The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-06-06
GEORGE Q. ELLIS
 PLANS CELEBRATION OF TOOTH BIRTHDAY
Interesting Personal Reminiscent CeS Of the Administration of
 Andrew Jackson
Special to The. Farmer>

I
 1 Stratford, June 6-To listen to per l ing the adninistra ton Of the first Democratic President of the United
 States is a. privilege not often enjoyed ] by the present generation. Your cor respondent yesterday enjoyed such a pleasure during a conversation with ! George O. Ellis of Columbus Farm in the North district of this town. MT. l Ellis was born on September z, 1915. Physically he is active and energetic. His mind is as keen as that of a youngster and his memory as clear as
 at any time during his long life We'll
 read and intensely interested in na-s ttonal events his recollections of events in the history Of the nation almost a
 hundred years ago are of the greatest interest Particularly apropos were his comments on the administration of Andrew Jackson the first Democrat called to the chair of the chief mag istracy. The election of Woodrow Will son to the presidency and the recur-
 renee of the same problems which arose with the ascendancy of Andrew Jackson are of especia1 interest. The
 tariff was one of the first and most
 important questions before the coun-
 try. "I remember we'll" he said, as he seated himself in the shady porch
 of his home, t@the efforts manufactur- CTS were obliged to make to obtain protection from foreign cornpetition.''
 I came to Waterbury in 1885. At that time its population, including Salem which is now Naugatuck, was about 5000. It was already a. manufactur- ing place. The revision of the tariff at that time was upward instead of
 downward as at present. As. soon as it became evident that a. higher tar
 if would be placed on goods of for eign manufacture immense quantities
 of imports of every description were
 rushed into this country. In fact the country was literally titled up and we
 did not get the benefit of protection for about a year afterwards when the big stocks on hand were disposed Of.
 Then business began to boom. But that was not the only reason why bus mess was good. The country had been
 suffering fron1ethe greatest panic in it's history. Nothing like it has even been
 seen before or since. As compared with the stagnatfon of this period the later pan1os were but incidents. Jack son, like several other Democratic
 presidents got into a wrangle with
 Congress. He demanded the abolition Of the United States bank which was
 the head and heart Of the currency
 system of the country. It's charter
 was about to expire and he was op-
 posed to a renewal In this he was supported by the state banks. Levi
 Woodbury was the secretary of the treasury in Jaekson's cabinet, and when Jackson ordered him to remove the Federal deposits from the bank he refused on the ground that the presi- dent had no authority to make such an order. Woodbury resigned the treasury portfolio and was succeeded by Judge Tenny who removed the de- posits and distributed them among the state banks. Jackson was praised ev- anywhere for this distribution eased up the money market and business thriv- ed The state banks loaned out the F1aIf f17a ment needed funds and began to with draw it's deposits for its current needs there followed a period of business stagnation not likely to occur again l in all time To meet the demands of the government the state banks were 1 obliged to force collections every ywhere The easy money market had encour- aged an expansion of business beyond 1 all reason and the sudden tightening | of the market caused widespread dis 1 trese. Everybody failed. There was no money to do business with. I can remember well that we carried on what | little business was really necessary 1 saries of life we resorted to the ancient 1 form of barter. It was along about l this time that Jackson succeeded in 1 settling the indemnity claims against | France. For a long time we had nothing but franc pieces to do bus with one man, a silk merchant in New l York who came to Waterbury and | fished and hunted during the whole of | the panic. There was no business. He | could not continue without funds so | he came up there and waited.
 'fThe next year the bankruptcy bill | passed and the indebtedness of thous- ands of men was wiped out. The | widespread distress was appalling. | -