The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-09-11
"a SILVER SERMON"

Even the ministry is beginning to turn
it's attention to the financial condition OF
our country and expressing their opin-
ions thereon from the Sacred pulpit. The
Rev. DR.. James Ecob. of Albany, N. Y,
who believes that ministers should make
themselves familiar with the common af-
fairs of life, as we'll as theology, preached
from the text
Money exists not by nature, but by
law."-Aristotle.
In the course of his remarks, DR.. Ecob
made the following points:-"When doc
tors disagree the layman is entitled to
an opinion. He must be dull layman
indeed not to have discovered two things
respecting the present financial situation
the statesmen and the economists are
all in the woods They are crying, 10
Here!' and 10 There' but none of them
seem prepared to say This is the way,
walk We in it,
Zone thing is certain, we could not
very we'll be in more chaotic condition
this side of actual bankruptcy. All the
great money centers of the world are
nothing less than storm centers. Even
France, with her mountain of 5000, O00,-
900 of gold, S7O0,000,000 in silver, is not
happy. There is no confidence anywhere.
The markets are restless and feverish
The shifting of few millions of the yell
low metal is anxiously watched as if
- ,;ob provo hi so CT r0Ifc n fhA ballast
ing of the ship.
"All this is the more remarkable, COM
ing as it does in an era of prosperity.
There have been no wasting wars; no
series of bad harvests; no destructive
pestilences; no unusual loss of values by
food or fire. BY common consent thoughts
full men are beginning to ask, Have we
not reached the time when we must face
square about and challenge the financial
traditions which have reigned so long
without question that we have come TO
regard them as laws?
There must be something wrong with
our conceptions of money, when this ma
ton, the richest nation on the globe, can
be thrown into a panic by the withdrawal
of three millions of gold from our nation
al treasury. This, we are assured from
the highest quarters, was the beginning
Of the panic of 1893, the most widespread
and stubborn panic in our history. This
looks very much as if we were trying to
keep the pyramid on it's apex, and were
having hard time of it.
Can anything be more preposterous
than our present position, with our un-
told riches watching that little reserve
in the treasury, and shrek going up
from all the papers in the land, every
ic
might the Rothschilds send up wall
over the loss Of nickel. -
II throw into a dish curious little
shell and certain bits of iron, brass, cop
per, nickel, silver, gold, paper, beads,
feathers, etc. Men of different national
tiles pass before the dish. The Indian
cries, money! and eagerly seizes the shell.
The Fijian cries, money! and eagerly
seizes the feather Another seizes the
bit of brass, or silver, or gold, or paper.
What appreciable value have any of
them in their hands? None whatever
Only as one gets home to his own people,
where all have agreed to use that partic-
ular article as representation of values,
is it of any service whatever.
"a skeleton was found in the sands of
a desert island, with belt of gold around
it and piece of gold between it's teeth.
This is parable to the effect that even
the most valuable of all circulating me-
diums, so far as mere market value is
concerned, is yet, as money, absolutely
worthless when absent from the proper
objects of it's ministry. You can neither
eat it nor drink it, nor sleep it, nor wear
it, nor dwell under it.
s'The steady trend of usage in all civil
lied countries is away from the tradi-
tional notion that money has, or must
have, intrinsic value. The great bulk of
the worlds business today is done by pa
per. This is true of common and small
transactions. You do not thank anyone
for bringing you even $25 in gold or sill
yer in payment for a debt.
I'm 1855 Holland adopted silver as the
only legal tender at a fixed value, but
attempted to issue gold coins having no
such value, this only being regulated by
the market price from day to day. After
about $4,000 had been coined the de-
mand entirely ceased.
.'If gold were demonetized today, that
is, stripped of its fictitious value, no man