The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1895-05-11
ECKELS ON FINANCE.

| Mich.
DETROIT, Mich, May 3.-United
States Comptroller Eckels delivered an
| address here last night at h banquet
in homo of the opening OF Detroit
new chamber Of commerce, IN response
to a toast. THE Currency" 1t was an
exposition of the administration we"
of the financial question. In part IL Isl
THE American people can not too
quickly recognize hal they are N the
midst of n propaganda sAlllfully anu
z~ealously being carried on with the
end in view of revolutionizIng the
country's existing monetary system
Those who now direct the free-sllver
idea. map out the policy of its advo-
Gates, and control their action nave
ceased playing with words and put
from them the professions when mere
tofore have characterized their utter
ances when urgingthe cause Tor WHICH
they have stood. Their demand To-
day, interpreted in the light OF then
acts. is that the United States shall at
once abandon its present nda OF
yalue and substitute therefor, lrrespec-
tive and without the cooperation Oh
anv other country, 4 single SILVER
standard. Nowhere is 1t suggested DS
the sponsors for this latest tenet IN the
silver creed that this nation shall even
undertake to maintain at nome d
double standard. Nowhere Is inter
national agreement to make every doI-
lar of silver which shall be coined the
- .-n- Inllns nj TnlN
which comes from the mint and 1airly
| interchangeable Herewith.
They no longer give recognition to
the fact, attested by every monetary
union formed and conference heId'
that no nation can isolate itself from
those with which it has commerciai
| dealings, and maintain, independent
of them. a distinct standard Of value.
1t is not even designed h a the dollar
coined shall approach IN intrinsic
value. the value which it purports tC
carry, but instead a ratio shall exist
betyeen coins of the same dcnomlna-
| ton which is patiently incorrect II
untrue.
This position which they nov as
sumo, Of necessity eliminates from
their ranks all who have heretofore
struggled to bring about a larger use OF
| silver in the cOuntry's currency at an
increased ratio, and drives into the
camp of the opposition every honest
| champion of international bimetallIsm.
The plan laid is of their OWL making:
the issue of their OWN choosing, and III
the face of their acts the believer IN
| the single gold standard, and the Ce-
| lever in a standard of both gold Il
silver, should give them neither aid
nor succor. They challenge The n
! and repudiate the other, and from both
should corne a united opposition.
The contention which is no" made
| by the single silver standard adherents
! reduced to its last analysis is silver
iiat;sm pure and simple. 1t differs in
degree only and not in principle from
the contention of twenty years ago OF
the advocates of the unlimited issue Of
irredeemable greenbacks, and from
| that of the issue Of the fiat currency OF
the period of the continental congress,
and the era of colonialism. 1t finds
| counterpart in the arguments OF
the French rcvolutionists, who bank
rupted the citizens of France with
their millions of worthless assignats
and ~mandats. 1t resembles the reason
| ing of King Alexis of Russia. when
more than three centuries ago he i'm
poverished his subjects and fOmented
civil strife by undertaking to force
upon them copper copecs of the same
form and value as a substitute for sill
yer ones.
1T is the theory of the socialist
and populist applied to monetary
science. 1t is based upon the belief in
what has been aptly termed the ali
powerfulness' of the state and is in
utter disregard of that great fact in
financial history that mediums of ex-
change and standards of value did not
find their origin in law, but were
born of the needs of trade and COM
merce. They came into use through
no legislative action, save that which
was Wrought in the great parliament
of commerce., and from then until now
the enacted laws of councils and OF
congresses in violation OF the prin-
ciples underlying them have failed TO
control and regulate them.
THE end always sought by COM
merce, the great arbiter of every nome
tary system since the dawn of civiIiEa-
ton, has been to have in every
metallic money such intrinsic valuc n
makes the rnstampcd coin of the same
value as Il commodity of merchandise
as the stamped. 1t has with equal
rigor insisted that in bank currency
there should be immediate redemption
upon presentation in sound metallic
currency. 1t invoices in behalf of
the money which it sanctions and
accepts no alchemist, and believes in
no philosophers stone. 1t has, through
ont all the centuries, stood defiant
against the errors of Legislative bodies
and the wrongful edicts of kings, and
acting upon the principle that value
knows its own laws and follows them
in spite of DEGREES and penalties has
taken the coins of every country for
what they are intrinsically worth, and
not for what the legal stamp represents
them to be worth. The commercial
world has with unvarying precision
drawn the true distinction which eX-
lists between true value in the nations
currency and the sign of value affixed
to it, and standing upon that line of
demarcation, it has been as Indifferent
to the laws of great nations as of