The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-04-18
THE FINANCIAL QUESTION
ADDRESS or CONTROLLER ECKELS
ATA BANQUET IN ClNOINN4YT,

lie Says That Silver Has Lost Its Place in
Every Great Commercial Nation rs "a
Standard Money MetaI--If it is Desirable
to Eliminate Gold From Our Currency
the Way is Now Open, for SO Sure as To-
morrow's Dawn Will Bring Forth tho
Light of Day, just So Sure VIII the Free
and Unlimited Coinage of Silver Drive
Gold Coin From the Active Channels of
Barter and Trade Within the United
States-Therc, is no Room for Comprom-
Use.
Cincinnati, o. April 17-.At the ban
quet of the Chamber of Commerce, the
Clearing House association and the
Commercial club, held at the Grand
els delivered an address on the finan-
cial situation. Els speech is as fol,
lows:
can conceive ofAno greater proof of
the high esteem in which the credit of
the American peopleaas nation and as
individuals was held prior to the year
1890, than the eagerness with which
foreign capitaltsought our shores.
There never'were so large invest
ments of foreign capital in the United
States,as eryearsiimmediately pre-
ceding 1S90;'there never have been so
small ones as in the years since that
date. 1t cannot in the light of this fact
be argued other than that the silver
legislation of that year accomplished
what all the other currency heresies
and follies of three decades could not
do 1t succeeded in creating for the
first time suspicion that the flatist
might yet, control in the financial ope-
rations of our people.
The American business world to-day
is witnessing the result of that doubt
and that lessening of confidence in us
on the part of those who were our
strongest financial allies and our
greatest source of capital. In the
midst of great plenty and with almost
undin3inished resources, the American
people feel poor. With no serious ia
riff agitation being carried on, and the
manufacturer in possession of COM
plete knowledge of the basis upon
which he must operate, industry Ian
guishes and the laborer in many places
is without employment. In every
financial institution there Is an album
dance of money, or the representative
of money, seeking investment, and vet
few Investments are made or desired.
Upon the one hand, credit is little
sought, and upon the other, reluctant
ly given.
In the face of a glutted money mar
ket in every great money center of Eu-
rope, American securities return to,
and our gold goes from us, and that.
too, when it is not needed to settle
commercial balances and when the
rates Of interest warrant its retention
here No foreign capital now comes to
this country, to build up waste places,
hut, instead, it is being continually
withdrawn. The home investor is not
less doubter, and between them we
have almost complete paralysis Of bus
mess enterprise in every portion Of the
country.
1t is at such time and under such
COHultlOHS Illdl' d SlludllOil
threatening is rendered dangerous by
the currency agitator, who, following
in the wake of every business depres
sion and money famine, insists that
only in the adjustment or complete
change of existing standards of value
and mediums of exchange can be found
a remedy for past misfortunes and a
safe guarantee against future disas-
tiers. Twenty years ago he saw the
source of the country's salvation in the
governments issue of an irredeemable
paper currency. To-day he has EN-
braced the free silver cause, and with
the same zeal and steadiness is teach
ing again the doctrine of fiatism and
the necessity of national Indifference to
monetary science, history and expert
ence.
IF he has advanced it is in degree
only. He yet invokes the aid of the
state, but applies it to commercially
discredited money metal instead of to
currency made of paper. He is none
the less an inflationist, nor less indif-
ferent to the soundness of our money.
It's absolute stability, it's intrinsic or
representative and convertible value,
its ability to pass current without
question in all the markets of the
world are with him scarcely Of even
secondary Importance. There never
was more fallacious doctrine taught
than that the prosperity of people
depends upon or is gained by the great
volume of it's currency, irrespective of
other conditions.
1t is not the quantity of our currency
which is the prime essential, but the
quality and efficiency of it which are the
most deserving of attention, and which
most affect the prosperity of our peo-
pie. If every dollar which we circulate
commands complete confidence at
home and abroad there need be little
fear of All insufficient quantity. If it
does not, charging the volume but in
sures a wider sweep of ruin.
Secretary Gallatin once said: "The
want of money is the want of ex-
changeable or valuable property or
commodities, and the want of credit.
The man who says that he wants mon
ey could at all times obtain it if he
had either credit or valuable commodi-
ties" 1t is the failure to appreciate
that it is want of credit on the part. of
the borrower and not a want of cur
rency in the country, which causes
continued appeal to congress to bring
about that through legislative enact |
which nn1v p1n