The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-08

James Hamilton Lewis is the last freak
aspiring for notoriety. if not for leadership,
In the House on the Democratic side. He
was in two colleges, studied law, and was
admitted to the bar at the age Of nineteen
years. This means that he left college be-
fore the year in the course of which logic
is studied and attention given to the inn
portance of clear and concise statement.
In other words he finished his education
at the spell-bnder period, When Mr.. Bry
an was nominated for President. Mr.. Lew
place. For the rest Mr.. Lewis affects fine
raiment and revels in rainbow-hued neck
wear.
1t is not a good day for Mr.. Lewis, but
a very good one for the House when he
does not relieve his imagination of what
his friends courteously label a financial
speech. On Saturday he seems to have de-
lvered his speech in two parts, and is
reported to have been happier than in the
discovery of a necktie of unprecedented
gorgeousness. 1.-THE government is paying
its obligations in two-dolar dollars, and
if it does not STOP bond-selling VIII lead
to bankruptcy" said Mr.. Lewis in effect.
It must be admitted that it is very de-
plorable If this is true Is it true? Is the
dollar which the government pays different
from any other dollar that is the best? If
Mr.. Lewis is harassed by such suspi-
cion, is tormented by the dreadful two
dollar dollar, he can clear himself of all
reproach by directing the sergeant-at-
arms of the House to turn back into the
treasury one-half the dollars of his salary.
Then there will be one obligation that the
government does not pay in two-dollar dol
lars.
This. two-dollar dollar suggestion of Mr..
Lewis's is of much wider application than
the payments made by the, government,
since the standard of payment established
by the government is the standard of pay
ment in all business transactions of the
country. When the government shall cut
its two-dollar dollar into two parts to make
the dollar which seems to rattle about in
the vacant and echoing channels of the
Lewis Imagination, every other dollar will
be cut in two. When the factory paymas-
ter shall come to the bank for money with
which to pay the workmen on the first Sat
urday after the government has adopted
the proposed Lewis cut-in-two dollars his
sacks will contain only half as many dollars
as they did the Saturday previous. Later
on there will be trouble The first work
man who appears for pay will be given
the same number of half-dollars that he
received whole dollars the week previous
He will protest that it is an attempt to rob
him of half his stipulated wages. ooh, no.,
will remark the suave paymaster; nothing
Of the sort. Congress, under the lead of
Mr.. Lewis of Washington, has decreed
that all dollars heretofore paid are worth
two dollars each, so | pay you just what
Congress has declared is the new Lewis
dollar" The men take the Lewis
dollars, and one of them on his way home
calls at grocery and orders ten pounds
of granulated sugar and tenders one of
those dollars, which the grocer slips into
his cash box. where's my changer asks
the mechanic. There is no change due
you," is the answer Didn't 1 give you
one of those dollars which Congress has
cut in two?" is the mechanics further
query. Eyes, but a cut-in-two dollar when
you come to purchase sugar is only fifty
cents" Then" the mechanic slowly re-
marks, ''this two-dollar dollar, when cut in
two, has cut down my wages one-half."
The proposition of Mr.. Lewis means that
the purchase power of the three billions of
money paid annually in wages and sal
aries of all kinds would be reduced one
half. Deprived of half their power to pur-
chase half the people in the country could
consume but half as much as before Mr.
Lewis came with his half-dollar, bringing
ruin to the farmer and other producers.
DO not be too severe on Mr.. Lewis. His
proposition is the same as that of the late
Professor Coin when he proposed to cut
the gold dollar in two to create a parity
between the free coinage silver dollar and
gold. Mr.. Lewis's proposition is the same
as that of Mr.. Bryan