The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-01-14

that has embraced all sections of the coun-
try. and the only one that has had for its
aim the taking of the currency question
out of politics.
What is the significance of such a move
ment? In the first place. IL the aim of
the convention should be realized. II would
ties. which has been determined by the
currency question in ever-increasing meas
ure for more than twenty years, ind in the
last campaign submerged every other is
sue. In the next place, IL would put trade
and industry on a new footing. 1t would
remove the doubt which has perpleXed
business men ever since the coinage of sill
yer began as to what the dollar of the
United States is to be. Can we imagine a
greater change or che more beneficent?
Would not the American investor regard il
a priceless boon to be told that he need
not hereafter take into his future reck-
oning the question whether the dollar is
to be a ffty-cent piece n few years hence,
or something a little more or less than so
cents? And what does this mean to the
workinsnan? 1t ought not to be necessary
10 tell any such man that he gets his wages
from investments made by somebody. TIL
less money can be found to pay for tools
and machinery and materials, there can be
none but the most primitive forms of pro-
duction. There can be no productiont com
menSurate with the demands Of modern
life. and multitudeS of wage earners must
starve. 1t is no advantage toR any Ameri-
can worker to have the investor lock up his
money in a safe deposit vault, or send it
TO England, lest some demagogue should
CISOdu A ptODie that nllN Eli NOTtn
of silver is q fair return for a dollars
worth of gold. Yet that is what all in
vestors have been threatened with during
the whole period that Congress has been
doing something for silver" and since we
stopped coming that metal. Indeed. the
latter period has been the most paralyzing
because. when we stopped coming a limited
quantity the silverites began TO demand
that its coinage should be limited.
We are now asked with an air of triumph
why business does not improve since Bryan
was defeated. Well, business has improved
to some extent. The danger of universal
smash has been postponed, and that is a
thing to settle this everlasting dispute as
to the nature and value of the dollar. 1t
gives time for such a movement as the In
d~ianapoliS convention. but who can say that
the election itself settled anything when we
find the Governor of Tennessee, in his an
nual message. recommending that gold con-
tracts be prohibited in that State, and that
the prohibition be made TO include railroad
mortgages?
The indianapolis convention. as we have
previously shown. was started in the West,
has been planned in the West. and has been
Western in all ways down to the present
moment. There is no faint of the East upon
it. 1t did not even have an Eastern prompt
ing On the contrary, It required considera-
BILE urgency and sol citation from the pro-
moterS to bring the commercial bodies east
of the Alleghanies to send delegates to it.
Not that they were not in sympathy with
it's aims. but because they did not in the
beginning appreciate the strength and earn
estnesS of the movement at its place of
origin and in the region round about. When
1t became plain that TX had taken a strong
hold upon the great States north of the
Ohio and east of the Missouri, and that the
mercantile and manufacturing classes of
that region were determined to do some
thing to take the currency question out of
politics, then the hambers of
and other commercial bodies of New York,
Boston. Philadelphia and Baltimore took
hold of the matter in earnest and elected
delegates who will go there and give their
best efforts to second the movement. III
there are any honors to be Won from the
achievement. they will gladly bestow them
upon the gentlemen of Indianapolis who
are so clearly entitled to wear them. The
prospect now is that the convention will be
impressive both by the numbers and the
character of those in attendance.
What action the convention may take we
have no means Of knowing. and We shall
not seek to anticipate it. The aim of the
promoters seems TO be to take the govern
ment out of the banking business. and thus
relieve trade and industry from the alter
nate chills and fever which result from the
drain and replenishment of the treasury
gold supply. How this may best be done
can hardly be decided off-hand by a con-
vention of a thousand or more delegates in
one or two days session. Therefore, a COM
mission to investigate and report a plan
seems to be necessary. Another object of
equal Importance is to form an organization
which shall work steadily and increasingly
upon public opinion ard give Congress no
rest Until it takes this dreadful question
of politics and settles it in such a way
that it will stay settled.