than it has been since 1880, the new
mileage of the current year being 1882, against
$50 miles for the corresponding time in 1888, and
3,677 miles in 1882. The capital thus saved on new
railroads will seek investment elsewhere, and is sure
to find it.. Nor1are exports bad, particularly in cot
ton, breadstuffs and petroleum.. But the most sig
nifcant test of the c~ountry's prosperity lies in the
price of real property, which continues at the usual
rates, Just as if there had been no decline in railroad
shares. No boom is i'll sight, then; yet neither is
there much justification for the profound gloom
which haunts so many business men at the present
~time.-Boston Advertiser.
IT is the fashion in some circles to sheer at party
ties as if they represented only bondage, and as if the
,,diaal political condition would be to have every man
acting independently Of every otnei man. The reai'
zation of this ideal would land us all in political chaos.
Parties are simply voluntary organizations of men
who believe in certain principles and desire the pro-
motion of certain measures, and who, accordingly,
act together. But the basis of party organization
must always be the determination of specific policies
by the will of the greater number, and the surrender
of individual preferences to the general opinion. If