Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1878 — A Voice from Indianapolis. [ARTICLE]

A Voice from Indianapolis.

The annual report of the Indianapolis Board of Trade for 1877 makes this reference to the prevailing stagnation of business : “ The sanguine hopes entertained a year ago that the returning tide of prosperity had set in, and the depression in trade incident to financial agitation and threatened currency contraction which had prostrated the industries of the whole country was passed, and henceforth we would experience an active and healthy advance toward prosperity, were early dispelled, and 1877 has passed into history as the most disastrous year known in trade for a generation.” The financial question is thus touched upon : “ lhe Government, by discarding one-half the metallic currency ana bidding for the remaining half at its high speculative price, at the same time threatening to withdraw onehalf of the paper currency, has given to money a marvelously-high purchasing power, which has greatly oppressed the debtor class. Such a state of finances unsettles credit, and works great hardships to merchants, who are dependent upon a healthy state of trade to meet their obligations. Forced resumption has proved an expensive and rough road out of difficulties —a corduroy, destroying the springs of credit and trade, ending in distress and loss, endurable only in the shadow of the Government, or wrapt in its promises to pay.”