The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-10-15
1.-THE CLEVELAND BUNGTOWN
BANK,


Whenever political opponent can sue
cessfully seize upon saying. device or
caricature aimed by the other side against
his party, and adopt it boldly, he scores
point and turns the weapon of ridicuIe
upon its wielder.
This was truein the grandfather hat'
business, out of which the Democracy
has made no capital whatever; it was true
In the Lincoln campaign, when the Re-
publicans adopted the title for their can
didate of 'Rail-Splitter," with which the
Democracy had dubbed Mr.. Lincoln; it
was true when the Republicans made
sport of Mr.. Thurman's bandana hand
kerchief, and the Democrats accepted it
as campaign banner.
The San Francisco Examiner has made
futile effort in this direction by printing
what it claims to be copy of the sample
notes issued by the Republicans, illus
trative of the wildcat banking of the fif-
ties, and which the Democratic platform
demands shall be restored, by repeating
the prohibitive tax upon such financial
swindles. This cartoon the Examiner
prints in vain attempt to ridicule it.
We have an idea that the thing is a
"fake;" that no such note sample has
been issued, entitled 'The Cleveland
Wildcat Bank of Bungtown," which
promises to pay whenever it d-n
pleases, in money, coon skins or cord
wood" But the Republican party can
well afford to adopt it. 1t is not one whit
sxaggeration; ''The Cleveland Bungtown
Bank" note is an admirable reflex of the
stump-tail issues that brought ruin upon
the people in 1857. 1t admirably typifies
the Democratic platform plank demand
ing the restoration of ''Cleveland's Bung-
town Banks" RED Dog" and Stump
tail" currency.
1t is precisely that kind of financial in
stitutions, paying when ''they d-n
please" that the Democratic platform
proposes shall be established throughout
the land. Emphatically the E,camia,er's
woful attempt at ridicule will not
''work;" it is a boomerang that will re-
turn to smite its party.
The Republican party did not inaugu-
rate this bank issue: the Democracy
premeditatedly projected it in to the poll
tics of 1892 with the hope of catching votes
in the Southwest. 1t will not avail the
Examiner to declare ''the Democratic
party has no more notion ofreopening the
old State banks than it has of abolshing
railroads and replacing them with OK
teams" 1t does mean to re-establish the
old State banks with all their monstrous
evils. The platform so declares; Mr..
Cleveland, in his letter of acceptance,
admits it, and only defends the policy
with the expression of belief that the
States will each so legislate as to prevent
recurrence of the disasters of 1857.
The Philadelphia Record admits what
the Examiner denies, and so do half a
hundred other journalistic opponents of
Democratic faith, but all adopt the weak
defense that the State Legislature can be
trusted to guard the bank issue by re-
curing ample security to be given for
redemption of the notes. The Record
goes so far as to declare that self-interest
viii make the State banks demonstrate
their soundness, otherwise their notes
will not pass current, ''there being no
authority in the State to make them legal
tender"
This was precisely the stalk" in the era
before the war. We were then told that
''self-interest' would make the banks
deal fairly; that if they did not, the peo-
pie would refuse their notes. What was
the result? Over 1850 banks of issue
were established; they flooded the coun-
try with millions of promises to pay
when they d-n please; 20 per cent.
of these notes were not worth the paper
upon which they were printed.
There were not ten banks in the entire
lot the notes of which were not skillfully
counterfeited, and millions of these coun-
terfeits were foated, every dollar OF
which was a dead loss to business, while
all depreciation of an issue of bank was
so much stolen from the pocket of hard
labor. For, as General Harrison has well
said, whenever there is cheap and poor
money afioat it is the workingman who
loses by it; it finds its way to him, stays
by him and makes him its victim.
The Examiner is much pleased to as
sumo that this State bank issue is raked
up by the Republican party to obscure
the tariff issue, and to wean public
thought from consideration of the latter.
Nothing of the kind; the State bank issue
was raised, dragged in by the foretop,
without rhyme or reason, by the Demo
cratic party; it is the child of greed, Chi
cane and political demagogy. 1t is OF
first Importance now that it is forced into
the campaign, because, if the Democratic
demand should become by Democratic
triumph the law of the land, and the pro-
hibitory tax on State banks of issue be
repealed, before the stupendous and dis
astrous results the tariff would sink into
insignificance.
To permit the re-establishment of State
banks means millions of gain TO the
tricksters who would set up these swind-