The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-01-27

this evening and send, with my regrets, my congratulations to your honored guests and best wishes to the Republi- can league of New York"
 MT. Platt received a cordial reception as he took h.s seat at the banquet table. After prayer an hour and a half's dis cussion of the menu followed.
 It was near o'clock before the toast list was reached President Colvin opened the speech making by an ad- dress, in which he paid high tribute to MT. Platt and among other things said:
 High, high, mountain high, has the hero of the hour risen above his ac- cusers, defamers and betrayers. The memory of two men who were the Damon and Pythias of the eighties in- spires most profound regret that Conk- ling cannot sit with us now, the des- tiny twin of Platt returning, as is our guest of honor to his rightful herit- age"
 When the president introduced Sena- tor-elect Platt, MT. Platt received a royal welcome. His remarks were so well received that he was interrupted time and again by vociferous applause. Mr. Platt said:
 1t is not without hesitation that I have again accepted the responsibilities of public office. Indeed, it seemed as though the temptation to do so had been put by, and that the remainder of my life would have no other relation to public affairs than such as become every citizen. Nor could the situation have arisen in which I should have sought even so high an honor as the one just conferred I shall be acuuit- ted, think, of any aLectation about the ffice-seelling and office holding, but it is a fact that I have not been a candidate for the senate. I have not asked any member of the legislature to vote for me I did not even inti- mate, until after the caucus, that I should accept the office if it were ten- dered.
 That it has come under these cir cumstances and with such generous expressions of good will and confidence from republicans throughout the state, makes 1t a pleasing burden and a rich compensation for all that I have done and tried to do in my party's servlce. And so I shall go to Washington, grate- ful to the republican party, devoted to the state of New York, and earnest in the resolution to exert whatever in- fluence may have. or may acquire, for the welfare of our incomparable coun- try
 It is especially gratifying to re-enter N. I 41. auguration of republican president. The support given by the state of New York to Major McKinley's candidacy abundantly testifies to the high hopes which our people base on his patriotic wisdom. The success of his adminis- tration will be the success of the re- publican party and no contribution that I can make to that great cause will be wanting.
 Sufficient time has passed since the November election to permit a close ex- animation of it's results. It cannot be said that they are wholly satisfactory. The bewtldering program of legislation proposed by MT. Bryan obtained so great a popular support as to forbid the idea that agitation in it's favor will be abandoned, and our democratic friends who, without giving unqualified adhesion to republican principles, nev- ertheiess, constrained by their convic- tions on the money question to support the republican candidates, should give sober consideration to this fact. It is not yet certain that any plan for the relief of the treasury can pass the sen- ate as ii will be constituted after the 4th of March. Capital will not invest production will not increase, labor will not be adequately employed until laws are passed to insure the treasury against insolvency and to guarantee to the business interests of the country a safe and reasonable permanent basis on which to operate. If the changes in the composition of the senate now ln progress shall fail to produce major itv that can hold together for the en- actnoent of such legislation, We shall have the same fight out of which we have just come to make agaln four wears from now, under probably less favorable conditions.
 The lesson which this possibility teaches to the sound money democrats and the duty it enforces upon them, seem entirely clear. They can lind no home in the democratic party. Their nresence there is not wanted, whereas with us it is held In just esteem. They exert their due influence upon it's poli- ties and accept their share of the re- sponsibility for it's work. And with out abandoning any vital principle, which they woudl not ask or expect, we must seek in all we do to hold their confidence and support
 People do not agitate themselves over theories of finance when they are getting along comfortably. The clamor for the free coinage of silver became serious only when an iH-considered tariff measure threw the business of the country into confusion and left the treasury without an income suffi- cient to meet it's inevitable expendit- ures. It was then that capital with drew from investment. It was then that production was checked that wages were reduced, that profits and earnings fell off, that labor was thrown out of employment and that the people began to lend an ear to the theorists who tell them that there was something the matter with their dollars.
 It was not in human nature for those who had enacted this mistaken law to admit it to the origin of the troubles which at once came upon the country,