"Che Conservative.
The election of
TIT.DKN , 1870.
Samuel Jones Til-
don to the presidency of the United
States , in November , 1870 , is now re
corded a fncb by unbiased historians.
Few , however , accord Mr. Tilden his
just share of prescience in forming the
financial and other planks of the plat
form upon which his candidature was
based. Governor Tildeu possessed mar
velous powers by inheritance. And nil
of them had been cultivated and disci
plined by severe training as to the prin
ciples of a republican form of govern
ment and also in the knowledge of the
practical business affairs of American
every-day life. He was alert to resist
the formulation of parties and move
ments dangerous to the people. His
remarkable shrewdness , his vast powers
for organization and his wonderful
grasp and memory of details in every
state in the union , made the canvass of
1876 most effective , educational and
commendable.
Mr. Tilden proposed many needed re
forms. But he placed the reform of the
currency foremost
Ills IlcfomiH.
in his fight for the
restoration of the public credit.
The circulation was then made up
entirely of irredeemable paper. The
promises of the United States to pay
dollars were printed on bills with green
backs. And the fractional currency
was made up of engraved paper prom
ises to pay dimes , half-dimes , quarters
and fifty-cent pieces , made of silver.
Then it was that the democratic party
in national convention assembled at St.
Louis sounded the first note in behalf of
sound money.
Then under the wise leadership of
Tilden the democracy of the United
States in their national platform , de
clared that it was its purpose : "To
establish a sound currency , restore the
public credit , and maintain the national
honor. "
That did not mean a currency which
should cheat creditors. But it did mean
that the public credit should be unim
peachable. Tilden knew and all his
followers proclaimed an unredeemed
I promise to pay dollars a disgrace to the
republic. He was for the redemption of
greenbacks in the money which was
standard when they were issued. That
money was gold. Silver was then , and
had always been , merely a subsidiary
currency. Any currency which is lim
ited as to the amount of it , which may
be a legal tender , is a subsidiary cur
rency.
Samuel J. Tilden extinguished the
craze for cheap money , for "the poor
man's money , " known asgreenbackism ,
in 18701
But after greenbackism came its logi
cal sequence , a desire for cheaper metallic
money. If irre-
Chcap Me till Money. , , ,
deemable pape r ,
having in itself no relative value com
mensurate with the number of dollars it
pretended to represent , could not be
floated , then the next best money , ac
cording to the financial featherheads ,
would be over-estimated metallic money.
Hence came the cry for the free and un
limited coinage of silver , measured by
gold , at the ratio of 16 to 1.
The fact that if that ratio was right
in 1884 it must bo wrong in 1894 did not
seem to strike the silver men. The faot
that the state of Nevada , in 1870 , pro
duced more silver than had all the mines
of the globe , during the twenty pre
ceding years , also failed to attract their
attention. But experience teaches that
a cheap metal money is as full of woes
as is an irredeemable paper money.
The promise to pay a dollar , either by
an individual or a governmentis valuable
as the redemption of the promise is pos
sible or probable. It is the promise of a
valuable thing , a tool of exchange , an
instrument for transferring real and
personal property. And it is , if genuine
money gold money acceptable with
out question all over the world.
But when an individual or a govern
ment attempts to redeem the promise to
pay dollars , with coin which was not a
legal tender except for stipulated sub
sidiary sums at the time the promise
was made , the credit and honor of that
individual or that government are im
paired , tarnished , ruined. To attempt
to pay a government bond with silver
dollars is a dishonest , dishonorable re
pudiation of one-half its face value. It
was against this sort of financiering that
Sam. J. Tildeu and all decent democrats
began war in 1870. It is against this
proposed national disgrace that THE
CONSERVATIVE continues to protest and
contend.
THE SWISS REPUBLIC.
One Sunday morning in summer I
happened to pass the ancient church in
La Tour , Switzerland , just after the
service was ended. The church was
empty and the congregation dispersed ;
but the door was open and looking in I
saw a large urn standing upon the altar
at the farther end of the edifice. I
asked a passer-by why the urn was
there and was told that it was election
day and the urn was for the use of the
voters. It was a local election of offi
cers for the town and the neighboring
country , and it was held on Sunday be
cause that was the only day on which
the laborers in the vineyards could leave
their work to come to the village , and
as they all attended church they could
deposit their votes there as the most
convenient and suitable place. I was
much struck by this simple and reason
able device. The Swiss citizen takes his
vote in earnest ; the suffrage is to him a
sacred duty and a noble privilege ; hence
there is no incongruity in using the
church as the polls and collecting the
votes in an urn upon the altar.
Afterwards I passed through the
principal street of the village and saw
groups of men in their Sunday clothes
talking quietly at the corners , and other
companies sitting under the trees in
the hotel gardens , refreshing themselves
with the light wine of the country ; but
there was no noise and no drunkenness
and nothing but the urn in the empty
church to show that an annual political
event had taken place.
As regards the distribution of author
ity in political affairs the Swiss govern
ment is much more wisely arranged than
our own. It is a real republic and can
never be anything else. There is no
chance for the usurpation of mouarchial
power in official acts , nor for the aping
of royal ceremony in social functions.
In Switzerland no one over speaks of
the president's wife as "tho first lady
in the laud , " and the president , as only
ono of the chief committee would never
think of issuing proclamations on his
own account and making a progress
through the country in order to
strengthen the allegiance of citizens and
thereby secure a reelection. Indeed ,
the temptation of a second term is un
known , through the wise provisions by
which each member of the chief com
mittee is elected for only three years ,
and the president is chosen by them
selves from , their own number for a
period of only one year.
It behooves us to be thinking about
these things , for , between the recent at
tempt at autocratic power in the person
of the president , and the rapidly grow
ing desire of the wealthy to establish
the distinctions of class and rank among
the people , there is danger of a com
plete subversion of the form as well as
of the intentions of the constitution.
Also the alarming fact is staring us in
the face that no republic has ever con
tinued to exist as such after the acquisi
tion of colonies ; because under such
circumstances the same laws cannot
apply to all citizens alike. It is not yet
too late to draw back from the threat
ened ruin of our republic ; but it will
soon be too late , unless the present
policy of our government bo speedily
condemned and reversed.
ELIZABETH E. EVANS.
LITERARY ANNOUNCEMENT.
Mr. Walter H. Page has resigned the
editorship of The Atlantic Monthly and
has accepted an invitation to take a
prominent post in the direction of the
literary work of the allied houses of
Harper & Brothers and the Doubleday
& McOlnre Co. His successor in the
editorship of the Atlantic is Mr. Bliss
Perry , known in literature as the author
of two novels and a number of essays
and stories. Since his graduation from
Williams College in 1881 , Mr. Perry has
been in the department of English , first
at Williams , and afterwards at Prince
ton university , where he was lately ap
pointed to the Holmes Professorship of
English Literature.
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