The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1897-06-04
Mr. GAGE OPTIMISTIC
Secretary Of the Treasury Addresses
Maryland Bankers.
HIS PROPHECY AND HIS PROMISE.

Declares That an Adequate Tariff Bill
VIII Soon Be Passed and That the
Administration VIII Place the Cur
rency Circulation on a Solid Basis.
Cumberland, June 4.-The Maryland
Bankers association held its final ses-
sion yesterday, and the exercises were
concluded last night with @ banquet
at which Secretary of the Treasury
Lyman ]. Gage and Comptroller Of
the Currency James II. Eckels were
the principal speakers. The resolutions
adopted oppose "the free coinage Of
silver and every debasement of our
currency" and declare that the true
interests of our country will be best
served by its rigid adherence to the
gold standard of value. A committee
of five was appointed to urge upon the
legislature the passage of a good bank
ing law.
The banquet was held at the Queen
city hotel, and the post prandial part
having come, Governor Lowndes in
troduced Mr.. James Ramsay, the newly
elected president of the association,
who created much merriment when he
said: II had greatness thrust on me to-
day. I got the only office the people of
Allegany county did not want"
Secretary Gage was greeted with pro-
longed applause. He said:
Il did not come to make speech. I
feel a sense of kinship toward this
place ami I feel a sense of kinship to-
ward you, the bankers of Maryland"
He then referred to his birthplace,
describing il as such place as Cum
berland Is, with hills touching the
horizon on all sides and a placid stream
passing by his door. He continued:
Il am optimistic. There are evil
dences to justify it. l found evidences
of it today One of your citizens took
me out to drive and we conversed
with several citizens One was very
intellectual man. l asked him how
business was. He said Good" That
man was Judge Sloan. Court had just
adjourned Reference was made here
this evening to my recent address in
Cincinnati. Let me repeat here the
substance of the conclusion of that ad-
dress. The prophecy made then will
be fulfilled. The promise l am abso-
lutely certain will be. The prophecy
was that both bodies of congress would
soon put through an adequate tariff
bill, and the promise was that the ad-
ministration would be faithful to the
task imposed upon it of putting the
currency of the country on a sound,
enduring and solid basis"
Governor Lowndes, in introducing
Comptroller. of the Currency Eckels,
said that his manly words rang through
the country like a trumpet blast last
fall when he pleaded for good govern
ment and sound currency. Among
other things Mr.. Eckels said:
1T has become popular throughout
the south and west to decry the bank
ing interests. THESE sections have been
injured by raising that hue and cry"
Referring to the south as the Sec
ton with the best resources the sun
ever shone upon he said that because
of the devastation of war they had not
yet gathered unto themselves that sur
plus capital, and they must need bor-
row money for their development. The
interests of the south and west he
said, would be promoted by better
banking facilities. Comptroller Eckles
referred felcitously to the bankers of
Maryland. lie said II never trouble
any one that does not trouble me. No
banker in Maryland has given me any
trouble whatever in my official life. "
Senator Wellington, in vigorous ad-
dress, which was punctuated with APP
plause, predicted the early passage OF
the tariff bill. He referred to the
sturdy manhood of one Democrat in
the country" which helped mighty to-
wards making it impossible to debase
the currency.