Los Angeles herald., 1892-12-17
TARIFF AND CURRENCY.
DINNER OF THE NEW ENGLAND
TARIFF REFORM CLUB.
Ex-Secrstary OF the Treasury Fairchild
Elucidates His Views on ,he
Monetary Question-Several
Other Speakers.

BosToN, Mass, Dec. 16.-The annual
dinner of the New England Tariff Re-
eform league was held at the American
house this evening. President Henry
L. Pierce was the presiding officer. The
speakers were: Hon. Charles s. Fair
child, secretary of the treasury under
Cleveland; Hon. Harvey M. Shepherd,
Josiah Quincy and William B. Rice.
The first speaker of the evening was
Fairchild, who said in part:
"Those in favor OF tariff reform still
have duty to perform. Our business
friends ask for stability in business,
but they have built up an arti-
fetal system whereby the busi-
ness of this country is held up
above the natural conditions. Instead OF
seeking to do the thing requisite to the
maintenance of the system, they sought
to divert the minds of the people, in
every possible way from the considera.
tion of the true subject. They formed
the habit of contributing vast sums of
money to buy elections. 1t is useless
to deny that the Democrats are
equally guilty with the Repu blicans in
attempts to corrupt elections but within
the laet few years the business men con-
tributed OF the gains which came to
them, as they supposed, through the
government, for the hardly concealed
purpose ~ buying elections; contribut.
ing OF their substance to undermine the
foundations of society.
1--WE have before us a very grave
question which involves protectionism.
governmentalism and paternalism, and
that is our currency system. 1t is the
common belief that the government has
the mysterious power to infuse value
into substance otherwise valuelees and
to add to the value which ia already in
the substance by putting it in the form
OF bank bill or coined
money and calling it legal tender
money. don't think there is any
power in the government to give value
to anything by adding the legal tender
quality to it. During the war in this
country, with the same volume of green
backs, the same volume of business and
the same amount of antecedent debt
which conld be paid with the money, it
would vary enormously between morn
ing and afternoon. The legal tender
quality had not varied; the need for
fuoucy uau uOC varied; pOpulatlOn mad
not varied; business had not varied;
what had varied was the average
belief of the American people
as to the ultimate redeemablity
OF the promise to pay. That was the
reason money had been 20 varied and
that its legal tender quality had been
utterly powerless to retain value in it.
When the United States is no longer
able to fulfil that promise to make good
that credit, then the money must stand
on it's foundation and its foundation be
the value of the silver bullion in the
market of the world. There is no more
craftsmanship, there is no more sense
in depriving the American people of one
OF the most useful devices OF modern
times, because some one may come
times lose by it, than there is in depriv-
ing them of other forms of commercial
credit. In the face of the vast useful
nees of good bank note circulation
which will paes from hand to hand read
,ly, but not legal tender. I cay it is
utter imbecility for the American peo-
pie to lie down and say that they can't
do that and that they won't do it.