The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1894-05-04
Interview With Gen.sEwing,

The most memorable feature O
the Democratic National Conven
ton of 1876 which met in st. Loui
was the debate on the money ques
ton between Hon. Thomas Ewing
then Of Ohio, and Lieutenant Gov
ernor Dorsheimer, Of New York
Ii was only about two years afte
the country had been swept as by
cyclone by the Democratic ant
Greenback parties both Of which
held to the same theories on tn,
currency question. No politica
lupheaval before or since 1874 has
surpassed the tremendous victory
Of the friends Of legal tender cur
rcncy in that year. The commit.
tee on resolutions at the st. Louis
convention was divided and General
Ewing presented minority report
which was debated by himself fol
the greenback idea and by Govern
or Dorsheimer for the "hard mon
ey" side of the question. In that
debate Gen. Ewing warned the con-
vention that there were those pre-.
sent who would live to see the sill
yer which had been demonetized by
stealth in 1878 literally driven from
the position it had occupied prior
to that fatal year and the whole
currency Of the country placed upon
a single gold basis. He warned the
convention that this cruel contrac-
ton of the currency had already
commenced and that as it proceeded
from year to year prices would de-
cline, labor would be thrown out of
employment, debts made prior to
1873 would require twice as much
labor to pay them, and that ultimate
ly unless the movement should be
arrested the country would be
brought face to face with revolution
before the end Of another quarter of
century. Unfortunately for the
country the country the South was
still terrorized by carpet bag rule,
and the Southern delegates very
naturally thought it to be Of the
first Importance to secure home
rule in every Southern state. The
South accordingly threw its vote in
that convention against General
Ewing's minority report. Tilden
was nominated and elected, but
Hayes was seated as President, as
the result of a bargain between his
supporters and the representatives
from Louisiana, South Carolina and
Florida in the House. No one can
blame the Southern people for the
choice they then made between
home rule on the one hand and the
issue Of legal tender money by the
Government exclusively on the
other hand. But that act set back
the currency question nearly twenty
years and has made the contest for
currency reform now in front Of us
the most tremendous one over
which political parties have strug-
gled in the worlds history.
1t is gratifying and exceedingly
hopeful to know that General Thorn
as Ewing, despite the fact that he
has since been resident Of New
York City, has not forgotten the
magnificent argument he made in
the Tilden convention, and that his
zeal for legal tender currency in am
pie volume to stimulate commerce
and industry has not abated in the
least. He is now on visit to the
Pacific coast and "A recent number
of the San Francisco Examiner pub
fishes the following interview with
him:
"Contraction Of the currency al,
ways causes general distress because
it always shrinks the value Of every,
thing which money buys-land, la
Dor and products. With fall Of
values debtors and taxpayers suffer,
for it increases the amount Of the
labor and products with which
debts and taxes are paid. Con-
versely when prices rise, debtors
ard taxpayers prosper, because it
takes less Of labor and its products
to pay debts and taxes. Such rise
Of prices, on the other hand, in
juries the creditor classes, whose in
are, in effect, diminished by
a rise Of values, or in other words
by a fall Of the purchasing power Of
money.
Productive industry is carried on
largely on borrowed money, and by
those people who comprise the bulk
of the debtors and taxpayers.
Therefore, when there is great
shrinkage, or fear Of a shrinkagc, in
the currency, there follows cor
responding shrinkage OF business,
such as that under which the world
groans to-day. Capitalists who
usually loan money to men who
carry on production or exchange
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