USA > Indiana > Vigo County > History of Indiana from its exploration to 1922, Vol II > Part 22
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competition was only between points having a choice of transportation lines. Local rates were laid on the principle of collecting all the traffic would bear. With other prices falling, this soon worked a hardship. A - struggle was at the time going on between the Van- derbilts and the Atlantic and Great Western railroad for control of the Bee Line railroad. This was se- cured by the Atlantic and Great Western which then began laying plans for the Indianapolis and St. Louis road, really the western division of the Bee Line. It was not known what power was behind the Atlantic and Great Western but the acquisition of 1,800 miles of railroad under one management was threatening.25
The American Cheap Transportation society was organized to meet this tendency. At its meeting in New York City, May 6, 1873, F. C. Johnson, a dele- gate to the National Agricultural Congress, from New Albany, represented Indiana. Mr. Johnson was a state deputy of the Grangers. This Cheap Freight Transportation society was made up primarily of the Convention of Producers with strength in the east and the National Farmers' association with strength in the west.28
A convention, attended largely by congressmen, was in session at St. Louis, whose business was to solve the transportation question. There was con- siderable demand for the government entering the field and constructing freight roads and canals but New York put up a vigorous demur to this. The merchants of New York, the beef and pork packers, and especially the manufacturers of goods destined for western markets, were interested. An investigat- ing committee of congress headed by Senator Wil-
25 Indianapolis Journal, Oct. 14, 1873.
26 New York Times, May 6 and 7, 1873. It was claimed that 500,000,000 bushels of corn were then rotting in the West for lack of transportation.
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liam Windom, of Minnesota, was busily working on a solution of the freight question between the Atlantic seaboard and the upper Mississippi valley. This lat- ter investigation had in mind the feasibility of open- ing or improving transportation routes by the Lake and St. Lawrence route, by Lake Erie and the Erie canal, Hudson river route by the James river, Ka- nawha canal and the Ohio river route, by the Georgia canal and Tennessee river route, by the Gulf and Mississippi river and by several railroad routes. Mr. Johnson of New Albany was a witness from Indiana before this committee. States as far away as Ver- mont and Illinois were busily engaged in passing laws regulating freight and passenger rates. The Indiana General Assembly of 1879 by joint resolu- tion requested congress to take over the regulation of railroads.
In an interview, October 6, 1873, Mr. Johnson ex- pressed his opinion that freight rates could be re- duced about fifty per cent.27 Especially were rates exorbitant in winter when canals and rivers were closed by ice. There were no published tariffs as at present nor uniformity of rates among the roads nor over different sections of the same road.
The Indiana State Grange at its annual meeting in 1874 passed a resolution denouncing the excessive freight rates of the railroads, requesting congress and the General Assembly to pass remedial legisla- tion and tendering its loyal support to the American Cheap Transportation society. This society was es- pecially favorable to the opening and improvement of the waterways.28 The society also protested
27 Indianapolis Sentinel, Oct. 10, 1873.
28 Proceedings State Grange, 1874, p. 30: "Resolved, That we recommend to the favorable consideration of congress the improvement of our great natural highways, the rivers, lakes and canals, through which the commerce of the grain producing
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against the lavishness of congress in squandering gifts of public lands on railroad promoters. In the resolutions of 1876 the State Grange expressed its opinion that the government had ample power to fix by law passenger and freight rates on all railroads. At the same time it was recommended that the rebate business be examined to see if farmers might not get some favors that way. Their agitation it seems was bearing fruit for the preceding session of congress made an appropriation for the survey of a ship canal between Lake Michigan and the Gulf by way of the Wabash river.29
Farmers drew their opinion of railroad ethics largely from the disclosures of the Erie war between Vanderbilt, Gould, Fisk and Drew. Its stories of judicial bribery and legislative corruption still smell so bad that no reputable historian will attempt to dis- turb them.30 It is easy to see from this distance, to say nothing of the gamblers in control, that the railroads were in as much trouble as the shippers. Through freight from east to west or vice versa had to pass through the hands of a number of different corpora- tions. There was as yet no standard gauge; there was inadequate equipment for the deluge of freight offered for shipment and finally the railroad managers had to deal with a number of governments, all subject more or less to corruption. The only things that could give relief, federal control and combination of
region of the West must pass; and that the jetty system pro- posed to deepen the mouth of the Mississippi river meets our hearty approval; and that we earnestly recommend congress, at its next session to order a survey for a steamship canal from the southern point of Lake Michigan to the Wabash river, at or near Lafayette, Indiana, thus connecting, if found practicable, the waters of the Mississippi valley with the Great Lakes on the north."
29 Proceedings State Grange, 1876, p. 43.
30 Myers, Great American Fortunes, II, 306, seq.
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the railroads, were resisted by most of the people and by the state legislatures.
Equally troublesome with transportation was the currency question. Neither of the old parties had any definite solution or policy. The state Democratic platform of 1870 declared in favor of paying the na- tional debt in greenbacks, abolishing the national banks and substituting greenbacks for national bank notes; that the quantity of currency ought to be in- creased, and that United States bonds and national bank stock ought to be taxed. The Republican plat- form of the same year declared for a financial policy which would be fair, legal and honorable, and give the people an adequate circulation of sound currency. All, of course, recognized that this indicated hope- less division on this question inside the party.
The Democratic platform of 1872 has no refer- ence, immediate or remote, to the money question. In this it followed the precedent of the Republican platform of the same year. In 1874 the Democrats returned to their platform of 1870 declaring against national banks and for a national currency composed entirely of greenbacks. The national banks were declared to be the parents of all monopolies and thus the greatest oppressors of the people. The Republi- cans almost duplicated the Democratic demand, ask- ing for free national banking and a currency issued by such banks in amount sufficient to meet all the demands of commerce. This currency, issued by fed- eral authority, was to be distributed on the basis of population. Both parties thus in 1874 declared for fiat money.
In 1876 the Democrats fell away back to the old Jacksonian hard money theory and declared their be- lief "in our ancient doctrine that gold and silver are the true and safe basis for the currency." As a counter irritant for home folks who would not take
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kindly to Tilden's plank in the national platform they declared against contraction, but for the grad- ual retirement of national bank notes and the issu- ing of greenbacks to replenish the volume of cur- rency. They further pointed out how specie resump- tion could be effected honorably and naturally, but in the next paragraph opposed retiring any greenbacks, and in the following paragraph denounced the act providing for the resumption of specie payments January 1, 1879, as calculated to paralyze industry, create distrust of the future, turn laborers and pro- ducers out of employment, be a standing threat to business men, and declared it should at once be re- pealed without any condition whatever. The Repub- lican state platform had already declared for ulti- mate redemption of all currency in silver and gold, but that any attempt to hasten resumption or fix a definite day by statute when resumption would take place was inexpedient. It therefore asked the repeal of the clause in the resumption law fixing the date at January 1, 1879, and after such repeal the currency should remain undisturbed, neither contracted nor expanded, being assured that the financial troubles of the country, when relieved from interference, would be speedily and permanently cured by the operation of the natural laws of trade. It was as- serted that the greenbacks had been issued by Re- publicans in spite of the opposition of Democrats, and now it was the intention of Democrats to destroy the greenbacks and return to state and local bank issues as before the war-to "wild cat currency."
In 1878 the Republicans led off in their state plat- form by declaring their opposition to all forms of re- pudiation, to any abandonment of the greenback cur- rency, by favoring a sound currency of gold, silver and paper of equal value, receiving greenbacks in payment of customs dues, and opposing any more
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financial legislation. The Democrats followed two weeks later by declaring for greenbacks as a full legal tender in payment of all debts public and pri- vate. They favored a legal rate of interest at six per cent., the remonetization of the standard silver dollar and its unlimited coinage on the same terms as that of gold, and they demanded the repeal of the Resumption act.31 A joint resolution of the General Assembly of 1877 also requested this.32
The State Sentinel, organ of the Democracy, said editorially, October 17, 1873: "The incalculable im- portance of a restoration of specie currency begins to be comprehended by the country. Our country and our countrymen during the last fifteen years have lost uncounted millions for the want of a cur- rency of gold and silver." The Journal, organ of the Republicans, next day in an elaborate editorial, October 18, 1873, outlined and advocated a free bank- ing system in which the government would have no control over issues further than to demand sufficient guarantees as to redemption. No one had any very good remedy for the distress. As always happens each remedy hurt somebody and that person or class raised speedy objections.
These are the official declarations of the two lead- ing parties during this period on this troublesome question. It is not necessary to point out their in- consistencies. It is doubtful if there could have been found at any time a responsible party leader who would have fully endorsed any platform. Senator Daniel W. Voorhees, who represented the mass of Democrats most consistently, was always a believer
31 These platforms are printed in W. E. Henry's State Plat- forms.
32 Laws of Indiana, 1877, Joint Resolution No. 7.
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in fiat money.33 Morton was in favor of more cur- rency in the south and west. Immediately after the war he favored retiring the greenbacks as a policy of mere honesty. When he came to believe that this would cause a financial stringency he even led the fight for the inflation bill which Grant vetoed, April 26, 1874.84 Outside the banking and legal profession there were very few men in Indiana who favored a gold standard, retirement of greenbacks or resump- tion of specie payment, if by that the greenbacks were to be withdrawn. A vast majority opposed the national bank system but few had any plan to offer in its stead.
The commercial situation was likewise full of dif- ficulties, especially for the farmers who constituted by far the largest class. In 1880 of the whole popula- tion of 1,468,095 there were 635,080 workers, of whom 331,240 were farmers, 137,281 professional men and servants, 56,432 engaged in trade and transportation, and 110,127 in manufacture and mining.85 The dis- tribution of produce which before the war had been an insignificant factor in affairs, had now become a problem to reckon with. The "middle men," as job- ers and brokers were named, seemed to the farmers to be taking an unnecessary part of the profits of in-
33 Voorhees, Forty Years of Oratory, I, 258: "Money is the creature and congress the creator. Gold and its alleged intrinsic value goes for naught as a circulating medium unless the coln bears the stamp of the government-a stamp more powerful than the grasp of the lion's paw or the eagle's claw in bestowing life and activity on a dead and otherwise useless material. The same official stamp on silver, or on paper, at once ennobles them to an equality with gold in purchasing power, no matter how debased, how degraded, or how valueless the silver or the paper may have become as commodities by sInister and unwise legislation."
34 Foulke, Life of Morton, II, ch. XV, gives a good account of Morton's position on the currency question.
85 Tenth Census of United States, 712.
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dustry. In fact, few recognized any necessity for them at all. The Grangers were preparing to dis- pense with their services by buying and selling through their own agencies. One of the first cooper- ative attempts of the Indiana Grangers was the es- tablishment of a buying agency at Indianapolis for the accommodation of all Grangers of the state. This agency was allowed three per cent. on all purchases. By this means they were said to be saving for their patrons on an average forty per cent. Sewing ma- chines which were sold by middlemen at $75 were purchased through the agency for $40. Plows, mow- ers, reapers, threshers and household goods were purchased at a like reduction.36 For the year ending November 25, 1874, the state purchasing agent re- ported an aggregate business of $310,580, of which $43,800 was for sewing machines alone. Grange co- operative stores were organized in Howard, Parke and other counties. These facts are not given for their own importance but to show what people were thinking about.
There was a general feeling of distrust among the farmers and laborers. In the General Assembly elected in 1874 there were not more than a dozen law-
36 Indianapolis Daily Sentinel, Oct. 10, 1873; Proceedings of the State Grange, 1874, p. 31: "To the members of the order we most earnestiy recommend to co-operate together as counties in bulking up the product of the soil and selling wholesale to the parties who pay the highest price; and in buying we recognize the State Business Agency of the Patrons as the proper channel through which the business agents of the various counties can best supply the wants of the Grangers in all articles needed for the cultivation of the farm, and for the households; and the time is now at hand when the members of the order must see the necessity of standing by the organization and the business agent be required to give out, from time to time, such information as may be for the advancement and benefit of the members of the order."
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yers and a less number who had ever sat in the house before.87
The farmers knew the business men had an ex- change or board of trade where they met daily and received telegraphic market reports from all parts of the world. A large part of the Indianapolis papers was given to "doings on 'change'."38 The merchants standardized, products not needed in Indianapolis were sent where there was a demand. Likewise the city banks had what they termed "clearing houses" in which they met and consulted for their mutual benefit and support. These agencies by a clever use of money and influence were said to be able to elect their friends, usually their attorneys, to office, and by means of paid lobbies control them while in office.
Just while the ordinary newspapers were in dis- gust and dismay at the Credit Mobilier scandals, came the news that Jay Cooke and Company, bankers of Philadelphia, had closed their banking houses for liquidation.88ª It was known that these bankers were railroad promoters and it was not known whether the failure was real or feigned. In spite of assurance to the contrary a panic gradually spread not only over Indiana but over the nation, one month later the New Albany car works and the New Albany steam forge works closing, and the Ohio Falls iron works and the New Albany rolling mills slowing up to half time." The Indianapolis board of trade was deserted. A
37 Turpie, Sketches of My Own Times, 232.
38 For example, see Daily Sentinel, Oct. 10, 1873.
38ª Indianapolis Journal, Sept. 19, 1873; Proceedings of the State Grange, 1874, p. 11: "The failure of Jay Cooke cost the farmers of the country many millions more than Jay Cooke was ever worth."
39 Indianapolis Journal, Oct. 16, 1873. For the effect of the panic on Indianapolis, see Meredith Nicholson, The Provincial American, 64, seq.
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general run on the Indianapolis banks soon reduced them to uselessness as far as aiding the panic was concerned.4º A letter from the economist, Amasa Walker, denouncing national banks for helping to create the panic added only more confusion to the situation.41 A series of meetings by the business men in the board of trade rooms at Indianapolis during the latter part of October and the early part of No- vember served only to show how far apart men's minds were on the causes of the trouble.
These conditions have been detailed at some length because of their basic relation to the political history of Indiana since that time. The problems that arose during the seventies have occupied the people's attention in large measure since then. There were small clubs formed to study civil service. The Grangers started anew the demand for prohibition;42 for a game and fish law ;43 and for agricultural educa- tion. A society looking forward to election reform was in feeble life at this time. The Grangers ad- mitted women to their lodges on equal terms with men and championed their demands for political en-
40 Indianapolis Journal, Oct. 20, 1873.
41 Indianapolis Journal, Oct. 24, 1873, p. 7: "They have been doing, to be sure, what was highly injurious to the public, as we now see; yet they have acted according to their charters. The fault is in the system, which is wholly a bad one, that ought never to have been inaugurated. The results are precisely what every man who knew the machinery of the national banks confi- dently expected. They have made immense profits-greater far than any department of Industry, but they have brought the country Into a very bad condition."
42 Proceedings, 1876, pp. 37, 38: "That intemperance Is the greatest cause of misery, crime, and waste of health." See, also, account of the temperance state convention of the Independent Order of Good Templars, in Journal, Oct. 23, 1873.
48 Proceedings, 1874, p. 33.
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franchisement." Nor were they less earnest in their support of agricultural education.45
One of the curious features of this forty years of political struggle and development is that most of the greater reforms have been championed first by a third party and carried into execution by one of the old parties. During the whole period the supremacy of one or the other of the old parties has been threat- ened by internal revolt and disruption but in each case has wisely bent to the storm and lived. The state has been fortunate in this fact. Many able men have, during the period, mistakenly urged the disso- lution of one or the other of the old parties, holding them as liabilities in the work of progress. Under the prevailing plan programs have had the advan- tage of being studied by the public through at least two campaigns, enabling the General Assembly to adopt that which was salutary and necessary and discard the dangerous or doubtful. A political party is largely an abstraction and like a church or a state, aside from its members, can neither be corrupt nor immoral. Like other institutions it represents a vast amount of work and expense. Its destruction is a crisis in society, a revolution. As a living institution it is always changing and in no two campaigns is it the same. As an educational agency the organized political parties in Indiana rank with the churches, schools, and the press. In looking back over the pe-
44 Proceedings, 1874, p. 32: "Whereas, It is plain to every member that very much of the permanency of the order and the harmonious operations of the subordinate Granges are dependent upon the proper practical recognition of the sisters, not only as voting and sitting members, but as speaking, acting and other- wise important parts of the entire working body of Patrons throughout the Union."
45 Proceedings, 1876, p. 31: "We hold that one of the essen- tial principles of the order is to educate its members thoroughly
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riod it seems certain that Indiana owes a great debt to her third parties but was fortunate in always re- maining in the hands of one or the other of the old traditional parties.
The reformers among the farmers and laboring classes in 1873 looked over the two old parties and found little in either that promised relief, nor is it to be understood that there was unanimity among the farmers and laborers themselves on any program proposed.
In this situation the reformers turned to the or- ganization of a new party in which at least they might find freedom of expression and through which they might reach the public. It was charged against the old parties that if their platforms for thirty years were published they would make little else than so many columns of mutual negations and contradic- tions; that the only continuous and clear note was that the "outs" wanted "in" and the "ins" wanted to remain; that the Democratic party was wasting the last precious hours of its life trying to prove to the people that the Republican party was worse than itself; that the people needed a party which would not have to spend three-fourths of its energy excus- ing its own crimes; "if you feed corn to a hog it be- comes pork, if to a steer it becomes beef, so those be- come who join the old parties ; all the nostrums in the world fed to a sickly old man leaves him still the same sickly old man; Democracy has in every case in a generation by its endorsement chalked its victim for the sacrifice, McClellan, the Negro, Greeley, Greenback payment of bonds, each in turn received
so that they may be better prepared to meet the requirements of a successful business life on the farm; thereby placing the pro- fession where it ought to be, on an equality with the scientific and learned professions of the land."
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the Judas kiss." So reasoned the reformers con- cerning affiliation with the old parties.46
§ 156 GREENBACK CAMPAIGNS
The organized activity of the Greenbackers in Indiana received its inspiration from some meetings held at Indianapolis between October 25 and Novem- ber 14, 1873. No political results seem to have been intended but rather a social discussion of the busi- ness situation which was then bad. At the third of these meetings the natural penchant of such bodies was indulged and a set of resolutions voted. These in brief, attributed the panic to lack of a sufficient circulating medium, declared it the duty of congress to provide an elastic, uniform, regulated currency ; that persons possessing government bonds should be permitted to deposit these with the United States treasurer and draw out an equal amount of green- backs; that the depositor might, as soon as he chose, redeem his bonds by returning the currency; no in- terest accruing on the bonds while so deposited; and that the whole issue of legal tender notes now author- ized by law be at once thrown into circulation.47
This scheme soon became known over the whole country as the "Indiana Plan." Along with it James Buchanan, editor of the Indianapolis Sun, and E. A.
46 Indianapolis Sentinel, Oct. 8, 1873: "It is no insignificant act in one's life to break with one's party. It is still a graver act to go over to the enemy. To be received by the enemy as a deserter and put in irons in the rear of the camp is not very inviting. Hence, desertions to the enemy will always be rare, and doubly rare from the strong army to the weak one which the former has so often defeated. In joining a new party we are spared that bitterest of all doses, the swallowing of our own prejudices."
47 Indianapolis Journal, Nov. 6, 1873. In this connection, read the address of W. W. Curry, at Indianapolis, Nov. 14, 1873, in Journal, Nov. 15, 1873.
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Olleman, editor of the Indiana Farmer, became known as its sponsors. The resolutions were framed by a succeeding meeting into a petition to congress, eliciting favorable comment by at least six members of congress and no doubt influencing the attitude of the Indiana delegation on the inflation bill of 1874.
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