Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 October 1892 — CURRENT COMMENT. [ARTICLE]

CURRENT COMMENT.

r t oun HooeiEß president. Indianapolis Journal. Four yefir* ag*, when General Harrison was making his first race for the Presidency, the Journal appealed to Indianians to support him on the ground of State pride. It reminded theja that, while Ohio and Illinois bad each furnished two Presidents, Indiana had not yet furnished one; that General Harrison was the, first person ever Dominated for President from this State, and that bis e!e?tion wn-yld be a great credit pad honor to the State and id more to advertise it favorably than anything that had ever occurred. There is reason to believe that this argument had some effect; at all events General Harrison carried Indiana and was elected. Now that be is again a candidate, it is in order to ask whether the old argument of State pride has beer. sust?. ! ned and whether It still holds good. It will not be denied that President Harrison has fully susta’ned the expectations and predictions of his friends. Everybody admits that he has made an exceptionally good President. It is a common thing to read such expressions as that he is “the greatest President since Lincoln;” ‘‘the best equipped President we have ever had;’ 1 “a man of great ability and resources;." “no man ever grew so rapidly and steadily in popular estimation,” and so on. These and similar expressions by hundreds have come from leading* men and papers. Every Republican convention that has met during the last two years has indorsed the President in strong terms. The national convention gave expression to the sentiment of the party by renominoting him. In short, there is abundant evidence that he is held in the highest po-sible esteem by the Republican party and possesses the confidence and respect of the people in an ordinary degree. It would be absurd to say that Indiana is not honored by the position thus accorded to one of her sons. If President, Harrison had proven a failure, or had brought dishonor on the high office he fills, every citizen of Indiana would have felt humiliated, and the State itself would have been disgraced. Suppose, if such a thing is possible, tnat President Harrison had been guilty of notorious corruption or had done something to cause his impeachment and removal from office, Indiana could scarcely have recovered from the disgrace. It would have clung to her for a hundred years. President Harrison has had it in his power to make the name of Indiana a hissing and a by-word among men. Instead of that, what has he done? He has carried himself in such a way as to win the plaudits of his countrymen and the admiration of the world, thus bringing great and lasting honor to the State that sent him forth. He has caused the State to be mentioned with respect everywhere. He has stopped the mouths of those who used to sneer about Hoosierdom, and has demonstrated that when it comes to a contest of brains and intellect Indiana is at the fore. It is not alone wheat and corn, farm products and live stock, stone quarries and coal mines, commerce and manufactures, natural gas and petroleum, that makes a State great; it must produce great men also. It is no exaggeration to say that President Harrison has done as much to give the State a wide and favorable advertisement as all the material progress of the lost twenty years. If he has done so much and so well fdP the State during one four years, why should he not be tried another four? What has Indiana to gain by the election of a New York man to the Presidency? Why should any citizen of Indiana want to honor and advertise New York instead of his own State? It ought to be a matter of pride to every resident of the State to know that there is an Indiana man in the White House? If President Harrison is defeated this year, it is not likely the child is born who will live to see another President elected from Indiana. Why should he be exchanged for a President who has no regard for the interests of Indiana, and no ‘sympathy with its people, except as they may be nsed to advance his personal fortunes? The people of Indiana could not do a better thing for the State than to record its vote in favor of the re-election of Harrison, and they will make a great mistake if they fail to do so. THE 1873 BILVER ACT.

The act of 1873, which dropped the ' standard silver dollar from our monetary system, has in recent years f fiven a great deal of mental perplex - ty to Borne people. It is said in these later days to have been the result of a conspiracy by which a creditor class unjustly and surreptitiously added heavy burdens to the debtor class. The idea is conveyed that a radical change in our currency was thus designedly and corruptly brought about. . The act of 1873 was a general one,' revising all of our coinage statutes. The bill was introduced in April, 1870, and a large number of copies printed with wide margins and dis- ] tributed among experts and to whomsoever showed any interest in the subject. It finally became a law in February, 1873, being before Con- 1 yress and th« public nearly three years. During that time it was printed in full,with the amendments, by order of Congress, eleven .different times, and twice, in addition, in official reports. The debates upon the bill in the Senate occupy sixtysix columns, and in the House sev-enty-eight columns, of the Congressional Globe. Curiously enough, Senator Stewart, then os now representing the State of Nevada, voted for it, and there is toothing in the debates to show that anybody was seriously interested in the’silver dollar. The reason why no-one was interested is simple. ’ For fifty years previous the amount of bullion in a sliver dollar had been worth from 101 to 104 cents, and nobody was taking it to the mint to be stamped 100 cents. The total number of silver dollars to be ooined from the estabicsliiiieut of ou * to I two (months of 1891 or lSfc °U wii

not until under the increased production tbe prica of silver began to fall that the privilege of free coinage waa.valued or missed. .When ,412! grains of Standard silver, instead of being worth 101 cents became worth only 90 cents the silver producer began to ask where the mint was located. He wanted the government to stamp IDO cents on it. By the fciiie it was down to SO cents he was stirring himself to re-establish free coinage, and, as it has continued to fall under the continually increasing production, be has grown in the opinion that the act of 1873 was an outrage and procured by a conspiracy. r The argument that the act was passed in the interest of creditors has a flaw in it. Silver %aa then dear money, and gold, as compared with silver, cheap money. A gold dollar was worth 100 cents, and a silver dollar 102.65 cents. We are asked to believe that creditors sought to compel debtors to make paymen t in 106-cent dollars instead of 102cent dollars. There is a flaw also in the the theory that the act of 1873 caused“the decline in silver. The only way in which it could occasion a decline was by lessening the demand. Tho same act which dropped the standard silver dollar authorized the trade dollar which contained more silver, and during the next four years we coined three times as many trade dollars as wo had coined standard dollars in all our history prior to 1873. So it was not a cessation of our mint demand which started silver downward. Silver is cheaper because of an increased supply, and because the uncertainty of its value has led to its disuse as money by so many nations. The United States, by buying every two months more than its total coinage doWn to 1873, and by its efforts to establish an international basis for free coinage, is doing its full duty to sustain the value of the white metal. —— -

PECK, PEELLE. PARSONS ET At If the Democrats, mugwumps, free traders and Adulamites of all sorts have been as anxious as they have professed themselves to be to make inspection of the figures whereupon Commissioner Peek based his report of increased wages and increased production since the passage of the McKinley bill, they will unite in a vote of thanks to our distinguished though youthful contemporary, the New York Recorder. Of course thejfiwill do nothing of the kind, for the figures justify the report; but all seekers after truth will thank the Recorder for this special record. The accuracy of the figures presented in several pages of seven columns each is sworn to by Commissioner Peck and by all the clerks In his office. They prove conclusively that wages are" higher and the output of manufactures larger in New York State during the first year of the new tariff than in the last year of the old one. Commissioner Peck’s statistics are unimpeachable. But the unimpeachable statistics of Mr. Peck, who is the Democratic Commissioner of Labor for the State of New York, are not the only testimony from Democratic sources in favor of the beneficent operations of the McKinley bill. There is the testimony of Mr. P*ele, who is the Democratic Commissioner of Statistics for Indiana. There is the testimony of Mr. Parsons, who is the Democratic Commissioner of Savings Banks in New York. There is the testimony of the Labor Commissioner of Massachusetts, who serves under the Democratic Governor of the State. Peck’s Democratic report proves that wages are higher and manufactures more abundant in New York since the passage of the McKinley bill. This report rests upon the testimony of more than 6,000 employers of labor. Peelle’s Democratic report proves that wages are higher in Indiaua since the passage of the McKinley bill. This report rests upon the testimony of wage earners. Parsons’ Democratic report proves that the savings of labor in New York are greater since the passage of the McKinley bill., The Massachusetts Democratic report proves that Ike condition of labor is in every way improved since the passage of the bill. The protectionists of America appeal to the jury of the people for judgment in favor of protection upon the evidence given by officials of that party which has made absolute free trade to be the chief clause of its political creed.

GEN. WEAVER AT THE SOUTH. The letter of General Weaver giving his reasons for making no more speaches in Georgia oan hardly fail to produoe a profound impression. The decent people of Georgia must feel humiliated, and the friends of free speech, everywhere, Democrats and Republicans, must see in it a National disgrace and menace. The American people have long flattered themselves that the days of Garrison and Phillips had gone forever, or at least that the South would give a fair hearing to political discussion, if it did not take the turn of reviving war and reconstructed questions, or any phase of tho old issue of negro domination. General Weaver was indeed a soldier of the Union, but that was not the trouble. He is engaged in an attempt to weaken the majority party, which ever that maybe. At the North It is the Republican party; in the South the Democracy. That this Weaver movement is encouraged by the Democracy at the North, was relied upon by General Weaver and his associates to secure for the People's party fair treatment at the South. But that fact does not seem to cut much figure. The South cares very little about National politics, except as it bears upon what they call '‘homo rule,'* which really means ring rule. Tlio ruling class which has run the politics of the South from the first, will brook no interference with their combine. White opposition is quite as exasperating os colored, and it does not matter whether their opposition be called Republican or Alliance. The old monopoly must be maintained

j South wjis an attempt to control,nol ) antagonize, the Democracy. That i! has gone beyond that is Alabama is due to animosities growing out o; the recent gubernatorial campaign and not to any preatTanged plan of the programme. Nothing was far ther from the original purpose of that movement than to wage a crusade in the interest of free speech and honest elections, but that secondary feature of the movement may p(ove the one to give it place in hißtory. The South is as impatient of free discussion in politics now as the whole country was in the early days of ther abolition movement. The rotten eggs thrown at General Weaver and his party were laid in the same nest as those thrown at Garrison, Phillips, and their associate pioneers of anti-slavery. Macon and Atlanta may plead that they are no worse than Boston and Baltimore were in those evil days. As in those days, so now public "sentiment needs the awakening influence of an outbreak. A great many well-mean-ing citizens could not believe that the South was- under the domination of an unscrupulous oligarchy; they thought the trouble was that the only organized opposition to the Democracy at the South came from a party which put down the rebellion and reconstructed the Union on the basis of negro suffrage. That delusion has been dispelled, which is of itself a very important point gained.

BYNUM'S SHINPLASTER MONEY PLAN. Indlampsltg Journal. Now that Mr. Bynum,-after being the strenuous advocate of free silver coinage for years, has made the discovery that "only silver-mine and sil-ver-bullion-owners would be benefited by that scheme he has made himself the leading champion of State banks of issue in Indiana. Evidently ignorant of the experience of the country with State bank money, he declares for a system which, when in force, robbed the people annually. He does not fully explain bis scheme, except that State bank issues shall be based upon State or approved municipal bonds. * There is but one system by which the note issues of any bank can be made reasonably sound, and that is for the State print, issue and redeem for banks all of the notes to which their security deposited with the State w'ould entitle them. That if the plan of the present federal banking law. It involves an extensive engraving and printing establishment and a large official force to prevent fraudulent issue. How many States could afford to create such a system? Does any intelligent man believe that an Indiana Legislature would duplicate the national system for the printing and issuing of State bank notes? It is out of the question. At present there it no law on the statute books regulating banks of is j sue. If the 10 per cent United States tax on such circulation were repealed, the legislature would be compelled to pass a law regulating such banks, unless the secretary of State should assume the power to , is r sue charters to them as ne does other corporations. Such a law would be like the old law. There would in Indiana to-day, giving employment to hundreds of men and a home market for hundreds of farmers for articles which would have no value but for the glass industry.

BLOW RUIN. —----- Crawfordsville Journal. Mr. Cleveland, in his letter of acceptance, says that* the Democratic party does not contemplate “the precipitation of free trade. Precipitation, as defined by Webster,means “great hurrv, rash, tumultuous haste,” etc. It is comforting to have an assurance from Mr. Cleveland that the Democratic party is not going to rashly favor free trade, that they are not going to urge free trade with tumultuous haste—that is that they are not all going to rush pell-mell, heels over head, to the support of free trade. Still we are kept entirely in the dark as to the manner in which they do intend to move. We are assured they will not -be rash: that they will not go in tumultuous haste; not in the helter-skelter manner for free trade. But the country kept entirety in the dark as to the particular speed with which they will go for free trade. Our mechanical industries are not to have their head chopped off at a single blow, but rather killed off by a slow poison of a yearly reduction of the tariff till protection is wiped out.

A DEMOCRATIC SIDE SHOW. Colored Agitators at Indianapolis Tall to BoooWo Expected Boeogaltloe. There now rem'ains no doubt that the meeting in Indianapolis participated in by a few negroes claiming to represent the Colored Men’s National Protective Association, is a movement engineered by Democrats. The committee on resolutions made its report, denouncing the candidacy and administration of President Benjamin Harrison as unworthy of the support of the colored voters of the country, for the conduct of himself and administration in failing to protect the lives and liberty of its citizens. The force bill is denounced as being the product of Republican offioe holders with the purpose of perpetuating themßelves in power. The convention declared against the protective tariff as a measure contrary to the Constitution, and declare in favor of free trade. The resolutions were adopted. C. C. CUrtls, of lowa, offered a resolution indorsing Cleveland, but the convention rejected it. A mass meeting of colored voters was called to meet at Odd Fellows’ Hal), to be addressod by the visiting statesmen. The attendance was not large, and the attention was not at all times orderly and respectful. The impression with colored people is that these agitators aro in the employ of the Democratic leaders, and that their declarations against the Republican party will have little effect in swerving the colored voto from Us support We heard a woman say recently that it always flatters a man to call him Colonel Many men who oannol StSSaraP ■ -• .Mils