St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-11
CAN THEY BE TRUSTED.

No one who has followed John
Bach McMaster through the three
published volumes of his History
of the American People," but is i'm
pressed with his inherent if uncon-
scious sympathy with the Hamil-
tonian school of policies and govern
ment, and his repugnance to the
Jeffersonian. He writes history in
the spirit of Macaulay and Motley.
unable to eliminate the personal
equation, but giving 1t as he sees it
through the coloring of his own
productions. And it is to such a
one the greater surprise that he
mas the historian making an affiir-
NATIVE answer to the question he
makes the caption of his article in
the current Forum: 'Ts Sound
Finance Possible Under Popular
Government? ?"
One OF the striking facts of the
present financial epidemic is that
the very vital fact is ignored that
not only this country, but other
countries, have had the Same
crazes, following a financial panic
or an exhausting war, during which
the cry rose for more money. and
was met by acceptance of the finan-
clal bubbles blown by visionary
men who imagined stable structures
could be built of moonbeams. if onIy
the De 1t enacted" Of the state so
oesreed; that the logic of the craze
ran to the end, invoking the most
stringent powers of the state. and
that each and every effort to sinh
stitute the visions of the dreamers
LOT the laws of trade ended in dire
disaster
1t IS out Of these experiences in
tn1S country that Mr.. McMaster
draws his conclusion that sound
nnance is possible under a populsr
government, where a period of mi
Versal depression brings to the ever
existing vagarist the reinforcement
OF ordinarily sane men, driven Inv
pecun1ary pressure to lend a willing
ear to that which in better times
their common sense would reject
with ~scorn. That such a condition
ala not follow the panic of 1897 was
due. to the resistance of Presidapt
van Buren to the various schemes
proposed by such opportunists as
Clay and Webster, and his insist
ance on and tenacious holding to the
Democratic theory of government.
But the histories of the states
under the confederation and subse-
quently under the union afford
plenty OF lessons in unSound finance
that may we'll be retold now to
these men who imagine that it is in
the power of this government or of
a combination of governments to
create values by their fiat and make
silver. by simple decree, worth 81. 90
an ounce that the markets will only
pay IS cents for. Mr.. McMaster
takes the experience of the two
states of Ohio and Kentucky in the
hard times that followed the war
or 1872, In their attempts to make
money plenty and cheap, less we
take 1t, to answer his question than
to show where the present tenden-
c1es will eliminate if not checked.
The experience of the people of
these two states in their hunt for
cheap and plenteous money was but
a repetition of that of the other
states during the days of the fedora
ton, and of other western states
prior to 1887 and shows that if sound
finance is possible under a popular
government it is only because, out
of the disasters resulting from the
monetary debauch, there comes the
salutary recognition that there are
laws superior to the edicts of legis-
latures, which can neither be evaded
nor trified with, and which in the
end have their way The end al
ways has been and always will be
a surrender when effort is exhaust
ed, and the futility of it becomes ap-
parent. Whether the people can be
trusted to preserve a sound finance
or not, the laws of trade based on
the instinct of self preservation NAV
be depended on to compel it, in the
end.