The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1896-10-01
INITIATING ENGLAND.
Hnaneiers Of the United States are Simply
Initiating England's Monetary Policy.

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Initiating England's Monetary Policy.
Mr.. Davis, Of Kansas -The presi-
dent has rightly said that ''the in
exorable laws Of finance and trade"
can not be defed with impunity.
SO, having copied the financial
policy Of England, is 1t strange
that we must suffer the same penal
ties ? In 1865 the people of the Uni
ted States emerged from the greatest
war of modern times. They had
saved the Disagreement on earth.
Money was plenty, times were good,
the national debt was not large,
and, as individuals, we were "out
of debt and prosperous. We felt
as did the British people after their
great victory at Waterloo, and the
Punishment of Napoleon. The Brit
ish system of contraction, inaugu-
rated here in 1866, began to tell on
the clearinghouse transaction in
1870. In 1878, the same policy
struck down silver. This was at
once followed by disastrous panic,
distressing the entire country, as
had never before been witnessed.
According to Senator Logan, it
was a money famine" and it has
continued ever since with only
temporary ATTACHMENTS.
[ have now shown the similarity
of the British and American finan-
cial policies instituted for the same
general purposes, under similar
conditions. Ours was and is sub
stantial copy of theirs. To show
that similar crab trees bring forth
the same bitter fruits, 1 call atten-
ton to the testimony of eyewit-
nesses as the results in the two
countries.
Mr.. Thomas Carlyle has pictured
q period of monetary stringency in
England in the following language
British industrial existence seems
fast becoming one vast prison
swamp of reeking pestilence, physi-
cal and moral, a hideOuS living
Golgotha of souls and bodies buried
alive. Thirty thousand outcast
needlewomen working themselves
swiftly to death, and three million
paupers rotting in forced idleness,
helping the needlewomen to die.
Col. Robert G. Ingersoll has
drawn q picture of society in this
country during contraction, as fol-
lows:
No man can imagine, all the
languages in the world can not ex-
press, what the people of the Uni
ted States suffered from 1873 to 1879.
q Men who considered themselves
millionaires found that they were
beggars men living in palaces,
supposing they had enough to give
sunshine to the winter of their age,
supposing they had enough to have
all they loved n'.affluence and COM
fort, suddenly found they were
mendicants, with bonds, stocks,
mortgages, all turned to ashes in
their hands. The chimneys grew
cold, the fires in furnaces went out,
the poor families were turned adrift,
and the highways of the United
States we're crowded with tramps.
Mr.. Speaker, the memorable laws
of finance and trade can not be de-
fed with impunity. We have
copied England's financial policy
and we have suffered her disasters.
We are still copying her policy and
also continue still reaping tho same
results. It appears to be impossi-
BILE for our public men to learn
anything from history, or even
from their own experiences, with
the well-known facts thrust into
their faces. (See Congressional
Record, Fifty-third congress, first
session, August %, 1898, page 37s.