Birmingham state herald., 1896-03-27
OUR LETTER BOX.

SaPPOtb OA OOhiiolOii OJ lAiC 5Oio oloha-
 ard democrats would insure har-
 mony in the party by demonstrat- ing that they did not indorse
 rule or ruin" policy. Besides that
 'the currency question was not
 state question, but was one to be settled
 by the national convention. and the
 platform adopted by it should outline
 the democratic policy" etc, etc. It's zeal was as great as is usual in the case
 of proselytes, but it's fidelity was short lived. Suddenly it turned a back somer- sault and landed again in the gold camp, and the faithful shouted, Are you there, Moriarity?" Almost every day since
 then it has had editorial matter that read l as If it was conceived in the oven of a | diseased brain and brought forth in the 1 cold storage room of decaying thoughts. | This editorial matter reads like the full minations of Sir John Falstaff to his val 1 iant followers, but lacks the flavor of | appropriate application to the subject in | hand. They have the ring of warrior | who never saw service; and of a general l who never set squadron in the field" | or dipped his sword in anything but the | bright sunlight. His command is, Line l up line up. sound money men, and vote
 for Clarke! Sound money men can't af- | ford to vote for Johnston" "A vote for l Johnston is a vote for unSound money
 and the ruin of the country" etc., etc. | can imagine him at the head of the aris- 1 toCIdtlC SOiu Sldnudfu pndldUA, OTueflilS l his following to "direct your eyes at me. l Consider my ways and line up! line up and dress on me- The whole course of
 the News, editorially, reminds me that
 Whoever dares these boots displace l Must meet Bombastes face to face" | Particularly of late the News seems "to l talk through it's hat" There's a devil
 may care, "let her go, Gallagher any 1 thing to hurt Johnston kind of a policy that savers of late dinners, sauer kraut
 and pigs feet, which lead to bad diges-
 tion. It is an old saying that "a sound
 mind can exist only in a sound body"
 Alexander H. Stephens was ''the excep- l tion that proved the rule" Now,
 sound mind goes with a sound body and
 a sound body must have a sound diges-
 tion. That the editorial digestion of the l News Is bad, and very bad, and its edi- torial liver in need of an active medi- ] cine, submit is manifest from the fol- 1 lowing excerpts" from an editorial of l 'balderdash" entitled, Peril In Radical | Changes" It says "A change in the monetary system of great country, 1 whether for better or worse, is very apt | to produce panic" Conceding for the moment the sapiency and truth of the proposition, then the panics that have | prevailed since the demonetza ton of silver, the shrinkage in values of all prop 1 erty and all commodities, the distress and ruin that prevails all was the ma atural result OI c0dfBe III the monetary SyS- | tenn of great country" The single gold standard men assert now, as they have ever done, that the change was necessary
 to maintain sound currency. The change has cost the south alone $2O0O,- 100000 in the past twenty years | and though affairs continue to grow worse every day, the emprcs of finance want to continue the same medicine that has ruined and wrecked the country Their cry has been that silver was too plentiful. With the exposure of this and all other false theories, now comes the News to tell us that "a change in the monetary system of a great country whether for better or worse, is apt to pro- duce a panic' This change was made over twenty1s ears ago. and the panic isn't over yet. The money power wants to add to it by retiring the paper money. After that, then what? In the name of God, what? As to this adcaptandum assertion of the News knew that money was timid and property values easily
 unsettled, which were as good reasons for
 not tinkering with the currency in 1873 as they are for not disturbing 1t now But I guess I'm not wise, for I never knew that a change from a bad financial pol icy to good one would produce a panic, except among the rsscals who fastened the bad financial policy upon the people.
 My own idea, based on the experience of the world, is that a change from bad
 to good begets confidence and confi-
 dence unlocks hidden money, and trade
 and hope of profit tempts 1t into circula-
 ton. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'd hate to
 depend on the wisdom of the News to
 set me right. If. after twenty years ex-
 perience with the present standard, we
 are almost stranded, isn't it time to
 change doctors and remedies? And, if
 we were doing fairly well under dou-
 ble standard, why not get back to 1t
 again.
 uyo,;I,, ,,,1o oon confidently, daoIa ,a
 where the bankruptcy and wreck and
 ruin will end by going to free silver coin
 age at IS to 1?''
 The answer is, If demonetizing and dis
 crediting silver. prohibiting its coinage and legislating against 1t in every possi-
 ble unfriendly way has reduced us to
 our present deplorable financial condi- ton. how, in the name of all the saints,
 will wise and friendly course to sil-
 yer, restoring it to it's place alongside
 gold, produce the same results that fol-
 lowed it's demonstration? To such
 heights in finsnce doth soar the News that a plain understanding fails to see In it's statements and arguments any thing but The vaporings of self conceit.
 The frog in the fable kept swelling till he busted" And 1t was only wind-the wind of self conceit that finally scatter ed his remains and shattered his career.
 twill not conservative men hesitate to make the leap into the dark bearing the ills we have rather than fly to those we know not of?"
 This sentence has puzzled me badly. I can't see just what the editor was af- ter. Old John Falstaff never got his ideas so confused. and even when he had his quart of sack" under his waistband he never jumbled his English together that way. But will answer the query by saying that no conservative men will leap into the dark bearing the ills we have" or any other ills, unless they have dined on pigs feet and sauer kraut. They would rather fly to those they know not of" All the financial ills that plague us come from the single gold standard, and ''bearng the ills we nave" instead of getting into an atmosphere where the ozone is vfvified by a silver lining is just what Is crushing and strangling us financially. There's none so blind as those who won't see.
 MT Clarke favors staying above the abyss Captain Johnston urges that our
 ship of btate shall try the awful plunge" can't see exactly in this sen tenoe- any continuity of thought with what precedes, but am rejoiced to know that MT. Clarke sees the abyss here mem toned and prefers staying above. suppose the abyss here pictured is the f-x |, 5 H.