Mexico weekly ledger., 1897-01-14
LOCATING THE RESPONSIBILITY.

itoriaI, makes an attack on Charles
Nordhoff for making the statement,
in letter to the New York Herald,
that "the country owes its present
financial muddle to the Republicans"
1t then reviews the history OF our
financial legislation during the past
thirty years and proves beyond a per-
adventure the correctness Of the posi-
ton it attacks. The truth is, the Re-
publican party is responsible for all
the wilde financial schemes that
have afflicted the country for quar-
ter of a century. The constitution pro-
vides in spirit, IL not in letter, that
nothing but gold and silver shall be
made a legal tender for the payment
of debts, yet in the very teeth of this
provision, at time when the Repub-
Hcan party had control of the legisla-
tive and executive departments of
government, a vast volume of incon-
vertible paper money was issued and
clothed with full legal tender quail
ties. This act was declared constitu-
tional by a Republican Supreme Court
packed for that purpose. 1t was Re-
publican Secretary of the Treasury
who established the institution known
as the hundred million gold reserve,
thus placing the government une-
quivocally in the banking business.
1t was this same renowned Secre-
tary who was the author of the finan-
cial legislation of 1890 which provided
that four and a half million ounces of
silver, or its equivalent, should be
added to our currency every month
and pledged the government to keep
this at a parity with gold whether the
price of silver advanced or declined.
The price of silver fell, as should have
been expected, and the indefensible
makeshift turned out to be an utter
failure and Sherman himself joined in
advocating its repeal. 1t may fairly
be said that John Sherman has been
the Great High Priest of the Republi-
can party IN matters of finance for
over a quarter of century and dur
ing that period has been on almost
every side of the money question.
Popularity seems to be the touch
stone to his position. When the war
| was over he started to retire the
greenbacks and resume specie pay
| ments, but when he found that this
meant contraction and contraction
was unpopular he devised the unpar-
alleled scheme that these "due bills" in
the form of "greenbacks" should be
redeemed without cancellation, or
rather retired, simply to be reissued.
He is hard money man one day and
a fiatist the next. He advocates gold
standards to-day and imitation to-
morrow.
He opposed free silver during the
recent campaign because he claimed
that it meant a dollar that was hal
fat, and he now opposes the retire
ment of the greenDacks, which are al
fat. What he will favor next no mar
| can tell. His proclivities for shifting
his position on this question reminds
one of the story of the exhibition
gwen by the dancing master who wore
patched trousers. He danced so ac
lively and turned around SO rapidly
that the bystanders could not ascer'
tain without inquiry whether the patel
was on the front or back side of hi
| trousers.
Yet the Republican party, under the
leadership of this man, has dictated
the financial policy of this country fol
the last quarter of century, with thu
single exception of the repeal of thu
law bearing his name, which was &C
complished by the Democratic party
| in 1898.