The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-07-11
THE JOURNAL AND THE CITY's CREDIT.

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The Sentinel charges the Journal with
lying about and iDjuring the credit of
Indianapolis for political purposes in
connection With the attempted sale OF
thenew city bonds. Toprovei its charges
it quotes - tlippant editorial paragraph
Democratic paper of Fort Wayne. and a
dispatch from Indianapolis to the Louis
vine Post stating that the treasury of
this city is practically bankrupt and
that the financial situation is very seri-
Gus. The Post is a Democratic paper
and It's Indianapolis correspondent is a
Democrat. just what it was in the
Journal that caused this impression in
Democratic minds the Sentinel does not
say, simply because it can find nothing
of the sort. The failure of the agent of
the city government to negotiate the
bonds was a matter of news that the
Journal published in common with the
Sentinel. 1t commented on the trans
action, as it had a right to do, and crit
icised the laundering financial anage
ment which caused it. as it also had a
right to do; but it said not a word in
news or editorial columns to intimate
that the city was bankrupt or that its
credit was not good. The Jour-
nal is. not seeking TO make pO-
litical capital al the expense of
the city. 1t is even sparing the
Democratic party because. to publish
all the information that comes to
its knowledge showing the direct re-
suits of Democratic policy and Demo-
cratic management on the business COM
munity would be to injure that CON-
munity. Business men know, the SEN
tinel itself knows, hat day after day
this paper has left unsaid the things it
might nave said as statements of fact,
simply because to print them would
be to create alarm in commercial and
labor circles, and that it has, on the
contrary, used every effort to promote
confidence in final satisfactory outcome
of financial conditions. 1t has refrained
from pointing the moral that these con
ditiOns teach. Every man can read it
for himself. 1t stands up above the
horizon like the monument. Before the
Democratic party came into power there
were no financial conditions to reate
alarm. There was no talk, even in
Democratic papers, of an empty city
treasury, much less of municipal bank
ruptcy. There was no daily list of bank
and other commercial failures; there
was no closing of factories and no dis
missing of wOrkmen-twenty here, fifty
there. one hundred in another place.
There was no c~Oncealment of facts
and no necessity for iI. Prosperity
was the order of the day. But
suppose the opposite had been h case.
Does any one acquainted with that paper
believe for an instant that the Sentinel
would have lost an opportunity to gain
political capital at whatever cost TO
othersq Does any one doubt that it
would have heralded an empty treasury,
such as now exists, as a proof of bank
ruptcy7 Would it not have reveled in
sensational. and exaggerated accounts
of the shrinkaRe of business, the dis
missal of factory hands and the pre-
vailing distrust in business c~ircles7
Would it not have had "scare heads"
every day pointing III these ills and
rumors of ills in detail, and charging all
to the Republican partyR Its record as
manufacturer of political capital when
it had none proves that it would have
done all of these things. While the
journal and other Republican papers
are engaged in helping to keep up the
commercial credit which Democratic
rascality and laundering have under
mined the less the Seminal says about
making political capital the better.