New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-12-07
THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.

Constrained by high sense Of duty to avoid
delaying public business. the President returned
from Canton 10 Washington In order that bis
Message might be presented to Congress yes
terday In the customary manner. he Is already
on his way back to his mothers bedside. and
the universal hope is that he may find her still
alive and able to derive comfort from his de-
voton.
1t Is not a mere commonplace OF respect for
the Chief Magistrate to say that President Nc
Kinley's Message Is admirable In form and
substance. He is never under the necessity In
his public utterances Of endeavoring to COM
mand attention by laborious attempts at style
Of solemn majesty. He invariably says what
he has to say in simple, vigorous English, but
he has the happy faculty Of imparting interest
to bis expression of ideas by his manner Of
expressing them. Long practice in his case has
presumably made writing easy, but what he
writes Is far from being hard reading. The
importance Of the subjects which he discusses
would have attracted wide attention to the
Message however 1t had been composed, but
II has the conspicuous merit Of facilitating a
clear comprehension Of It's contents. After an
approving reference to the tariff law as great
transaction wisely completed at the extra ses-
sIon the President passes at once to lucid
discussion OF the currency question, and pro-
poses that simple measure for the security Of
the Treasury Of which he had already per-
mItted the country to obtain an accurate fore
cast His recommendation. which we have
heretofore described and heartily advocated Is
that when the receipts Of the Government shall
have become sufficient to pay all the expenses
of the Government, United States notes having
been redeemed in gold shall be set and kept
apart and reissued only in exchange for gold.
The President defines the adoption Of that pol
icy not merely as reasonable privilege, but as
an obvious duty. and he puts the case with great
logical force rs follows:
II the holder Of the United States note prefers
the gold. and gets Il from the Government he
should not receive back from the Government
o United States note without paying gold In ex-
change for il. The reason for this is made all
the more apparent when the Government issues
an Understanding debt to provide gold for the
redemption of United States notes-a non inter
out again except on demand and for gold. II
they put out In any other way, they may re-
turn again, to be followed by another bond issue
TO redeem them-another Understanding debt
70 redeem q MISUNDERSTANDING debt In my
view II is OF the utmost Importance that the
Government should be relieved from the burden
of providing all the gold required for exchanges
and export This responsibility IL alone borne
by the Government without any Of the usual
ano necessary banking powers 10 nelp ltseir
The banks do not feel the strain of gold re-
demption. The whole strain rests upon the
Government. and the size OF the gold reserve in
the Treasury has come to be. with without
reason. the signal of danger or OF security. This
ought to be stopped.
We do not need to urge our readers to give
this part of the Message the careful attention
which 1t deserves. nor will any intelligent citi-
zen, whatever his political and financial opln-
ions may be- fell to observe the courteous tone
in which the President frankly avows convic-
tions which he IL aware that considerable part
Of Congress and Of the country have not hither