St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-05-03

one and 1nSeparaDle.
Hon. James H. Eckels, comptroller
Of the currency, responded to the toast
Currency" as follows:
ECKELS SPEECH.
'Tt is impossible within the brief
| limits of a conventional after dinner
| address to 90 more than to touch upon
| the sentiment which has just been an
| nourced, and to which l am asked to
| respond. 1 shall, therefore, content
myself with giving expression to such
| general views as seem to me to be
| pertinent to a single phase of the cur
rency question, as it today engages
| public thought and commands the peo-
| pies attention. l am sure all will
| agree that it is the most important
| problem with which the executive and
| legislative branches of the government
| have now to deal, and as such de-
manGs that there be brought to bear
to it's solution a craftsmanship as wise
as it is patriots, and as honest as it is
| wise. 1t involves too great interests
! and is too far-reaching in its effects to
be considered from any other stand
point than the desire to reach such
| conclusions as will work out the best
| results to this land in which the
| wealth, the happiness, the aspirations
| of every patriotic American citizen.
Its discussion has been precipitated
at a time when the country is emerg-
ing from period of financial and COM
mercial depression, widespread and of
! long continued duration. 1t finds every
avenue Of trade giving evidence of
RENEWED ACTIVITY;
mill and factory again in operation
and agriculture promising to those
engaged in it's pursuit abundant har-
vests and appreciat:ng prices. 1t press
es itself upon the laborer now no longer
idle, but busy with the employment
which has come with the settlement of
questions which have long vexed the
public mind and after ample demon
stration of ability of the government
to maintain untainted the public faith
and the nations credit. If under such
circumstances the cause of these who
stand against the schemes proposed to
rid, by means of law, people from
making proper payment of their just
debts, and give them riches through
legislative action, cannot be sustained,
the experience of all monetary history
will be reversed. If this contest shall
end otherwise than in the triumph of
that which is right in theory and sound
in principle, it will be because the
American people have lost much of
that good sense and honesty which
great writer declared, though some
times permitting an agitation for some
thing wrong and mischievous, always,
when the danger point is reached,
brings forth a mass of opinion which,
though ordinarily quiescent, at such
time forces itself into activity, puts
down the wrong thing and peremptor-
lily demands the right thing instead
1 believe we have come to point in
this discussion of our monetary sys-
tenn and agitation for
A COMPLETE CHANGE
in our standard of value when this
mass of opinion should not only be
aroused, but should make itself an
active force in putting an end to the
currency Vagaries of which the free
silver movement, as today presented,
is the elimination. If commercial and
Industrial revival is to continue; re-
curing loss to every citizen prevented;
national and individual financial credit
and integrity maintained and ultimate
disaster averted, there must bc no long
er spirit of hesitation in those who
know the baneful effects of the thing
proposed.
''The American people cannot too
quickly recognize that they are in the
midest of a propaganda, skillfully and
Zealously being carried on with the
end in view of revolutionizing the
country's existing monetary system.
The position which they now assume
of necessity eliminates from their
ranks all who heretofore have strug
gled 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 own making;
the issue of their own choosing, and in
the face of their acts the believer in
the
SINGLE GOLD STANDARD
and the believer in a standard of both
| gold and silver should give them
neither aid nor succor. They chal-
| lenge the one and repudiate the other,
and from both should come a united
opposition.
1.-The contention which is now made
| by the single silver standard adherents
| reduced to it's last analysis is silver
fiatism pure and simple. 1t is the
theory of the Socialist and Populist
| applied to monetary science. 1t is
based upon the belief in what has been
ably termed the -powerfulness'
! of the state and is in utter disregard
! of that great fact in financial history
| that mediums of exchange. and stand
ards of value did not find their, origin
| in law, but were born of the needs of
| trade and commerce.. 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 viola
ton of the principles underlying them
have failed to control and regulate
them. The end always sought by COM
| merce, the great arbiter of every
monetary system since the dawn of
civilization has been to have in every
metallic money such intrinsic value
as makes the unstamped coin of the
same value as a commodity of mer-
chandise as the stamped. 1t has with
equal riSor insisted that in bank cur
cency there shall be immediate re-
demrtion upon presentation in
SOUND METALLIC CURRENCY.
'It invo!zes in behalf Of the money
which it sanctions and accepts no
alchemist, and believes in no philoso-
piers stone, 1t has, throughout all
the centuries. stood defiant against the
errors OF legislative bodies and the
wrongful edicts of kings, and action
upon the principle that value knows
It's 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 repre-
sents them to be worth. The CONNER
ciai world has with unvarying precis-
ion drawn the true distinction which
exists between true value in a ma
tions currency and the sign of value
affixed to it, and standing upon that
line OF Gemarcation it has been as in