Huntsville gazette., 1893-09-02
the DEMOCRACY INDICTED.

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The views Of the leading republicans
of congress who have gathered at
Washington are positively to the effect
that the depression in business affairs,
which has come rapidly upon the coun-
t-y since the 4th of March, has been
caused by the democratic victory of the
9Th of November.
They insist that during the two years
1891 and 1892, under a republican ad-
ministration at Washington and under
the operation Of the Mckinley tariff
and Sherman silver laws, the people OF
the United States enjoyed an unprece-
dented prosperity. Both those who
favor and those who oppose the repeal
of the silver purchasing clause OF the
Sherman law are unanimously OF the
opinion that the Clevcland-Carlisle adj
ministration of the treasury department
since March has been a far more
potent factor in inspiring and empha-
sizing the distrust than the operations
of the Sherman law. Amid the general
suspicion and uncertainty which natur-
ally attended the installation at Wash
ington of party pledged to reverse the
policy under which the American people
had lived for thirty-two years, and to
which the business affairs of the
nation had been adjusted, some
expression of financial views from
the president and his secretary
Of the treasury were anxiously
awaited. But they allowed the gold
3,1 fpoo tn fa1 hol
the one hundred million limit and they
permitted the rumors to circulate that
treasury notes would be paid in silver
rather than gold, thereby expediating
the withdrawal of foreign loans and
precipitating wholesale outflow OF
the yellow metal to Europe before a
tardy denial of silver payments was
forthcoming. And when, finally, after
the damage had been wrought and the
avalanche started, Mr.. Carlisle made
matters worse by declaring that the
treasury would pay gold ''as long as it
could"-throwing doubt on the ability
of the nation to maintain the purity uf
its various kinds OF money-while the
presidents only utterance, apart from
an attempt to correct the erroneous inn
preston given out by Mr.. Carlisle, was
cruel remark to the effect that the
country needed IAN object lesson"
No bonds were issued to maintain the
treasury's gold reserve unimpaired. No
extra session of congress was called
Immediately to meet the crisis. No
declaration of policy was made. No
positive action of any kind was taken;
and, in the meantime, depression seized
upon the business interests of the land,
like creeping paralysis. To the inca
pacity of Messrs. Cleveland and Carlisle
to comprehend the financial situation,
much less to comfort and inspire with
confidence the financial interests of the
land is the existing depression in large
measure due.
But it is not to the operations of the
Sherman law nor even to the financial
incapacity of Messrs Cleveland and Car
Isle, but rather to the widespread fear
of tariff smashing, that the existing de-
publican leaders:
"Vast industries have sprung up in
this country in almost every article of
production and manufacture, says SEN
.ator John Sherman, land upon the full
confidence that, to the extent provided
by our tariff laws, the domestic pro-
ducer would be protected from the COM
petition of cheaper labor in foreign
countries. This feeling of distrust has
already greatly reduced the price of
wool and other agricultural products
that come into competition with foreign
products. The democratic party has
now absolute power to pass such law
as it may deem proper. Until this tariff
scheme is presented there will be pro-
found distrust."
when the party in power" says
Congressman Burrows, of Michigan,
threatens every domestic industry and
all the labor employed therein with uu-
restrained, violent competition and con-
sequent ruin, ordinary business sagac-
ity prompts reduction of expendi-
lures. curtailment of plants and gener-
al suspension to await the blow. 1t is
this waiting, this fear, this dread of an
impending revaluation which is caus-
ing much widespread public depression
and calamity. You ask me the remedy.
1t is simple. Let the party In power
publicly repudiate it's Chicago platform
Of free trade and wildcat money and
promise to let the tariff alone, and
maintain sound currency and public
credit. Business activity will take the
place of stagnation just as soon as the
public can be made to believe in the
sincerity of such declaration"
~ These views are representative of re-
publican sen ntiment in congress. They
are also representative of republican
sentiment in the country at large.
There is widespread apprehension re-
garding the party which was voted into
power last fall, pledged as it is to
smash the tariff and to revive wildcat
currency. There is no confidence that
in repeating the Sherman law, or any
part of it, some better financial act will
be substituted. There is general fear
that the disaster of tariff destruction
threatens the industrial interests of the
land. Journal.
eB Neal, of Ohio, has long been the
"willin'" Micawber of the democratic
party. He will now see something