The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-04-01
The Sub-Treasury Project.

estaOlSHeQ pONcy OF giving ali sizes OF
current questions a fair hearing. We
certainly do not consider the sub-treasury
project as within the sphere of practical
politics at this time. Many of the farm
ers' organizations in the West and South
hove declared themselves against it. Some
of the most prominent men in the great
farmers movement are earnestly opposed
to it. We do not expect it to have a
place in the platform of the farmers party
next year, should there be such party in
the field.
The most obvious objection TO the sub
treasury scheme is that it is in the avowed
interest of class. Only landowners are to
have the privilege of borrowing money"
from the treasury under the proposed ar
rangement. DR.. TAYLOR estimates that
one person in five owns real estate. We
have not the data at hand, but our guess
is that this proportion is too large. How
ever, it will serve as well as any other as
basis for argument. Accepting it for that
purpose we find that the proposition advo-
Gated by DR.. TAYLOR contemplates the
loaning of the government credit TO one
fifth OF the population. The other four
fifths of the population are not to have any
favors from the government.
OF course DR.. TAYLOR maintains that
the four-fifths. who are not landowners,
will be indirectly benefited by the
loaning of government money to the
other one-fifth. But the same plea
is set up by every advocate and bene-
ficiary of class legislation Of what
soever variety. The men who built
the Pacific railroads demanded enormous
ground that they would pay out immense
sums of money for material, labor, ETC..
and would open up fresh regions and cause
them 70 be settled, thus promoting the in
terests of all the people. They got their
subsidies, and the poorest Of these men is
probably worth hundred millions today.
The protected manufacturers constitute a
small proportion of the population. But
they have for thirty years claimed and re-
ceived heavy tribute from the rest of the
American people upon the ground that
they would pay out the money in high
wages, and thus keep business prosperous,
and indirectly benefit all classes. JAY
GOULD, HUNTINGTON and the other steam
ship jobbers demand heavy subsidies upon
similar grounds. The people are taxed to
pay the sugar-planters Of Louisiana and
the sap-farmers of Vermont heavy boun-
ties upon a like pretense. There never
was project of class legislation, however
vicious, which was not advocated upon
the ground that it would indirectly benefit
! other people besides the immediate bene-
ficiaries.
Let us not be misunderstood. We be-
lieve there is no argument, founded in
| equity, against the sub-treasury scheme
that is not just as strong against a pro-
tective tariff, or a sugar bounty. or
railroad or steamship subsidy. If class
legislation is to be the order of the day
there is no reason why there should not
be legislation for the benefit of the class
of farmers as we'll as of other classes.
There is, in fact, every reason why there
should be; because the farmers are the
most numerous and most useful class, and
! because they have had none of the tavors
which congress has been for thirty years
| distributing among manufacturers, ship
owners, railroad companies, national
bankers, etc.
But would the sub-treasury scheme, if
carried out. benefit the farmers? Our
| own conviction is that 1t would not. We
| believe it would absolutely ruin them.
| We believe, on the contrary, that it would
be blow to the prosperity and progress
of the country from which it would not
recover for halfa century. DR.. TAYLOR in
| deed says:
Pour three thousand millions of treas
| urv notes-greenbacks-in the hands OF
the real estate owners OF this country, and
within three months there would not be
an unemployed laborer in America.
The doctor further says that the carry
! ing out of this project would result in
universal employment of labor at good
wages, coupled with final universal own
ership of land" 1t is amazing that so in
| telligent a man as DR.. TAYLOR can
believe this. All the lessons of his
| tory demonstrate the utter futility
and folly of such a project. There
1 Is not an Oh any COuu-
try, in ancient or modern times, of a
wholesale initiation of the circulating me-
dunn without regard to intrinsic values
which has not been followed by general
bankruptcy and ruin. The history of the
French assignats, of the Continental cur
rency, of the Argentine cedutd, is surely
known to DR.. TAYLOR. 1t is likely, indeed,
that the issue of three thousand mill
ions OF treasury notes would cause an i'm
mediate demand for labor. 1t would
usher in an era of over-production, of
over-building, of reckless speculation, OF
wild extravaganza, and labor for a time
would be in great demand. There would
be apparent prosperity for brief interval.
But the end would soon come. 1t is an
iron law OF nature, As fixed and un-
changeabe as the eternal hills, that reac-
ton must follow excess. This law
never fails to assert itself. The feast
of universal employment and gen.
eral good times to which DR..
TAYLOR invites the country would be
quickly followed by such famine of OPP
portunity as the country has never SUI
fered. We know this because the ex-
pertinent has been repeatedly tried, in