Omaha daily bee., 1893-11-23

CARLISLE ON THE CURRENCY
Among the public men OF the day
Hon. John G.. Carlisle, secretary OF the
treasury, is perhaps the most striking
example Of conversion TO sound princi-
Piles OF finance. Before Mr.. Carlisle en-
tered the cabinet Of President Cleve-
land he was identified in the public
mind with the free silver men. HIS
public u%tterances had been on that side
of the silver question and some OF them
were quoted in the debate on silver at
the extra session of congress. Now Mr..
Carlisle Is fully committed to the single
gold standard and rejects the idea OF
bimetallism and a double standard as
being absurd. The secretary of the treas
ury delivered an address al the an
nual banquet of the New York Cham
Der of Comm erce Tuesday night, IN
which he showed that he Is as confirmed
a monometallist rs there is in the
country and he gave excellent reasons
for his faith.
Mr.. Carlisle argued that " gold
standard was made absolutely necessary
by reason of the fact that nearly our
entire foreign trade is done with
countries which have that standard or
measure of value. This argument has
been often presented by others, but 1T
will zeal frequent repetition, for n very
large number OF American people do
not now understand it. 1t ought to be
obvious to everybody of ordinary in
intelligence that unless We pre-
serve a monetary system, as was
said by Mr.. Carlisle, substantially,
at least, in accord with the
monetary systems of the other principal
nations we could not long maintain Il
present position as one of the most con-
s%picuous and important members OF the
great community of commercial nations.
Yet there are thousands of men in the
United States who insist that this coun-
try ought to give no consideration what
ever to the monetary systems OF other
nations, but should set up an i%ndepend-
cnt system of its own. 1t is most re-
markable that this obvious fallacy
should have the countenance II sup
port of intelligent people, but such is
the case, and these people, could they
have had their way, would have jeop-
ardized our vast trade in Europe in order
to let q few silver mine owners
obtain from the government consider
ably more for their product than its
market value. The effort to do this in
justice to the whole people was de-
feated, and although the men response
BILE for it threaten to enc the effort
there is not the slightest danger that
they will be able to accomplish anything.
AS Secretary Carlisle said, the question
whether the obligations of the United
States will be paid in coin current in all
the markets of the world has been set
tied and settled for all time to come.
That silver will continue to have q
place in our monetary system nobody
questions. The large sum of nearly
800, 600, 900 which we have in silver
coin and bullion we must con-
tinue to utilize as money, because
not to do so would be to force an nor
nous contraction of the currency, the
effect of which would be disastrous.
We can use this silver without the least
danger, maintaining it at a parity with
gold. but there will be no addition made
to this silver supply, at least during the
present generation. The advocates of
free silver will doubtless continue to
agitate, but there is no longer a ques-
ton that public sentiment is against
them and it is to be expected that their
number will steadily diminish until
within a short time they will
not be numerous enough to com
mand any attention. In concluding
his address Secretary Carlisle said
that all that is needed now to
insure the early Inauguration of an era
of great prosperity is such action on the
part of bodies like the Chamber of Com
merce as will inspire confidence and re.
vive the spirit of enterprise among the
people. There is a difficulty in the way
of doing this, however, which will not
be removed until the men engaged in
the manufacturing industries know how
far the party in power intends to go il
revising the fiscal system of the coun
try. No action on the part of CONNER
clal bodies will produce the desired
effect until this knowledge is obtained