Birmingham state herald., 1895-11-22
MIsREpRDsFNTING JoHNsToN.

tive Ol lHe TepuQldAtDn lueds anu as sHtl we fought him. Did we do him an injus- tlee? We think not. That his views contemplated repudfation we know from a declaration made in one Of the earliest issues of his paper. the Birmingham State.
 The people are paying 100-eent debts with 2OO-cent dollars, and a good many creditors would get pretty near all they are entitled to if paid g cents on dollar
 This is advocacy of repudiation in it's most insdious and dangerous form. It sets forth the doctrine as morally right Mobile Register.
 Captain Johnston is not repudiation-. ist nor anything appreaehingsit and he is not responsible for any utterance of the old Daily State nor of the present State Herald. He has his own views upon the currency question and is abun- dantly able to express them. There is no occasion for the Register to attrib- ute to him the utterances of others un- less it is determined to misrepresent him.
 The State Herald does not propose to take up the cudgel for the former Daily State, although we are free to say that the views of that paper on the currency question meet our hearty approval, and just here it is proper to say that the State did a good work in arousing the press and the people of Alabama to a free and full discussion of the great economic question which lies at the base of all business and prosperity. Agitation is the life of commerce and of liberty, and the agitation brought about by the bold and candid utterances of the State has served to educate the people as to their rights and remedies upon this grave question of currency.
 But whatever Captain Johnston. may think as to. the repudiation commented upon by the Register, namely that the people are paying 100-cent debts with 20O-cent dollars, there is no doubt that the proposition is true and that the State was correct.
 A distinguished political economist, op- posed to the free coinage of silver, un- less by international agreement Presi- dent Andrews) describes "a regime of falling prices" as "a state of things which, besides not working less injustice than awaits on rising prices. may easily retard the amassing of wealth as much in one year as would a national war" We have had more than twenty of such years Again, he says: "The continual fall of prices, the act of sinking, Is the accursed thing"
 Prices have been falling for twenty years. We are still sinking to a vet low CT and lower depth if that be possible.
 He gives as a practical example of the Ills or falling prices the fact that. not withstanding the immense payments made on the national debt, the burden of the debt on the tax payers has in creased, and the value of the unpaid part increased to the creditor beyond it's full worth before any payment whatever had been made
 President Andrews says: Our national debt on September l, 1865, was about $275O, 100000. It could have been paid off with 1S,O00000 bales of cotton or 25. 900 GOO tons of iron. When it had been reduced to billion and a quarter SO. GOO 900 bales of cotton or 30,000, 900 tons of iron wo,,ld nave been required to pay it. In other words, while a nominal shrinl<aee of about 55 per cent had taken place in the debt, 1t had, as measured by these two world staples actually been enlarged bv some 50 per cent.
 Between 1870 and 1884 the debt of tho Unlted States decreased not very far rom three-quarters of a billion dollars yet II we take beef, corn, wheat. oats pork, coal. bar iron and cotton together as the standard, surely not a bad one the debt did not decrease, but actually increased by not less than 50 per cent,
 what is thus said about the national debt is but an Illustration The same is true of all debts, all pecuniary oblira- tions.
 And this is all that the State Herald meant by the proposition which the Rep- ister says breaths the spirit of repudiation To say that if the bondholders got 50 cents on the dollar it would be as much as they are entitled to is by no means to advocate repudiation of any part of the debt. It is simply stating truth. and the truth can take care of itself.
 It is proper in this place to say that Captain Johnston occupies the highest position as a business man, lawyer and financier His whole life and his sue cess as business man is planted upon the recognition of contracts In his hands the affairs of the state would be hon. estly administered. and no holder of our securities need be uneasy as to a full compliance with our obligations. We suggest to the Register that it is not only doing Captain Johnston an inius- tice in bringing such captious charges against him, but it is working great harm to the state and finances of Alabama in charging the candidate who will be elected next governor with being a re- pudiationist.
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