Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1896-09-03
HENDRIx'S WITTY SPEECH.
He Makes q Humorous Speech ON None
to Morocco Manufacturers.

HENDRlX'S WITTY SPEECH.
He Makes Humorous Speech ON Money
to Morocco Manufacturers.
The Shoe and Leather Reporter pub
fishes the following speech made by
Hon. Joseph C. Hendrix at the dinner
of the National Morocco Manufacture
ers' association of the United States at
Manhattan Beach early this month:
Mr.. President and Gentlemen: am
glad to see you, 'men of small brains
and large capital" I am glad always
| to face successful men in an American
industry. You represent trade which
years ago furnished material for the
money instrument. There was leather
! money once and plenty of it. You have
never set up any cry because of the de-
monetization of leather, never asked
redress for the Crime of the abandon
ment of the use of leather as money.
You do not now ask for its remonetiza-
ton.
Mr.. Stein-Nor for free tannage.
Mr.. Hendrix-No! Therefore, I have
great respect for two people, the North
American Indian and the morocco man
Manhattan to Montauk point the anti
quarian can point to great heaps Of
shells where the old squaws used to sit
and practice the free coinage of wam-
pun. After awhile a smart Yankee in
vented turning lathe which trans
formed the clam shells into money too
fast. This led to the demonstration of
the Long Island clam. Laughter.) The
poor Indian has passed off to the plains
and we hear no more of the free coinage
OF CLAIMS.
These are simply evolutionary steps.
You look back to the beginnings of
your industry and marvel at the
changes. The world advances. Civil
zation refines. Commerce requires eN-
act terms and measures. Itinsists upon
certainty, fiNity in the standard of val
nes. Tt must have something upon
which it can depend. Tt has found out
| that it must depend upon some one
thing That is why it has veered to the
single standard. It has quit stepping
! from one standard to the other. It
makes its election. It votes for gold be-
cause of it's great value in small compass
and because of the fxity of that value.
So it is that one great nation after an
other, under the command of its best in
! telligence. has come to the gold stand
| ard. Tt is because they have found it the
| cheapest. best and most effective stand
ard by which to measure all values.
What does standard mean? What is
| its primary significance? It comes from
| IL =, inc
to turn to. When you are in doubt YOU
go to the standard. I don't care what
line Of business you are in or what
course in life yea pursue. e. standard
governs it somehow or other. You ride
on q railway on a standard gauge, you
sit at table of standard height, and
so on through the list. The standard
must be the thing it stands for. If you
have standard of weight, it may be Of
diamonds or precious stones, but it has
rot to have weight-that is the first
thing. If you have standard of length.
it must have length. And when you
come to the question Of the standard of
value, whatever it is made of it has got
to have value.
You can talk about the whole cues
ton of finance in 100 different lights.
But this is the main point-vou must
/ have a standard of value. That stand
ard must have value. We choose for the
standard the metal which f1uctuates the
least in value. That is the whole story
Of the gold standard. TCheers.7
Our friends out in CHICAGO claim that
the cold standard is a British policy
which we are seeking to enforce in this
country. Did you ever hear ANYTHING
about British policy in connection with
the law Of rravitatinn or n Pritish nol-
lev of good health against bad health
good clothes against shoddv? There
are other countries in the world besides
Great Britain. We do not have to look
to Great britain to know what is a good
thing. TGreat applause We are old
enough and big enough to know good
thing when we see it, Ours is coun-
try that for GO years has been under the
rold standard. You have never known
ANYTHING else. All you have was built
upon the gold standard The greatness
and development of this country have
been attained under that standard. How
is the world lining up on this question?
China. Japan and Mexico are for. free
silver. Great britain. Germany. France
and the great empires of Europe are for
gold. Where do we belong? There is
only one answer. Can anyone fancy
that our great population. made up OF
10000. 900 of the best EXAMPLES Of the
Anglo-Saxon race. mixed with Irish wit.
Scotch cunning, German thrift. is GO
ing to step from the high plane where
we stand to the lower one beneath
What strange madness has come into
the American people TO make it seem
possible that they could do a thing Of
that kind? [Applause.l
We can live on a silver basis after
we get there. Our great rivers will fol-
low their courses to the sea. Gods sun
will kiss the earth. The crops will
spring forth. Children will be born and
grow up. Enterprises will go forward.
But are we going to take the leap in the
dark and try an experiment fraught
with such risk and panic? A great
French economist once said that when