Evening star., 1895-09-21
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~H A. In affairs. Mr.. Adams
Hf AICAM ~ devotes his time and
| ~ F(T$hEyES attention now exclu-
| ~ n n sively to the man
| agement Of his own
business. He has large investments in real
estate in the west-particularly in Kansas
| City-and he is a heavy owner of improved
real estate In the city of Boston. The man.
| agement Of this property consumes all Of
the time which Mr.. Adams cares to give to
affairs. and he devotes none Of his thoughts
to politics or government beyond taking
that interest In them which every observer
and student in public or private life must
take. Mr.. Adams says that he is not only
not an active figure in public life, but not
even a looiser-on in public matters. when
a man gets to my time of lfe," he said to
me the other day in his office in Boston,
'he begins to feel that he is out of the
| game. The active period of my life was
| war time. I feel now as though I had
gone through the mill. have not an opin-
| ion to express on public questions"
| Mr.. Adams takes a decided philosophical
view Of life. and especially CT public af
| changed standard. looking back on the ex-
periences Of busy lifetime. The hero is
no longer quite the hero to him; the states
| man is often a plain politician in his eyes.
Before I met Mr. Adams I was informed
| by one who knows him that he was too
| good for this world" I believe that Mr.
Adams does not consider himself at all too
| good for this life; but he certainly does not
| consider the part of the world which is cell
| ebrated in the daily newspapers quite as
| good as it is generally accepted to be.
| 1t was reported in Boston not very long
| ago that Mr.. Adams had taken up what
| the east considers the heresy of silver
| that he had become an advocate Of free
coinage. His interest In western properties
III l1,xr t,y.,
sympathy with western ideas, but hardly
| to the point of accepting the free coinage
| theory as the solvent of the financial diff
culties of the people of the United States.
| / asked him If he was really a convert to
| silver
| The Currency Question.
1.-The currency question:" he said In re-
| ply. speaking with deliberation. "is alto
| gether too great and complicated ques-
| tion for me to undertake to solve. 1t is a
| question of extraordinary magnitude. in
! volving the commercial prosperity Of the
| whole world. To comprehend 1t man
| must be possessed of vast store of knowl-
| edge Here are Asia and India and Mexico
with one currency system, and the rest of
| the world with another. The world must
! come in time to uniform system. 1t Is
| impossible for the nations of the earth
| doing business with each other to go on in
definitely under two systems of currency.
|
| speculation. The problem, then. Is what
| system shall be adopted universally. To
| solve this problem man must be familiar
| with the commercial relations of Japan
| and China, their contracts with European
| rations, and so on; and with the details of
| the commercial relations of other nations.
| He must have universal knowledge Of
| things which comparatively few people un-
! derstand. / realize this, and SO do not un-
! dertake to propose solution of the cur
| rency question. 1 have had leanngs both
ways. and for that reason doubt my own
| judgment"
| l suggested that Mr.. Adams, as stu
dent and on-looker, probably understood
the currency problem as well as some pub
| lie men who were proposing to solve it.
'I understand it better than manv of
| them, perhaps" said Mr.. Adams Il know
| enough about it to understand how very
| ignorant I am, while they think they know
| 1t all. 1 hear the presidents of little banks
| around Boston proposing to settle the
| whole matter on very short notice"
Mr.. Adams shook his head when I sug-
| gested Senator Jones of Nevada as a man
probably better informed on the silver
| problem than most men.
| "I received a copy of his last speech en-
the silver question" he said YEARLY. 1T
was something less bulky than Webster's
Unabridged Dictionary. 1 believe. 1 did
not read it, 1 doubt if five men who. re-
ceived it did read 1t. If Mr.. Jones wants
| to accomplish anything by speech making
except filing the columns of the Congress
sonal Globe. he ought to learn to con-
dense his remarks to about one-tifth their
! length
Some of Mr.. Adams Dislikes.
| I said, with modest admiration for
Senator Jones. born of a professional ex-
| perence with him, that had heard him
| discuss the silver question for two hours
at time, and that he was most eloquent.
| "I don't like men who are eloquent"
| said Mr.. Adams, shaking his head in mild
protest, land 1 don't like men who talk
for two hours on one subject"
| do you believe that any man possesses
that universal Knowledge which is re,
| quired for a complete understanding of
| tho matter" said, cor do you believe
that the problem will have to settle itself
| by degrees?"
necessary to a complete understanding Of
the NATTER said Mr.. Adams. "As to
| the men in Congress, the most that they
can do is to make the settlement of it more
| difficult. If it could be left to the business
| community it would settle itself in good
time. But Congress will only complcate
it. 1 believe that We would be great
| deal better off without legislation"
| "You share the idea of those who think
that the fewer laws Congress passes the
| better"
| 1T is not taking a very lofty view of
Congress. but do. The worst feature CT
| our national legislation is that while it
| is difficult enough to pass a law, it is al
| most impossible to repeal 1t. I know the
| from my experience few years ago with
the Union Pacific railroad and it's debt
| to the government. We hung on for a long
time at Washington, thinking that some
| thing would be done; but when 1 look back
now I can see plainly that it was always
impossible to accomplish anything. Be-
| tween the corrupt men and the obstinate
! men-and the latter included the men who
| wanted to make record with their con-
stituents as being opposed to corporations
both having almost unlimited power of
obstruction in their hands, it was impos-
sible at any time to have got bill through
Congress"
did you find much corruption in Con-
gress?" 1 asked.
| Not so much as I would have expect
| ed" said Mr.. Adams. "There was some
| beyond any question. We were approach
ed for money by some men. But 1 found
that these men were pretty well known
that those who were purchasable had that
| reputation very generally"
About Members of Congress.
Mr. Adams believes that the form OF
our government is destructive of all indi-
| viduaHty.
'In England he said to me- ga man
may seek election at the hands of any
constituency, and constituency may find