The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-12-06
THE MESSAGE.
What the President WIN Saw ON .na
Currency.

Washington, December 4.-pras;sart
Mckinley in his forthcoming MESSAGE to
Congress, will not discuss in a sioriA.
cent way the recent monetary neyotis-
lions Of the Wolcott bimetallic conr,ia.
sion, but will refer to them ONLY in a
casual way. The chief interest in the
financial part of the message will attach
to recommendation that gold shall be
paid only for greenbaoks and that
greenbacks shall be paid only for gold.
The President does not believe that Con.
gress will retire the notes and it ia his
opinion that where there Is a constant
surplus of receipts over expenditures
and an exchange of gold and notes, there
is no longer any menace to the country.
He does not contemplate the retirement
of treasury notes, but only a change OF
classification for the reason that if re-
tired there would be always talk of con-
traction of the currency and he believes
that If gold and greenbaoks are made
Interchangeable and kept in a class by
themselves no danger need be appre-
hended from that source.
Senator Frye, who arrived here today.
expressed the opinion that on account
Of the political complexion of the SEN
ate it would be impossible to secure cur
rency legislation such as would satisfy
the Republican party at the approaching
session of the Senate and in this view
A
From the best obtainable information.
it appears that no change Ia to be made
in the composition of the cabinet dur
ing the remainder of the current year.
There are two good reasons for this.
Attorney General McKenna has charged
himself with the prosecution of the Pa
cific road cases and it is not to be sun
posed that he will relinquish his present
office until the Kansas Pacific sale has
passed into history. 1t is generally un
derstood that Gov. Griggs of New Jersey
has been offered the place in the cabinet
to be vacated by Attorney General Nc
Kenna, but 1t will not be possible for
him to take the Office before the begin
ming of next year. The New Jersey con-
stitution fails to make provision for a
lieutenant governor, and the successor
to the governor would be the president
of the state senate, who is limited in the
assumption of the office to the time when
the legislature is in actual session, which
Will not occur until January 1. Should
Gov. Griggs relinquish his place now
there would be no head to the state gov
eminent during the period between
now and January 1.
Chairman Dingley of the ways and
means committee arrived here today.
After comforting with Chairman Cannon
of the committee on appropriations the
general programme for the opening days
of the House was mapped out. Mr.. Ding.
ley was informed that two appropriation
bills-the pensions and Legislative
and judioial-were practically COM
pleted. 1t was determined, therefore.
to take these up at the outset. When they
are out of the way it is probable that
bankruptcy legislation will have hear
ing. There has been some talk that the
bill relative to alcohol used in the arts
would be passed at an early day, but it
was generally understood after Mr..
Dingley had conferred with the Ho.se
leaders that no legislation on the subject
would be had in the near future and
probably none in this session.