Middletown transcript., 1892-01-28
INDUSTRY AND TRADE.
HON. THOMAS F. BAYARD'S ADDRESS
BEFORE THE BOSTON CHAMBER
OF COMMERCE.

Merchants of Boston-My Fello,o-
Countrymea: For the favor of your
invitation, and the abundant kindness
Of your reception, heartily thank you
This merchants exchange is intend
ed, on grand scale, to facilitate such
transactions. Here the purchaser
meets the vender, here the producer
I and the consumer meet, and the cur.
rents of demand and supply flow into
the happy equilibrium Of mutual con.
tent.
Your calling is surely most honor.
able and benefcient, and it can best be
conducted by the practice of comfy
and mutuality as opposed to isolation
selfishness. Your business is a great
agency to bring together, from all
parts of the globe, producers, consum-
ers and agents Of distribution, giving
to each increased opportunity to ex.
change, in order
1Ss
Apart from the endowments of
nature-the unequaled diversities OF
climate, soil, race and production of
which the people of the United States
are the fortunate possessors-the
strength and wisdom of our institu-
tions have been chiefly exhibited in al
lowing our people, Of every class and
vocation, to exert their faculties freely
in those pursuits for which they felt
themselves most inclined or best en-
abled, 80 that under our liberal system
no man is debarred from any avenue
to fortune or happiness, nor is any oc-
cupation closed to any one who feels
within himself the prompting to
adopt it.
With this great and just principle of
individual freedom, it is not to be WON
dered that, with such a domain as has
been vouchsafed to us by Providence
every region of our territory has been
called upon to do what it can do best,
to produce what it can produce best
and most abundantly, to make what it
can make best, and the absolute and
unquestioned right Of free exchange
has permitted the currents of demand
and supply to traverse, "fertilizing as
they tiow," every region within the
vast area of our national domain.
To such untrammeled and healthful
we can alone attribute the
wonderful development and advance
of our country in material wealth and
But to the eyes of thoughtful and
patriotic men there is cloud painfully
apparent upon the horizon, and the
mutterings of storm are audible,
which prudent forethought warns US
to consider and provide against. II
refer to the gathering sounds of dis
content among the agricultural popu-
alton all over the United States, and
,he dangerous character of some of the
'emedies which are proposed for their
'elief, and among these the most to he
lreaded is the overthrow Of our pre-
ent measure and standard of value,
md substitution of
THE FREE COINAGE OF SILVER
It an arbitrary legislative ratio, to be
ct up by this government without the
cooperation of other mercantile ma
ions, and wholly in disregard of the
value of the metal of which
he coins are to be composed.
need not describe to this audience
be disasters, financial, social and polit-
cal, which would accompany such
tep, OF the serious and paralyzing in
uence upon business in all its depart
1ents, upon industries in all it's
venues, that even the shadow of such
threat, and the possibility of its exc
ution, casts upon our future. 1t
'ould strike grievous blow against
nr national honor and prosperity, the
fleets of which it is impossible to
'timate.
Nor need i dwell upon the irreverent,
le insensate folly of attempting to
reate values by statue, or to enforce
legal enactment a parity Of value
I'D acceptability of two distinct COM
odities, for history has been written ,
vain if the futility of such attempts
lould not now be acknowledged, and 9
e effect of our own existing legisla- !
on upon the prices current of silver !
lllion should alone be accepted as =
enary proof. !
But I feel impelled, under the obliga- .
ons of sincere friendship, to ask your
rnest and candid consideration Of :
hat believe to be the real causes of i
resort to such delusive and destruc-
7e propositions as means of relief :
om present financial depression and =
stress among the largest class Of our !
untrymen-those whose capital and =
ergies are engaged in agriculture. =
1t is my belief that the existing ar Il
ngements of law regulating our COM
'rce with foreign nations, and i'm il
sing taxes upon imports and admin 5,
erlng the collection of such taxes, d
We brought about such congestion in b
changes and the natural laws of de- b.
md and supply, and have produced Il
'h a condition of affairs, that the ex- Of
ange ability of the products of our A
! has been previously impaired, and pl
It steady current has been running it
many years, intensified by late acts to
legislation against agricultural in IL
ests, and those whose capital and Ell
or are involved in the ownership ar
cultivation of land in other VI
rds, that those engaged in such pro-
;tion have, year by year, by the =