Marshall County independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1894-1895, 1895-01-18
"CRUCIFY THE PEOPLE.
Such Henry Carey Baird Says is the
Purpose of All Pending Currency
Plans.

PennSylYanIan economist. sends TO the
Philadelphia American ringing protest
against any plan of currency reorgani-
zation which ignores silver.
The seductive bride, an unlimited
volume of wildcat bank currency, Of
fered to the American people as an in
ducement to them to permit the green
back, the silver certificate, and the treas
ury note, the former, the savior of their
institutions and all three the savior of
the fortunes and the homes of millions
of them, to be retired and destroyed,
will not do; it cannot be" he says. "And
even If the people were base enough or
ignorant enough to permit this attempt
to substitute nonlegal tender wildcat
for legal tender money, it would not,
even in the slightest degree, help to ex-
tricate the treasury of the United States
from its impending doom.
when, prior to Jan. l, 1879, this treas
ury was under no obligation to give to
the holders of greenbacks gold, it was
in an agreeable state of security for it.
self and thus enabled to watch with SUI
preme indifference the sufferlngs of the
people. who daily and even hourly saw a
shrinkage in the value of their labor and
other property, while their mortgages
and other debts remained the same, un-
der fortunes of contraction of the cur
rency. But to-day the scene is most
happily shifted, the brunt of the battle,
which between, 1866 and 1873 fell upon
the people, now falls upon heartless
treasury, and few will there be to mourn,
while millions will have cause to re-
joice
There are three or four schemes be-
fore the country at the present moment
for the reinauguration of wildcat cur
rency. Some are very elaborate, some
very wild, all more or less complicated;
but the true inwardness of one and all
of them is to shift the responsibility of
gold redemption from the United States
treasury to the banks, and through the
banks, of course, to the people, who are
once again to be crucified, as though
they had not already, during the thirty
years of o-caled peace, in which neither
peace political, peace financial, nor peace
industrial has existed. suffered crucifix-
ion enough.
The curiosities to be found in these
several schemes are among the most re-
markable in the history of economic
discussion or proposals for economic
legislation. Indeed, the authors of these
plans have beaten the record for absurd
propositions as to the interference of
government. After this the populists
must hide their diminished heads, the
currency reform crank of 1894 having
wholly distanced them in the direction
of so-called 'paternalism.
Among the most prominent of these
schemes of so-called currency reform is
that of the Hon. J. III. Walker, NJ. C.. of
Massachusetts,. His bill is now before
the house of representatives, and is
known as Banking bill III. r., I'll Mr..
Walker is member of the committee
on banking and currency, and is prom
inent candidate for the craftsmanship of
that committee God fOrbidD in the next
house of representatives in the event of
Mr.. Reed being made speaker. Mr.
Walkers bill, the result, as he claims. of
six years of study, is very long and very
elaborate and very complicated and very
revolutionary, proposing to tear every
thing up by the roots. 1t covers twenty
seven sections, and contains provision
for the guarantee, under certain circum-
stances, of the deposits of all the ma
tiOnal banks operating under his pro-
posed law by the United States govern
ment as follows:
"'When in the opinion of the comp
troller OF the currency an exceptional
financial condition exists or is impend-
ing that threatens the paralysis of bust
ness and the stopping of industries to
the great injury of the people, by Grip
ping or temporarily destroying the use
fulness of all banking associations IN
the country by threatening the with
drawel of deposits from conservatively
managed and clearly solvent banking
associations, because of abnormal con-
ditions of unreasonable fear which is
manifesting itself, the comptroller of
the currency is hereby authorized and
directed, with the approval of the secre-
tary of the treasury, to issue an order of