The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-10-16
The Bankers' Convention.

]
renoy. The plan was very favorably re-
ceived and attracted a great deal of at
tention from congress. There is no doubt
that the plan possessed admirable feat
ures. and had congress been ready to take
up the question of reforming the currency
it would have been very carefully con-
sidered.
Two papers were read in yesterdays
convention. One was by Mr.. John
J. p. Odel, the president of the
association. II was the presidents annual
address. In the course of it he said: THE
double standard has not been found &c
work well in other countries, and it ought
not to be inconsistent with proper self
respect on our part for us to profit By
their experience. Every citizen Of
the United States has a personal inter-
est in the maintenance of a single. unvary-
ing standard. The sovereign is the Eng
lish standard. the eagle is ours, and we
shall commit fatal blunder if we adopt
another in its stead" These are wise
words and are entitled to thoughtful con-
sheraton If we should follow the lead
of the silverites we should have another
standard-the silver standard, and that
only-and we should have trouble.
The other address was by ex-Gov. Will
liam r. Merriam of St. Paul. Mimi, on
THE Currency of the Twentieth Century"
In the course of his remarks he said:
The all-absOrbing topic before the Ameri
can people to-day ought to be the ques-
af "A sound financial
Political parties may argue upon the
merits of various plans for producing the
requisite revenues for paying the expenses
OF the government. Iney may wage war
upon one another concerning the excel
lence of the American policy of protection
or the manifold advantages of free trade,
the result in the end will be to secure sur
ficient funds to meet the demands OF the
government 1t is, after all, an honest dill
ference of opinion as TO the better way to
accomplish the same purpose Members
of congress may very properly insist upon
a generous way of internal improvements
or a vigorous enforcement of the Monroe
doctrine, or the thousand and one other
important matters for consideration that
come into the national legislature but no
subject to-day before the American people
is of such vast moment as the one we nave
now under discussion.
Yes, the question of providing a sounc
financial system is of the very first i'm.
portance. How important it is only those
who are in a position to become fully
aware Of the evils of the present system
know. Upon our small gold reserve
depends the stability of our currency.
Let that reserve fall below a certain
amount and all business and nearly all
values are disturbed.
Further along in his address Gov. Mer-
riam said;
The palsied hand of a doubtful fiscal
policy has laid its touch upon many
nation in the past and on ours as we'll
The question becomes one of ethics as
well as of political economy. A response
bility of the graVest character rests upon
the shoulders of the men whose duty it is to
fix the medium for the interchange of COM
modities and labor and as well as for the
fulhllment of contracts. We are confront
ed to-day with the spectacle rarely seen
in commercial countries of the higher or
der. Many of our citizens, some in eX-
allied positions, with honest motive, no
doubt, deliberately suggesting that we
pay our obligations, public and private, in
a debased coinage. That the solemn en-
gagements entered into for upward of a
quarter of century, be broken, through
the medium of legislative enactment.
Good faith and fair dealing should forbid
such determination. me American peo-
pie were honest when they resolved to
face the mountain Of debt incurred by
dreadful war and liquidate it to the last
dollar. They will not rest easy under the
imputation of trying to avoid their recog-
nized obligations by asking creditors to
accept a silver dollar worth but 4S cents.
Cover the question of free coinage of sill
yer with all the cunning sOphistry, and
with all the persuasive arguments so often
reiterated by the misguided silver theo-
rists, enlarge upon the wickedness of the
so-called crime of 1873, as you may, the
people, when they are once assured of
what it all means, viii never consent to
having the nation dishonored.
No, the people will not consent that the
country shall be dishonored by means of
the free silver coinage scheme or any other
scheme. They do not propose that the
national obligations shall be repudiated
in whole or in part. 1t is true that a
great many of them have been and still
are favorable to the free coinage of silver,
but in proportion as the full purport of
the meaning and effect of free silver coin
age is understood they are turning away
from it, and returning to sound money.
Comparatively few of them would have
been the victims of the free silver coin
age craze if they had not been led to be-
lieve that our currency would remain
sound if our minis were opened to free
and unlimited silver coinage. They are
getting to understand, however. that free
silver coinage means a debased currency
and they are turning away from it.
II is q matter of remark that the mari