Weekly Courier Journal

MR. WINDOM AND THE STRINGENCY.

Mr. Windom's efforts to relieve the stringency in the money market are evidently well meant, but they are none the less futile. Nearly a month ago he said that the Treasury Department would give whatever aid it could, but it was then, as it is now, evident that there was nothing in the power of the Secretary that could be of much avail.

Mr. Windom has issued a circular calling for proposals for the sale of $5,000,000 of the 4 per cent bonds, and he also states in an interview with a New York newspaper that the $17,500,000 of fractional currency in the Treasury might be paid out in purchase of bonds. Even should the full $22,500,000 from these two sources be disbursed, it would have no more effect than a drop of water in the sand. It would be sucked up, and the stringency would not abate a particle.

Such a sum in the hands of one person is very large, but when it is spread over the entire United States it becomes too thin a plaster to cover anything.

We have already had some experience with Government relief. Several months ago, when the vanguard of hard times reached us and money began to be very close and very high at New York, Mr. Windom, in obedience to the "Help me, Cassius, or I sink" cry of the New York moneyed men, unlocked the vaults of the Treasury, and began to purchase bonds, paying a high premium for them.

In a short time nearly fifty million dollars, almost the entire available resources of the Government, were disbursed, and for a time there was ease. But it was merely the lull in the storm. It broke with redoubled force because of the temporary calm, as many, the Courier-Journal among the number, predicted it would.

The Government has not again so much relief to offer, but if it possessed the means of doing so, the wisdom of using them in such a manner is doubtful. The trouble is now lack of confidence, and consequent hoarding. There is plenty of money, but it is not in circulation. It is finding its way to bank vaults, trust company lock-boxes and other places of safety and concealment.

The feeling of timidity has been at work for twelve months. The scarcity of money and the decline in stocks began when Congress met last year, and were coeval with the feeling of distrust spread throughout the country by reckless Republican legislation.

It is not strange that business men and capitalists are very cautious, and that people are hoarding money. Seldom in any enlightened country has such a spectacle been witnessed as that which is this year presented for the consideration of the American people.

We have had every circumstance that could produce distrust. A revolutionary and desperate Speaker presided over Congress, ruling without regard to right or precedent, and leaving the people in ignorance whether they were to become the prey of anarchy or despotism. A merciless tariff was fastened upon us. One-third of the Union is threatened with an election law which shall take away the right of free ballot, turn the social order topsy turvy, check development, derange business, and end we know not how. At one session of Congress the expenses of the Government have risen to a sum anywhere between 400 and 500 millions dollars.

The pension list has been swelled to at least $140,000,000, and probably much more. There is the promise of unlimited subsidies and other schemes into which the Government is to be united as a partner, and fleeced in the old, monotonous way. Never did a party play fast and loose with the stability and money of a country in such profuse fashion, and now we are enjoying the consequences.

The country has been on a big drunk. Czar Reed has been mixing the liquors, Lodge has been toast master, and a Republican Congress has passed around the glasses we were forced to drink, and now we suffer from the swollen head, the brown taste in the mouth, and all the other accompaniments of prolonged dissipation. The revolution of November 4 was the indication that the country was coming to its senses, and, with the awakening every day becoming more decided, it is not likely that the United States will again evince any desire for such potions as Reed and Lodge prepare.

There is but one cure for these evils of uncertainty and extravagance, and it is retrenchment and reform. Our financial affairs can not become well balanced until the country is relieved of its tariff burden, the enormous expenditure is cut down, and the Government is put on a sound basis. These blessings we will secure when the Republican party, which has brought us to such a pass, is relegated to outer darkness.