The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-16
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND
CURRENCY REFORM.


General Grant once said. 1T is always
safe to count on the blunders Of the DEM
ocratic party" and he was right. If that
party possesses any talent or aptitude in a
conspicuous degree it is for getting on the
wrong side of national questions TO know
what side of any national issue it will take
1t is only necessary to ascertain the right
side The Democratic party will always be
found on the other. The caucus of Demo-
cratic members of the House, Tuesday
night, furnished an example of this invari-
able habit. Under the leadership of Repre-
sentative Bailey, of Texas, the caucus unan-
inously declared as follows:
Resolved, That it is the sense of this eau
Gus that the Democratic members of the
House of Representatives ought to resist all
eHorts, direct or indirect. to retire the
sreenbacks and treasury notes.
Resolved, That opposed to and
VIII resist all attempts to extend the riyi-
leges or national banks, to reduce the
taxes which they now pay.
OF course, it was a foregone conclusion
that the party would oppose currency re-
form. Even if the faw of it's being had not
required this, the fact that such reform is
demanded by all intelligent and patriotic
citizens and by representative business men,
irrespective of party and is regarded by the
financial sense of the country as essential
to the maintenance of national honor and
prosperity, would have led the Democratic
party to oppose it. A party which went into
the presidential campaign LAST year on
platform which advocated a complete de-
bauchment of the currency could not be ex-
pected to favor any measure of currency re-
form now. OF course, we speak Of the Dem
ocratic party as an organization. There are
thousands of Democrats who, individually,
favor currency reform and who will dissent,
A large proportion of the three hundred del
egates to the monetary convention in this
city in January last were Democrats. Near
ly half of the members of the executive
committee of which Mr.. II. H. Hanna, of
this city, is chairman, are Democrats, as
are about half Of the commission whose re-
port is now daily expected. Eleven out of
twenty-seven vice presidents of delegations
in the convention were Democrats. OF the
committee on resolutions, consisting of
twenty-seven members, thirteen we're Dem
ocrats. Some of the strongest resolutions
offered in the convention and referred to the
committee on resolutions were offered by
Democrats. AS all these delegates repre-
scented nonpolitical commercial organiza-
tions and were voicing what they knew to
be the business sense of the country, it is
evident that large proportion of the Dem
ocratic bankers, manufacturers and business
men of the country are in favor of cur
rency reform. But the Democratic party, as
an organization, cares nothing for that The
law of its being, which requires it to get
on the wrong side of national questions
must be obeyed, and if, in following out
this instinct, individual members of the
party oppose it they will get run over In
fact, to oppose the best elements of the
party is almost as much an invariable rule
of Democratic action as to get on the wrong
side The ancient herd of swine which ran
violently down a steep place into the sea
was not to be stopped by trifies. 1t was
obeying an uncomfortable impulse and i'm
PEELED by the devil.
1t is of interest to note that the caucus
resolutions above quoted were offered by
Representative Bailey, of Texas The coun-
try has not been accustomed to look to
Texas for financial, light and wisdom, nor
to men of the Bailey type for wise and pa
triotic leadership on questions of financial
or currency reform. Why should Texas pro-
test against the retirement of the green
backs or the amendment of the national
bank law? She was not in the Union when
the greenbacks were issued and the national
bank law passed. Mr.. Bailey is country
lawyer, who represents six cowboy counties
in Texas. There is ten times much man.
ufacturing in one congressional district of
Indiana as there is in the whole State of
Texas, and fifty times much in one
square in this city as there is in Mr.. Bal
financial wisdom which justifes him in set
ting up his opinion against that of every
secretary of the treasury since the war, OF
the bankers and business men of the coun-
try, of men of financial experience in all
walks Of life and of the delegates from
twenty-seven States to the monetary con-
vention in this city? Did he get it in Copiah
county Mississippi, where he was born, or
did he pick it up in one of the six cowboy
and sheep-range counties in Texas which he
represents? If the financial interests of the
country are to be intrusted to the keeping
of such statesmen as Bailey, of Texas, with
such a following as the Democratic faction
he represents, we may we'll despair Of the
Republic.