Morning journal and courier., 1893-11-14
MUST NOT REST.

Comptroller Kckels Says That the
 Advocates Of sound Money Must
 Not be Contented With the van- tage Ground They Have Gained.
 BOSTON, Nov. 13.-When Mir. Eckels
 arose to speak at the meeting of the Bos-
 ton Bankers association this afternoon, he
 was given a very cordial greeting. He
 modestly bowed acceptance to this friendly
 welcome and when the applause subsided
 said: The commanding position which the
 banks of this country occupy in our insn-
 portsncs of our banking institutions over
 estimated. Established upon a safe basis
 and honestly conducted upon conservative
 lines, they are the greatest of all agencies
 for the promotion of peoples prosperity,
 but stripped of safeguards or dishonestly
 managed, the injury which they bring | upon people is only limited by the extent of their opportunities.
 The supreme function which they fill is the distribution of the peoples wealth so ! as to make it @ never ending source of ben ! eft to all. Their prosperity is the pros perity of every other business interest, and their activity is the activity of every line of commerce and branch of manufacture. Take from them, without cause, support and inevitably the injury falls upon all. Demand of them, in @ moment of fright, the money given in their keeping, that 1t may find lodgment in hiding places, and of necessity the banks must withdraw the lifeblood from the arteries of trade, and shop and store and factory must close and labor go unemployed. The whole history of these past menths bespeaks the truth of this.
 Between May 4 and October of this year the withdrawals in individual deposits in national banks alone were $299, ,000, 900,
 and of bank and bankers deposits to the amount of $79, ,000, 900, total of $27S, ,O0O,- 900. To meet this drain the banks were compelled to call In loans, thus depicting
 the resoIces of active trade to the extent of $31S, ,0e0, ,000, and from banks and bank CTS to the amount of $51 ,000. .OOO. while to their borrowings was added $37. .0O0, ,OO0 In the light of these figures, apart from the statistics of like nature which could be added from state, savings and private banks, who can doubt that the shrfnksge in deposits on the one hand, contributing only to the fund of hoarding money and the calling in on the other of loans neces- sitated by the demands of depositors with drawing such vast sums from the activities of business contributed more than all else to the stagnstion from which we have suf- fsred.
 The most serious feature of the whole matter was the withdrawals of small amounts by depositors who were not bor- rowers and whose accounts, as is well known to all bankers, are most valuable in the banking business and constitute most stable and important addition to the fixed capital of commercial banks, and is the fund which is used to meet the current de- mands of the business of each community. This fact alone Is sufficient to ref1te the charge that the financial stringency was the result of bankers panic, were it pos sible to believe that a body of intelligent, shrewd and prudent business men could be capable of setting In motion the machinery which would accomplish their own distress and ruin.
 trust and believe that this condition of affairs will soon give way to better and different order of things, and indus. tries now deadened through the action of an affrighted people, quickened into life. Happily at last, the financial measure which threw so much doubt upon our monetary system, destroyed the confidence of the people in our banks and parslyzed the activities of business, no longer re- mains upon the statute book to plague us. Its operation worked harm to us abroad; 1t wrought disaster at home. Its repeal leaves us at last free to enter upon fnan- cial legislation that will accord with those principles of sound economies which through all the past centuries have, and in the future will, control the worlds none tary operations. With such legislation aiding, instead of retsrding, the unwritten laws of commerce and trade, the wealth of the American people must, in the very order of things, become as vast ss their energies are unbounded.
 In conclusion permit me to say that the advocates of sound money must not rest content with the vantage ground which now is theirs. The declalmer advocating @ money cheap and plenty is yet abroad in the land and will continue so long as there Is hope of terms of compromise or yielding to its demands. I am not unmindful of the fact that cheap money doctrines have time and time again taken hold upon every people, but this seeming popularity Is neither indicative of their real strength nor of their soundness as financial princi- | ples. No errors are so spontaneously pop ular with the mass of the people as fnan- oisl ones, and none are so easily dispelled If aggressively attacked. It is not 80 long since that the greenbaok fstist was high in popular favor, and politicians, hungry for place and noisy applause were hsiling the issue ss one that meant success and unlimitsd prosperity; but fatism waned and disappeared when once sub jected to the test of intelligent analysis.
 So, too, with silver and the thousand and one schemes that are put forth to make 8 people rich through currency unstable, of no inhrrent value and no convertible worth; but if with the courage of convic- tion, strong enough to meet each emer- genoy as 1t confronts us, we meet it, enter ing neither 8 disclaimer of interest nor offering terms of compromise, the fate of each and all of such schemes must be that of other heresies which in their day and generation bid fair to pervert all the peo- pie.