St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-09-24
The Benkers' Association Ponderously Dis
Cusses the Financial Questions of the
Day at Chicago.
President Gage in His Annual Address
Shows How Great an Influence
Has Credit.
The Surplus of Silver Dollars Held Up
AS u Source of Great Finan-
cial Danger.
Introduced Asking Con-
gress to suspend Coinage--An In
vitation to Come n orth.

1
very large attendance, fully 500 representa-
tives of the banking interest from every
| leading city in the Union being present.
The meeting was called to order shortly
after 10 o'clock by Lyman j. Gage of this
city, president of the association, who de-
livered an address touching upon the silver
issue and other matters likely to engage
the attention of the delegates.
President Gage congratulated the asso-
citation on its maturity and strength. He
eXtolled the influence of the banks in up
holding the commercial world by extending
credit, its beneficial influence being effect
! i've not only in the work of general develop
ment and national preservation. and also in
the ordinary conduct Of our commercial and
industrial affairs.
| a DAKOTA FARMER.
In Illustration of this be cited the case of
the pioneer farmer in Dakota, who, by the
help Of advances from his local banker,
sOws broader area and reaps an increased
kcr0p. His wheat when harvested, is sold
by him to the local dealer, who forwards it
to the larger market, assisted by credit IA
cilities his own banker is ready to furnish.
At the commercial center the grain is
bought, it may be by the foreign shipper,
who obtains the means of payment from
the city banker, for the payment of which
he pledges the bill of lading as security.
| Arrived upon the other side of the Atlantic,
the foreign correspondent, with the help Of
advances from his home bank, obtains pos
session of the grain and discharges the
draft for which the shipment stood pledged.
The distribution of the grain thencefor
ward to the final consumer is accomplished
by a system Of credit operations not essen
TALLY different.
He also showed how, while the products
! of our farms and factories are thus diStrib-
uted beyond wide oceans, a refuent wave,
pushed forward by the same agency of
| credit, comes hitherWard, bringing to us
desired products of other lands, the func-
ton Of credit being to transfer capital.
Mr.. Gage also limited at the misapprehen-
sion which often confounds money with the
evidence OF credit, which lent false color
to the wild theories of the late advocate of
a fat currency. He enumerated several of
the conditions favoring the action of credit,
and some Of the dangers which infest it.
Immediately after the reading of the
presidents address an invitation from
the ST. Paul u Duluth and North
J ern Pacific and st. Paul, Mime
apolis q Manitoba railroads to pass over
those lines free Of charge to visit ST. Paul,
Minneapolis, Duluth and Fargo, was eX-
tended and accepted. The executive coun-
/ ell offered the following:
Resolved, That it is the sense of this con-
vention that the coinage of silver dollars
| under the compulsory law OF 1873 is detri-
| mental to the best interests of the people and
| dangerous to the welfare of the government
and that the law should be Immediately sus-
| pended and remain imperative until an inter-
national agreement of the leading commercial
| nations shall give substantial assurance as to
| the future relation of gold and silver as
| money.
Col. W. T. Trenholm of Charleston, S.
PC. opened the discussion favoring the res
Pollution.
THE SILVER MENACE.
He alluded to the surprising apathy and
ignorance on the part of the American peo-
pie to the peril of the further coinage of
silver dollars. there being notion among
the people generally that deprecated cur
rency will not only do them no harm, but
may even benefit some classes, especially
debtors.
He argued that this notion was a delusion,
particularly in regard to wOrkingmen, who
are sellers Of labor, and who will. there
| fore, all fall under whatever disability a
| defective currency imposes upon sellers
generally.
The common law, by virtue of the maxim
that a fair price implies a sound article,
protects buyers as to the quality, weight
and dimensions of whatever they buy, and,
reciprocally, sellers are supposed to be pro-
tected by the laws made in pursuance of
the power vested in congress to regulate
the coinage and the currency.
Now, when congress, while maintaining
! the weights and measures, and enforcing
the common law as to quality and quantity,
provides a currency that depreciates on the
| hands of the people, and has value in
name and in law that is notOriouSly false in
fact and in trade, it is recreant to its duty
under the constitution, to justice and to
| the principles Of American liberty.
In consequence of this betrayal Of SOL
emn trust, ali persons who live by selling
their labor or the products of their industry,
whether in field, forest, mine or factory.
are in danger of becoming exposed to a
daily and hourly disadvantage, to losses
and harassments, from which neither their
own efforts nor the powers of any state can
rescue them. They are helpless victims of
unjust and unequal laws.
The wage-earner is worse Off than other
| sellers, because he deals in a perishable
article. Unless he sells enough daily to
replenish his physical strength the rest of
his stock deteriorates in quality; if he fails
to sell at all for many days he dies He
cannot give up his business without giving
up life with it,
THE LABoRER's CASE.
| Hence, the wage-earner cannot refuse to
work because he dislikes the currency. He
may know its defects; he may foresee its fu-
ture depreciation; he may feel the utmost
| distrust in the situation, but to his daily
work he must go on peril of his life, and
when his labor has gone out of him he must
take in payment whatever congress has de-
nominated lawful money. Is not this tyr
amy?
But, perhaps, the wage-earner does not
understand that the currency is degraded in
value; perhaps he does not foresee itsdepre-
ciatiOn;i Il that case, when the depreciation
arrives he will feel its effect in the in
creased cost Of living. If he goes to his
employer for higher wages, he will proba-
| bly, be told how many men as good as he
are standing ready to do his work at the
same wages he receives, and further that
wages cannot be raised, when the employer
/ himself has to spend so much more in order
to maintain his own family.
| Now, what is the wage-earner to do in
such a case? He knows that many other
men are unemployed and their families suf-
fering; he understands, therefore, that he
cannot compel his employer to raise his
wages, the fact is he can do nothing. Con-
! gress has reduced him to an utterly helpless
and defenseless condition by process that
he does not suspect, and that perhaps he
would find it hard to fully understand
SLOW TO RISE.
In the condition of things supposed so
many people dispense with superfuities that
these are very slow to rise in price, but
among them those which are imported rise
first. Of all commodities. however, human
labor is the very last to rise, and itrises least