Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1892-11-04
DANGEROUS SCHEME.
DEMOCRATIC SUCCESS MEANS WILD
CAT AND REDDOG CURRENCY.

Aue Deihocratic Ihtiorm Lither Sou-
templates a Return to the Unsafe State
Bank System or Else Was Intended to
Deceive Confding Voters.
Democrats are extremely anxious to
have voters believe that Democratic vic
tory would not bring back the era of
wildcat and reddog currency. They
dodge discussion Of the question as far
as possible, having found out that no
sophistry will induce the people to vote
for the abolition of the simple, uniform
and absolutely safe. national currency
now in use. 1t is the Democratic harit
to sheer at the question when it cannot
be entirely ignored, as if it were absurd
to suppose that the national platform
meant anything or that practical bust
ness men who are Democrats would ever
permit the national Currency to be abol-
ished.
This is dishonorable evasion There
are Democrats who are practical and
successful business men and extremely
practical politicians also who are des-
perately determined to revive the state
bank system. They know the enormous
political power which can be exerted
through state banks authorized to issue
circulating notes. They reason that a
safe system can be provided in some
states, and particularly their own. They
know that the inferior currency which
other states are sure to authorize will
put those states and the business men Of
those states far behind in the struggle
for commercial advantage and profit
For the incalculable losses and infinite
trouble to which the people would be
subjected by having more than forty
different kinds of paper in circulation
instead of only one these Democrats care
nothing in comparison with the partisan
and personal advantages sought.
Many influential Democrats are OPEN
ly arguing for the adoption Of the state
bank system, pretending to believe that
it would be safe everywhere, though
they must know perfectly well that in
most of the states it would result-just
as it did in old Democratic times-in
the authorization Of political banks Of
issue by the hundred without any real
security for the people. They caused
the adoption Of the plank in the Demo
cratic platform which deliberately pro-
poses the repeal Of the prohibitory tax
on state bank circulation. The platform
was scrutinized with the greatest care
by some Of the shrewdest friends of Mr..
Cleveland, who were every hour in tele-
graphic communication with him. That
plank would never have been permitted
to be reported or adopted if these man.
ayers on behalf of Mr.. Cleveland, and
Mr.. Cleveland himself, had not been
willing to take the responsibility of the
change proposed.
1t is simply an insult to these gentle
men to suggest that they suffered a
pledge to be given in the platform which
they and the candidate they represent
never intended to carry out. If they
believed the change impracticable, dan
gerous or wrong, and yet without OBJ
lection allowed the platform to go as it
stands, they conspired with Mr.. Cleve-
land to cheat the voters. The only other
alternative is to suppose that they cal
culated upon evading the issue success
fully in eastern states and in CONNER
cial centers, and carrying the country
on other issues, and believed that the
party could then secure through the
state banks political power enough to
defy public indignation after the change
had been made. Nor can any man tell
how great a political power the monopo-
ly of note issuing would possess if trans
ferred from nonpartisan national hands
to the hands of partisans in control Of
state government.
The people do not want to abolish a
simple, uniform and safe national cur
rency; the Democratic managers are
quite aware Of that. Experience has
proved and all the people know that
the management Of the banking system
under the national government has been
absolutely free from partisan bias
When it is urged that the national bank
system must 60 down, the people answer,
with Senator Sherman, "that we can
prevent if we see fit by providing that
national banks may issue notes upon
other securities than government bonds"
But the provision ought to be by the
national government the same for all
the states 80 that the notes Of all the