The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-01-13

which should be the soul and the life breath
or a national financial scheme.
ms system of finance, II ii were an
architectural structure. might be described
in the language of the supervising archi-
tect OF one Of the capitol buildings in one
OF the western States, which | went to look
at once as an object of curiosity. / said
to the architect. ITO what order of archi-
lecture does this building belong?' Over
the cradle of that architect the Bow bells
of London had rung. and he answered me:
well. sir, II is a hint at the Hitalian and
Norman style with an attempt at Greek
freckled whelp than the financial system of
the government. and you are here to see
whether through your skill and wisdom 1t
can be made to shed its skin.
The spirit of optimism 10 which / have
referred has gone on, and moved by hope,
frightened by expectation. buoyed by the
country has continually warped itself TO
these distorted conditions, but we have now
discovered that in that warping process the
business OF this country has every time lost
force. until that aggregation of lost force
brings TO us a business almost PROSTATE,
and no longer possessed of the power of
adaptive contortion to these distorted con-
ditions under which it is compelled to trans
act its affairs. These, then are the diff
culties.
CONDITIONS MUST BE CHANGED.
Business realizes that it is already so dis
torted that not another motion can be made
TO accommodate itself to conditions that
are unscientifc and unnatural, and your
duty, my friends, is to suggest to the law
making power of this Republic-this Repub-
lie which Will not be long a nation of
wealth, of the loyalty of it's citizens. which
will not much longer shelter under its laws
that prosperity and human happiness which
are the birthright of men, unless these con-
ditions are changed. 1t is your business,
gentlemen, TO suggest TO the lawmakers
IN Ea1Uhfanin M ntrf of thn fnnHIrnlfrNy of
our financial system, to put simplicity in
place of complexity, to conform that sys-
tenn to natural laws of finance.
4 am aware that we have many we'll
meaning countrymen who join us in the
Impeachment of the weakness and the dis
tortlon OF the supe~rstructure of the finances
or this country. and who believe. perhaps
conscientiously that the way TO strengthen
the superStructure is to weaken the founda-
ton. .CApplause.) We are not here to dis
cuSS foundations to-day; we are concerned
with what is built upon that foundation.
We have currencieS of many kind: some
with direct and some with indirect methods
OF redemption. We have a government en-
gagged by its treasury in a banking system
the most vicious and unprotected that was
ever forced upon the treasury of any ma
ton. Why. the state bankers of Babylon.
way back before people were able TO read
only cuniforr1 letters, would have rejected
any such system as that under which We
are living.
Now. face which way we will, we are con-
fronted by difficulties which stand over us
ike an army Win banners. 10 many the
knowledge of this difficulty is a thing to
which they are accustomed. The considera-
ton of remedies for 1t is a thing that is
new TO them. | believe. as the eX-secretary
of the treasury, wise in finance. and with a
prolonged and profound experience, l be-
lieve, as he has said. hat the men who
transact the business of the country are
men who sit before me here to-day, with
investments in every possible labor-employ-
ing and wealth-producing energy from
ocean to ocean. and from land to land, the
men here hQfnra mo uyhn have fnNaCtnnntS
in the gold and silver mines of the West.
and the copper and iron mines of this Re-
public: i believe that they who control by
their investments and promote and create
by their energies the wage-paying indus
tries of the Republic, which not only put
the dinner into the tin pail of the laborer.
him to look forward to a condition of indie
~pendence when he may become an investor
himself. / believe that the men who pro-
mote all these mighty and majestic en-
erSies in this great country. with its excess
of natural resources-that in them is the
wisdom to oppose this sea of troubles,
and by opposing, end them"
THE DIFFICULTIES BEFORE THEM.
1t is not my place now to talk details. but
it has seemed to be my duty that L should
remind my countrymen who are here of
the difficulties that lie before them. This
convention is singular and peculiar. 1t is
individual among conventions held in this
Republic heretofore. You are here without
parties. unbiased. you are here without the
pride of individual opinion, you are here
unfettered and unvexed by the flooding tide
OF political ambitions TO solve a problem in
the solution of which lies the highest and
best welfare OF your country, and our own
business and financial safety. j hope that
through some projected activity of this con-
vention before this inquiry shall close, the
men of this Republic, from the shores of
the sea of peace where / live to the Allan
tic. and from the Gulf TO the Dominion line
will have consulted the men engaged in
business, in wholesale and retail transac-
lions in articles of in domestic
suited the manufacturers and will have
called into your councils the thoughtful
and reasonable leaders who represent the
100000 of A mer can workingmen who earn
wages in the occupations which lie at the
foundation of all of the energies which are
excited and melted by your capital and
your enterprise. because there can be no
prosperity that is not for all, and the rea-
son that prosperity in this Republic has
seemed to some of our countrymen to be
partial and preferred is because that pros
perity has been wrung by the few who have
gained it against the unnatural and un-
scientific financial conditions which L have
attempted to speak of.
1t would be wror~ that 1 should detain
you, or that l should seem TO further arouse
your imagination by picturing the difficult
ties that lie before you. L have intended to
make an appeal to that highest form of
business intelligence known to the world.
the intelligence and the courage and the
patriotism of the representatives of the
business classes of the Republic.