St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-02-29
DISCUSSED BY COMPTROLLER Eek
ELS BEFORE THE MAsSACHU-
SETS REFORM CLUB.
INITIATION is THE CURSE
WHICH IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE
WEAKENED CONDITION OF
AMERICAN MONEY.
AN INTERCHANGEABLE DOLLAR
Necessary to Any Monetary System
Which Would Meet the Demands
of Honesty.

BOSTON, Mass, Feb. 28.-Two hun
dred members of the Massachusetts
Reform club attended the dinner at
Young's hotel tonight. President
George S. Hale introduced Hon. James
II. Eckles, comptroller of the currency,
and his speech was enthusiastically re-
ceived.
After a complimentary allusion to the
accomplishments of the Independent
in politics and saying that there were
now no questions of constitutional
rights and political action growing out
Of the war and the reconstruction
period to be determined, Mr.. EckIes de-
clared that sit is the questions affect
ing the trade and commerce today
which flow from action taken during
the era of civil strife which the citi-
zen demands shall be dealt with, and
the public man who deems otherwise
misinterprets the evidences about him. !"
He would undertake to touch upon a
single one of those, that of "the cur
rency," which he ranked as always de-
handing a wiser craftsmanship than
the problem of national taxation. He
was not unmindful of the recent mar
Vicious display of the abundant re-
serve wealth of our people and their
purpose to maintain the governments
financial honor. but this very demon
stration was in itself proof positive of
the defects of the currency system we
were striving to uphold. Continuing,
he said, in part:
1.-THE interests of trade the cause of labor
on the undertakings of the manufacturer
have all today given hostages fortune be-
cause OF the currency system which has been
fastened upon them. 1t is in general and in
detail inadequate to meet their daily neces-
sites. The government is striving to main
tain the single gold standard of value and
wholly unnatural and in defiance of all mon
etary laws and experience. The diniculty so
far as politics entering into the question are
concerned, is not that politics is the cause
but politics is the effect.
The cause Of the weakened condition of
the credit or our American currency is to be
found in the fact tina from the issuance of the
first treasury note in 1862 to this very day,
the infiationist has been the controlling force
in American monetary legislation. He stands
today the strenuous opponent of the single
gold standard OF value. and he i'll conceals
his attitude by taking refuge in his an
nounced belief in the historically demon
strated impossibility and absurdity of BIZ
metallism. whether it be national or inter
national. Until the infationist is disodged
there can be no permanent cure for our fnan-
cial ills. When his career is ended the
treasury of the United States will cease car
rying on the operations of bank, it's notes
of issue will be paid and cancelled and their
baneful influence lifted from all the indus
tries in the land. There will then be no one
who for this people would have other than
single gold standard, and none who would
suggest dollar whether of silver or paper
which is not everywhere under any and ali
circumstances and in whatever quantities.
fairly interchangeable with every other dol
lar which circulates without entailing loss
to any one. In that day the private citizen
and the lawmaker will have learned the
truth announced half century since by one
of Italy's most distinguished students of
finance: Money is essentially rebellious to
the orders of law: it comes without being
called and goes without bong arrested, deaf
to advances. insensible to threats, attracted
solely by the allurements of profits -
Prof F. w. Tausaig, of Harvard,
was the next speaker and said in part:
Comptroller Eckels and President
Cleveland have given US a sound and
unqualified answer as to what they
proposed to do. In our financial his
tory there has been series of hap
hazard compromises which has only
produced our present condition. The
party that brought about the depletion
of surplus by the issue of paper, had
the effrontery on gaining power to
charge the other with having caused
it."